Transform or fail - February blog post

There is a wide gap between the rate at which our building energy codes’ stringency is increasing and what we need to achieve net zero energy building goals by 2030.

For example, to achieve net zero in a medium-sized office building, the New Buildings Institute (NBI) estimates its Energy Use Intensity (EUI) needs to be about 20 kBtu/sq.ft./yr. In comparison, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) estimates the EUI for a similar building fabricated to meet 2018 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) is 33 kBtu/sq.ft./yr, which is only 3.5% better than the 2015 IECC. At that ra te of code-cycle-to-cycle improvement, it will take 14 code cycles and 42 years to reach net zero levels...to continue reading click here.

(the full blog, as well as previous posts, are hosted on usglassmag.com)