An in-depth look at high-performance buildings

In this report, the author determined that cost is the common metric for all high-performance building features and goals.

By Consulting Specifying Engineer Staff July 17, 2008

Promoting high-performance buildings Assessment to the U.S. Congress and U.S. Dept. of Energy on High Performance Buildings .

The report says that to support high-performance technology, it is essential to appropriately educate design, construction, installation and service professionals, as well as building occupants. In some cases, this means “unlearning” commonly accepted practices such as first cost, simple payback and short-term investment.

William J. Coad, Presidential Member ASHRAE, chaired the committee that wrote the report .