In 2006, the 2030 Challenge was issued. It asked the global architecture and building community to commit to using carbon-neutral designs for all new buildings, developments and major renovations by 2030.

The American Institute of Architects took action to support the challenge by offering its 2030 Commitment while aiming to “transform the practice of architecture in a way that is holistic, firm-wide, project-based and data driven,” according to its mission statement.

More than a dozen years later, many firms in the Pacific Northwest are on board. As of last year, 25 firms in Oregon are official signatories. That is a significant number compared to the worldwide number of slightly more than 500.

Members of local firms that have adopted the 2030 Commitment say it has not only helped the industry evolve, but also changed how its businesses operate.

“It’s really focused a goal for the industry,” said Yukari Kubo, a project architect with Portland firm Yost Grube Hall Architecture. “It’s always been deeply entrenched in our projects, but it was nice to have it laid out. I think it helped the whole industry move in that direction and have an overarching goal.”

Since 2009, participating firms have reported annually their portfolios’ performances. Data collected includes building type, area, baseline energy performance, and predicted energy performance. It’s hard to quantify the results. But the AIA suggests that in the past year, 2030 Commitment participants reported energy savings equivalent to the carbon that would be sequestered by 21 million acres of forest.

Meanwhile, firms are constantly engaged in the effort to improve energy efficiency using data, expertise and best practices provided by fellow participants. This is done mainly via the Design Data Exchange, a national database in which participating firms can enter their own project data each year. But how firms pursue the 2030 Challenge goals is up to them.

“They don’t tell you how to do it; they just say ‘do it,’” said Erica Dunn, an architect and design team manager with design-build firm Green Hammer, which signed onto the 2030 Commitment in 2017.

Yost Grube Hall and Seattle-based Mahlum Architects, which has an office in Portland, both became signatories in 2009. Members of both firms have since found adoption of the 2030 Commitment leading to fundamental changes.

“I want to say most of it is around understanding about what the metrics are in every project and what the impact of design decisions will do to your energy use,” said Jesse Walton, a Mahlum associate who works out of the firm’s Seattle office.

Kubo agreed.

“For now, it’s a place where we put our inputs,” she said. “We don’t use it for design; we use it to see how our buildings perform.”

Total carbon neutrality may be the end goal, but participants at this point are striving to simply increase their numbers of such projects. Currently, the 2030 Challenge target is for 70 percent of projects to be carbon-neutral. That target will rise to 80 percent in 2020 and 90 percent in 2025. In 2017, just 10 firms in the U.S. reached the 70 percent mark.

That might seem like a low number, but the idea is for the 2030 Commitment to serve as a motivational tool. Some architects liken it to the introduction of the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design ratings system.

“The first time they rolled out LEED in ’97, the first thing (founder) Rob Watson said is that this is not a measure of sustainability, it’s about performance and getting better,” said Logan Cravens, an architect with Carleton Hart Architecture, which signed onto the 2030 Commitment last year.

Signatories also say the 2030 Commitment helps shape their clientele, as well as the types of projects they take on.

“With the client piece, I strongly think that even though we’re competing for a lot of these projects, a lot of times we’ll have follow-up projects with clients,” said Ericka Colvin, an architect with Yost Grube Hall. “It’s evident and appealing to clients, and it’s something that we’ve been part of for a decade.”

That appeal tends to stand the test of time, she added.

“I think even though it’s not talked about in every single project or competition for a project,” she said, “once they know about it, it’s important in our future relationship with them.”

Walton said Mahlum has had a similar experience.

“I think it has definitely attracted clients who appreciate energy-efficient design to us,” he said. “We work with a lot of big school districts, and some are more green-leaning one way or another, and it has definitely affected some things we do.”

It also has helped build a strong internal vocabulary, Walton added.

“It can be presented to clients when we go out for interviews and proposals,” he said. “I think the devil is in the details, though. Maybe it doesn’t affect bigger-picture design moves, but it definitely affects siting.”

Other firms are adjusting to the workload tied to reporting associated with the 2030 Commitment.

Carleton Hart Architecture’s sustainability committee is compiling the first batch of project data it plans to submit this month to the Design Data Exchange. The firm is receiving some help from an intern hired with money from an Energy Trust of Oregon grant.

“It’s our first year, so we were looking to get a wider spread of projects,” said Carleton Hart architect Julia Mollner. “We were looking at how we were doing over the past eight years, and it is daunting. But at the same time it’s really reassuring when we realize we’re right on par with national averages and we’re working at the same level other firms are. It’s about keeping up on reporting.”

