I won’t beat the horse any more on the last few weeks of
code talk, but I will say it has been absolutely wonderful the amount of
dialogue that has come about after the wave of stories on the ASHRAE
situation. To me that is all I can ask
for, getting people talking and hopefully good things come of it. In the meantime I do have part 2 of my
interview with Mark Silverberg below and he brings a ton more interesting
insights.
Elsewhere….
-- Well the positive trend of the Architectural Building Index
(ABI) finally came to an end in May. So
now we see if this is a fluke or will this mean a light 1st quarter
of 2014?
-- Speaking of reports, for the first time I saw the “CBI” the
Construction Backlog Indicator. I swear
I need to start one of my own… anyway the CBI is 7% higher today than it was a
year ago… so take that as you will…
-- OK folks… who did the glass and aluminum on this job? It is being called the “greenest office
building” and the article notes the high energy efficient building envelope but
does not mention who are what products were used… so check this link… and
congrats to whomever had a hand in this.
-- I did finally finish the season of “The Americans” and it
did not disappoint. One of the best
season finales I can remember. Can’t
wait for next season!
-- Now on to part 2 of my interview with Mark Silverberg of Technoform. Thank you for to everyone who read last week,
as it broke traffic records on the blog, which is VERY cool and appreciated.
The below is longer than I normally print, but I believe it to be worthwhile.
You were recently in Washington DC to follow
up on bills like Shaheen-Portman (Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness
Act) and the Energy Efficient Commercial Building deduction known as 179D. How was your trip and do you believe efforts
like these will bear some positive fruit for our industry?
Mark Silverberg: We had good visits with key Senators and
engaging discussions on critical issues to our industry. Representatives of
Guardian, Quanex, Technoform, GANA staff and the Aluminum Association (invited
by Kawneer/Alcoa) participated in the hill visits. We met with staffers of five
key Senators who serve on the influential Senate Finance Committee: Brown
(D-OH), Casey (D-PA), Grassley (R-IA), Portman (R-OH), and Stabenow (D-MI). Our
primary focus was renewal/extension of the 179D tax deduction due to expire at
the end of 2013 (part of the 2005 Energy Policy Act), which encourages the use
of energy efficient materials in new and existing commercial buildings. It was
only coincidence that the Shaheen-Portman bill was successfully voted out of
committee the day of our visits…we can’t take credit for this! The
Shaheen-Portman bill broadly addresses energy efficiency and job creation in
our society, and enjoys wide support, while 179D applies more specifically to
our industry.
We explained that
the commercial new construction and retrofit markets are among the biggest
opportunities for energy efficiency savings in our society. If you upgrade the
lighting or HVAC in a building you may gain 10% or so in energy savings. Add a
building envelope retrofit and your energy savings can reach 40-44%. Plus you
can upgrade the air barrier for significant additional energy savings, and
realize people productivity improvements of up to 150% or more. However since
developers don’t pay the energy bills, which are passed on to the tenants,
developers aren’t going to fund extensive retrofits without substantial
economic incentives.
GANA’s engagement
on this issue and the information we provided these key Senators’ staffers, was
well received. In general, they were unaware of the economic, energy savings or
well-being impacts of our industry. The glass and glazing industry has no effective representation in DC at
this crucial time of increasing code and regulatory change. GANA sees a need
for the glass and glazing industry to speak as a coherent voice on major policy
issues which broadly affect the health of our industry and we’re clarifying how
we want to address this.
I recently interviewed Avi Bar of Advanced
Glazings and one of his comments was that we as an industry need to embrace
innovation and education. What do you
think holds us back from doing these things?
Silverberg: Our industry has a tremendous history of
innovation, but the technical complexity and interrelatedness of building
systems strains the ability of many architects to understand and implement
these solutions, thus the slow rate of market adoption. In private buildings
the developers focus is on lowest first-installed cost rather than long-term
operating costs, while the tenants pay the energy bills and cost of poor worker
productivity. Our code adoption and enforcement is patchwork at best and lacks
a coherent strategy. The Shaheen-Portman bill begins to address these gaps. The
prescriptive path of code compliance is an impediment to creating energy
efficient buildings since it lacks a holistic, integrated design approach with
effective modeling tools.
The key to moving
forward is effective collaboration with key stakeholders and industry
associations to solve the increasingly complex challenges of buildings of today
and the future. We shouldn’t wait for others to do it for us.
Technoform is a worldwide company so you see
action from all over the globe. Are
there products/systems/codes/attitudes in other parts of the world with regards
to energy efficiency that we need to adopt immediately?
Silverberg: Every country and region is unique but
there are some best practices to learn from. Over 30 countries now monitor
their building energy use rating and disclosure. This is similar to what New York
City is implementing and a step in the right direction. Also some US cities are
implementing building energy certification, which also helps. You can’t manage
what you can’t measure. Code policy is a patchwork quilt in the US and
enforcement is even worse. National model building codes need to be
strengthened and the code-writing process needs to be more transparent. Other
countries have overcome these challenges and we should too. The definition of
sustainable buildings and communities is expanding from life-cycle analysis of
energy and environmental impact to include human well-being metrics. I will
participate in a global conference on this topic to be held in Cleveland in
2014. There are great examples of projects and collaboration both in the US and
the world over and we’ll need much more cooperation and collaboration to solve
the complex challenges that we face. The key issue is to clarify our
commitment, and effect planning, to design and build better buildings that use
less energy where humans can flourish.
LINKS of the WEEK
-- Really interesting article on the 10 Brands that willdisappear in 2014. Some may surprise
you….
-- Great story… Burger King being robbed, so one employee
sneaks out the back door and takes the crooks getaway car!
-- Swedish school forgets a course… Uh Oh…
VIDEO of the WEEK
Time for the May bloopers in the world of TV news… some good
ones here… some are meh…. But still worth the watch.
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