What is it? Green building certifications provide a pathway for building owners to gain recognition of the emphasis on environmental management in their design. The development of Green Building Certifications began in the early 2000s with the launch of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system developed by the US Green Building...

What is it? A healthy building is designed to facilitate and measure the health and wellness of its occupants. Recent studies demonstrate the negative effects of health as a result of prolonged time spent indoors. Spending long amounts of time sitting in an office is now analogous to smoking cigarettes. Updates to the LEED rating...

What is it? One of the more common automation systems that is often used in schools is daylight harvesting. This approach to reducing electric light when daylight is available also has the benefit of reducing energy. Typical daylight harvesting systems use photosensors to detect the amount of daylight coming in through windows or on surfaces...

What is it? One of the fundamental ways to ensure that a building is operating as designed is a process called commissioning. Commissioning in its most simple form is ensuring that the building systems, including mechanical, electrical, and envelope, are properly installed and tested to achieve optimal performance per the specifications and owner’s requirements1. Ideally...

Carbon Monoxide (CO), an odorless, colorless byproduct of gas-fired heating equipment, is a toxic gas that leads to serious and potentially lethal health issues if allowed to accumulate within any building. If your facility includes natural gas furnaces, boilers, water heaters, and/or roof-top heating and air-conditioning units equipped with gas heat exchangers, there could be a risk of CO...

HVAC and lighting systems in commercial and institutional facilities in the United States account for nearly 70% of a client's energy use. Next to employee salaries, energy costs are typically the largest part of their operating budget. The capability and operation of energy management systems in many buildings is simply inadequate to address the ever-growing demands to optimize gas and...

IS YOUR WATER SAFE? For more than 20 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has championed children’s health by working together with other federal agencies and through effective programs and policies to prevent childhood lead poisoning. Exposure to lead can cause behavior problems and learning disabilities in young children and can also affect the...

Did you know that buildings use more energy than any industry sector?  According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), residential and commercial buildings account for 40% of energy use in the United States and 74% of the electricity use. Now we have a solution - Zero-Net Energy building. Everyone knows about LEED, but have...