Although Green Hammer has just one year’s worth of projects under its belt, Dunn said the firm is already striving to set an example for others.

“While we know this is the focus for our company, we hope the 2030 Commitment really encourages other companies to see that it is possible to do this work across your entire portfolio and not just a single project at a time,” she said. “Hopefully it will encourage everyone else to rise to the challenge and meet the commitment.”

The 2030 Commitment in Oregon:

Ankrom Moisan Architects, 2015

Bassetti Architects, 2017

Bora Architects, 2012

Carleton Hart Architecture, 2018

DLR Group, 2009

Dominek Architecture, 2018

FFA Architecture and Interiors, 2017

GBD Architects, 2016

Green Hammer, 2017

Hacker, 2013

Hennebery Eddy Architects, 2015

Holst Architecture, 2017

Interface Engineering, 2016

KMD Architects, 2009

Mahlum Architects, 2009

Mazzetti, 2009

Opsis Architecture, 2013

Otak, 2011

PATH Architecture, 2018

SERA Architects, 2010

SRG Partnership, 2015

Studio-E Architecture, 2018

Waterleaf Architecture, 2017

Yost Grube Hall, 2009

ZGF Architects, 2009

Source: American Institute of Architects

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Participants in the American Institute of Architects‘ program seek to achieve net zero energy use in their projects. How they accomplish it is up to them.

“They don’t tell you how to do it; they just say, ‘do it,’” said Erica Dunn, director of design for Portland-based Green Hammer.

The 2030 Commitment supports the , which was issued in 2006 to spur a global effort toward carbon neutral construction.

In 2018, Green Hammer became one of just 10 design firms in the United States to meet 2030 Commitment standards. More than 400 firms have signed on to participate in the program.

“It was surprising that there were so few firms meeting it,” Dunn said. “It was a nice confirmation that we are really pushing the envelope, that edge, in terms of sustainability.”

The 2030 Challenge ideal is that all future buildings and major renovations should be designed to meet an energy consumption standard of 70 percent below the regional or country average for the building type. Further, that standard will rise to 80 percent in 2020, 90 percent in 2025 and total carbon neutrality by 2030.

“It was a way to encourage firms to get on board with the 2030 Challenge, and also a means to start tracking what you’re doing,” Dunn said of participation in the 2030 Commitment program. “And if you’re tracking, it’s a way to improve upon it.”

Committed firms are then measured annually by their work. So firms achieving standards for 2018 are being judged on design work completed the previous year. Participants ensure consistent standards through use of the AIA’s 2030 Design Data Exchange, which creates standardized reporting and metrics and allows firms to measure their progress.

For Green Hammer, the major projects of 2017 that helped them achieve 2030 Commitment standards are the Tillamook Row multifamily project in the Eliot neighborhood of Northeast Portland and The Oaks at Rose Villa senior living community in Milwaukie. The former is the first net zero energy project of its type in the Portland area, while the latter is the first net zero energy senior living community of its type in the region.

Green Hammer also designs and builds single-family homes, and a number of those projects, Dunn said, also contributed to the firm’s achievement.

“Achieving (net) zero energy is no small feat,” said Han-Mei Chiang, president of the AIA’s Portland chapter. “Green Hammer and the other nine firms that achieved this significant milestone have helped prove that (net) zero energy buildings, the key to meeting the 2030 Commitment, are attainable in today’s marketplace.”

Dunn agreed.

“I would say it’s definitely a feather in our cap for getting it now, given that we got the Living Building certification for a 2015 design,” she said. “So that’s outside our portfolio right now, but coming off the completion of Tillamook Row, it’s been such a great project for us it’s nice to have this confirmation we’re on the right track.”

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Architects, engineers and builders on Feb. 10 will kick off a yearlong course to focus on the ambitious energy-efficiency goals of the .

The Portland Chapter of the American Institute of Architects is offering a series of intermediate professional development workshops to advance the design community’s conversations about energy efficiency. The goal of the 2030 Challenge, issued by Edward Mazria in 2002, is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions via construction of buildings with greater energy efficiency, ultimately leading to carbon-neutral buildings by 2030.

Each of the 10, four-hour sessions will feature an industry leader discussing a key topic such as “Integrated Design” (Session 1), “Climate Responsive Design” (Session 3), or “Renewable Energy Opportunities” (Session 8). To highlight the real world challenges in achieving energy-efficiency targets, each session will also include a case study presentation.

