USGBC launches performance initiative

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) in August 2009 made the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification more stringent when it began requiring ongoing performance data from buildings as a part of continued certification. But the Washington, D.C.-based organization says it understands tracking energy performance is not necessarily easy for developers and building owners not used to doing so.

The Building Performance Initiative forces developers to look at how the people use the building day to day, says USGBC.

 “Plenty of people are content to simply point to these longstanding issues without offering a constructive way to address them,” said Scot Horst, USGBC LEED senior vice president, in a statement.

USGBC says it plans to work with real estate research organizations, including San Francisco-based Kingsley and Associates, to collect data from thousands of LEED-certified projects. It plans to host four Building Performance Initiative summits across the country this September and October to collect feedback from its community. USGBC says it plans to share findings from the forums at its first annual Building Performance Summit during USGBC’s annual Greenbuild conference in Phoenix this November.