The U.S. Green Building Council is looking to help LEED building owners with the launch of the Building Performance Initiative.

The U.S. Green Building Council is looking to help LEED building owners with the launch of the Building Performance Initiative. The initiative will offer data collection from all buildings that have achieved Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification.

The program will also offer analysis data and provide feedback to building owners to address performance gaps stemming from predicted building performance versus actual performance.

“This initiative is about gathering knowledge about building performance in a way no one has ever done before,” said Scott Horst, USGBC LEED senior vice president. “The information that we collect from our certified projects is a workable, holistic approach for achieving better performing buildings.”

Horst noted that the LEED green building program was created to transform the way buildings traditionally have been designed and constructed with the goal of reducing the building’s impact on the environment by being more energy, water and resource efficient, but a building’s day-to-day operation has a dramatic impact on its performance. Without better information, an owner or facility manager won’t know where the gaps are and be able to act on them, according to the USGBC.

There are several things that can affect the ability of a building to deliver high performance, including energy modeling tools, properly timed energy models, quality building commissioning, and the coordination between design and operation.

“Plenty of people are content to simply point to these longstanding issues without offering a constructive way to address them.  We’re going to take them on and engage practitioners and thought leaders alike in establishing a national roadmap to optimize building performance,” said Horst.

Four Building Performance Initiative summits will be held across the U.S. this September and October. Participants will have a chance to preview USGBC’s data collection agenda and proposed analysis methodology and provide feedback.

“The local summits are a way to gather people’s input for our vision and also for them to share their performance stories, successes and challenges,” Horst added.

Input from these meetings will be reported on at the First Annual Building Performance Summit at Greenbuild Nov. 11-13 in Phoenix.