Registration deadline (for the entire series only): Friday, Feb. 3
AIA Member Price for the entire, 40-hour series: $795.
General price: $1,195

The 10-class series will begin on February 10, 2012, and meet on the second Friday of each month through December 2012 (with the exception of August).

Location: AIA Portland, 403 N.W. 11th Ave., Portland.
Contact AIA Portland at 503-223-8757 or  for more information.

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Earlier this week, I came across an entry on the that did a little data analysis on how local projects are keeping up with the green building goals like the

The 2030 Challenge asks the architecture and building communities to strive for carbon-neutrality in projects by 2030, with incremental reductions of fossil fuel usage along the way. Today, a building or major renovation meeting the 2030 challenge‘s standard should have a 60% reduction of fossil fuel energy consumption over average projects of the same type.

The author used carbon calculation data submitted by entrants to the American Institute of Architects Portland Design Competition to glimpse into the carbon-efficiency of new or newly renovated buildings. It’s an interesting sample: though entries into the AIA design competition may not be representative of the industry as a whole, this may be the largest amount of carbon-emissions data for new projects that is available.

The data provide a mixed picture. Some projects are striving to green building goals; two projects achieved carbon-neutral status. And on average, the buildings saw a fossil fuel consumption usage of about 46 percent below the national average. However, a third of the projects submitted for the 2010 awards were built to minimum code requirements, which are at about 25 percent reduction of fossil fuel energy consumption over the national average.

The conclusion? The industry, at least in Portland, is moving toward greener buildings – but it’s not doing so much faster than code requires.

The post Tracking Oregon’s progress on green building targets appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Earlier this week, I came across an entry on the that did a little data analysis on how local projects are keeping up with the green building goals like the

The 2030 Challenge asks the architecture and building communities to strive for carbon-neutrality in projects by 2030, with incremental reductions of fossil fuel usage along the way. Today, a building or major renovation meeting the 2030 challenge‘s standard should have a 60% reduction of fossil fuel energy consumption over average projects of the same type.

The author used carbon calculation data submitted by entrants to the American Institute of Architects Portland Design Competition to glimpse into the carbon-efficiency of new or newly renovated buildings. It’s an interesting sample: though entries into the AIA design competition may not be representative of the industry as a whole, this may be the largest amount of carbon-emissions data for new projects that is available.

The data provide a mixed picture. Some projects are striving to green building goals; two projects achieved carbon-neutral status. And on average, the buildings saw a fossil fuel consumption usage of about 46 percent below the national average. However, a third of the projects submitted for the 2010 awards were built to minimum code requirements, which are at about 25 percent reduction of fossil fuel energy consumption over the national average.

The conclusion? The industry, at least in Portland, is moving toward greener buildings – but it’s not doing so much faster than code requires.

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Before architect Ed Mazria became the founder of a global movement to create net-zero buildings, he was an Oregon resident.  He spent the 1970s teaching architecture at the University of Oregon. It was there that he began to form his philosophies on sustainable siting, energy efficiency and passive solar design for buildings.

Today, Mazria is best known as the driving force behind Architecture 2030, a research organization focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the building sector. In 2002, he developed the 2030 Challenge, a global effort by architecture firms to design buildings with greater energy efficiency. The end goal of the project is a lofty one: to have all buildings be designed as net-zero structures by 2030.

This week, Mazria will discuss how global climate change, energy and the state of the U.S. economy have created opportunities for the building industry to change the way the world builds and lives. His keynote speech will be presented at the Earth Advantage Institute’s Green Day Forum in Portland on Thursday.

91��Ƶ: What do you see as the largest obstacle still facing the 2030 challenge?

Edward Mazria: I think if there is an obstacle, it’s probably information. The information on design strategies needed to meet these targets is out there, but it’s scattered. We initiated an (American Institute of Architects) 2030 Challenge educational series that started in Seattle and is now being picked up around the country. We’ve also initiated a program to compile all the information we know in terms of design issues and principles for meeting the challenge. We should have that completed in 12 to 14 months. We’ll soon have a lot of information in one place.

91��Ƶ: Are Oregon architects on the right track to meeting the goals of the 2030 Challenge or is there room for improvement?

EM: For me, coming back to Oregon is like coming home. I haven’t done a tour (of any recently constructed green buildings in Oregon) yet, but in terms of the buildings I have seen from the AIA Design Awards, quite a number have met or exceeded the 2030 targets. These were large projects and were really well done.

91��Ƶ: What do you think high-profile sustainable building projects such as the Oregon Sustainability Center will do for your movement?

EM: We need to meet the 2030 target of 60 percent energy efficiency and emissions reductions today. Projects that go beyond these targets will blaze the trail for other projects down the line. The reductions (in energy use for the challenge) get larger as we move out in time, at which time buildings are expected to be carbon neutral. Projects like (the Oregon Sustainability Center) that go the distance are the laboratories for moving towards the 2030 target. We are happy to see projects like that advance.

91��Ƶ: How crucial do you think post-occupancy data on buildings will be to achieving the goal of net-zero construction?

EM: We’ve had 126 firms signed up for AIA 2030 Commitment, which requires architects to set benchmarks for their designs and go back a year later to check the performance, record the difference and to make the adjustments. We should have a huge database of information in a year and a half or so. We expect some buildings to be better and some to perform not as well. Hopefully, the mean is where we want it to be. As we track this data, we learn what things work and what things don’t work as expected, and we are able to make those changes in future designs.

91��Ƶ: How satisfied are you with the progress that has been made by architects towards the 2030 Challenge?

EM: We’re very satisfied with where we are. We issued the challenge in 2006, and it’s been widely adopted in the U.S. Most of the large firms in the U.S. have adopted it and are working aggressively to meet the targets. At the beginning of 2010, we had 40 percent of all architecture firms participating, and I know that number is higher today.

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A building hasn’t met the 2030 Challenge until there is proof of performance. But that proof isn’t easy to obtain.

If buildings are to eventually meet the final goal of the international initiative and become net-zero, then the industry must have better methods of tracking energy performance post-construction, architects and engineers say.

The goal of the 2030 Challenge, issued by Edward Mazria in 2002, is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions via construction of buildings with greater energy efficiency. This year, the challenge called for all new building projects to be designed 60 percent more energy efficient than current building energy codes. But according to Isaac Adams, job captain with THA Architecture, many firms still don’t know if their buildings have met previous goals because of a lack of post-occupancy data.

THA has attempted to track the energy use of its projects after construction by collecting utility billing information from project owners. But so far, only a few owners have obliged THA’s requests, Adams said.

“We’ve had clients that never get back to us,” Adams said. “We work on a lot of university projects, and colleges generally get one giant utility bill for the whole campus, not one building. There are nerves over sharing data from an underperforming building. But this data needs to be out there, because a lot of people have a lot to learn from it.”

Obtaining the data is crucial as firms strive to achieve future 2030 Challenge bench marks, said Brad Wilson, an associate with PAE Consulting Engineers. Architects and engineers can design efficiency into buildings through HVAC systems, grid-tied solar systems and other methods. But occupant behavior will determine whether net-zero energy use is a pipe dream or a reality, he said.

Wilson has been working with architecture firms to find better ways of tracking energy use for multifamily housing, the most difficult building type to track. Residential and student housing projects’ plug loads tend to vary significantly from building to building. A plug load represents the energy consumed by electronic appliances plugged into a building. A residence hall may be significantly energy efficient on paper but perform much differently once students move in with computers and stereos.

“You can only get energy use down so far,” Wilson said. “We have a good handle on how we reduce energy loads for lighting, heating and cooling. But plug loads are personal. There’s no design directive there.”

PAE Consulting Engineers is performing studies at Oregon and Washington residence halls to learn how energy is being used by students, Wilson said. Architects can then better predict energy modeling.

Wilson, an engineer, is accustomed to analyzing data in this manner, but many architects are not. That’s why the 2030 Challenge provides a spreadsheet so that architects can plug in utility and energy modeling information to determine energy use in their designs. But that spreadsheet is geared toward commercial projects. And when Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects began inputting data from its mostly residential projects, senior architect Caroline Forsythe found that the spreadsheet didn’t work. As a result, Ankrom Moisan has little post-occupancy data and little knowledge of where its projects stand in regard to the 2030 Challenge.

That’s changing, however. Ankrom Moisan, THA Architecture and other Portland architecture firms are working with the University of Oregon and nonprofit Better Bricks to develop a better spreadsheet. Information from utility bills and energy modeling will be able to be used for projects of any type, including multifamily, said Alison Kwok, a UO architecture professor working on the project. Student interns for months have been crunching numbers from 20 sample projects to make sure the tool works as it was designed. The tool and sample data are scheduled to be unveiled in December.

“We’re trying to help firms to do these energy analyses themselves at some point,” Kwok said. “With this tool, firms can look at all of their past projects and see how to improve their design. It’s a tool to look at the past, but plan for the future.”

However, the real key to improving accessibility to data is to build relationships with project owners early on so that they can become comfortable sharing building performance information in the future, said Kurt Haapala, associate principal with Mahlum Architecture. Integrated design, which features architects, engineers, contractors and project owners designing and building a project together from the start, provides such an avenue, Haapala said.

“We need to get into the routine of being conversant in this world of energy use from the start,” Haapala said. “It always comes down to the users. If occupants understand the building, they can contribute to its efficiency. Being informed on this information will make our work better, but we have a long way to go.”

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RELATED

AIA Portland CO2 calculator (pdf)

If Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design was the sustainable-design trend of this decade, then perhaps the 2030 Challenge will take hold beginning in 2010.

But achieving the challenge’s goals, including all new buildings being carbon-neutral by 2030, may be difficult. At present, tracking carbon emissions in new construction is guesswork based on Department of Energy averages of building energy consumption. And efforts to track energy use in new, sustainable construction are still scattered, according to local registered engineer Troy Lowell.

Lowell assisted Works Partnership with carbon calculations for its bside6 project. This year, American Institute of Architects Portland tasked architects like Works Partnership to calculate carbon emissions for buildings being considered for the institute’s annual design awards. In 2010, architects’ projects will need to meet a specific emissions-reduction goal in order to qualify for the awards.

“We really feel that projects that win the awards shouldn’t be using more than their fair share of carbon,” AIA Portland President Greg Flinders said. “The design decisions we make have significant ramifications.”

But only one-third of projects submitted for this year’s American Institute of Architects Portland Design Awards met the challenge’s first goal of a 50-percent reduction in carbon emissions. In 2010, the goal increases to a 60-percent reduction.

Achieving even a 20-percent reduction in emissions is difficult in an unbuilt project because of the unpredictability of how future tenants will check their energy use, Lowell said. Works Partnership’s bside6 received an AIA Design award this year, though it did not meet current goals of the 2030 Challenge. It achieved only a 15-percent reduction in carbon emissions, according to a calculator created by AIA.

“The difficulty with tracking CO2 emissions in an unbuilt project is a key issue,” Lowell said. “When it’s built, there will be things people plug into the buildings that are highly unpredictable in terms of emissions tracking. These are not things you can put a meter on.”

Most calculations of carbon emissions rely on information from the Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey, which is produced by the U.S. Department of Energy. But using averages only allows architects and engineers to make an intelligent guess on how a building is going to perform. And like the people that reside within, every building is different, Lowell said.

Flinders said the exercise brought awareness to architects about how much work is ahead for them in achieving carbon-neutral buildings.

“A lot of architects may not have considered their carbon emissions prior to needing to track them for submission,” Flinders said. “We need to realize that we have to design better building envelopes and find ways to do energy modeling to meet goals that are out there.”

Flinders said Building Information Modeling will soon become a standard tool in energy modeling for new buildings. The software creates a 3-D representation of all the systems in a building, from mechanical and electrical systems to the building shell.

“BIM is revolutionary for architecture today in the way (computer-aided design) was revolutionary in the ’80s with 2-D drawings,” Lowell said. “It ties well into energy modeling because you can send that 3-D model to the engineer and they calculate the energy much more quickly. I know several firms (that) do all their new projects in BIM, and the rest of the firms will follow shortly.”

But not even technology as advanced as BIM can always accurately gauge emissions. Lowell said that if architects and engineers are to make strides toward the 2030 Challenge, then they need to keep an eye on the energy use in their sustainably-built projects for several years and share what they learn with others in the industry.

“If we can design good buildings with good meters that can be tracked, the predictability on carbon emissions for future designs will be much easier,” Lowell said. “As more and more new buildings start tracking this information, that will give us a more vivid picture of where we need to make improvements.”

Architects may have a long way to go before they achieve carbon neutrality. But Jennifer Dzienis, Work Partnership project manager for bside6, is confident that open dialogue between architects, contractors and engineers will soon lead to construction of better-performing buildings.

“The more conversations we have and the more work we do and the more we learn, the more likely we will be to educate each other,” Dzienis said.

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A recent report from NAIOP (also known as the Commercial Real Estate Development Association) has sustainable building proponent and Architecture 2030 founder Edward Mazria crying foul.

A story published in the New York Times this week quoted the NAIOP study and concluded that “the green-building vision may be more of a myth.” The story surmised that building green could pay off but that would, in some cases, take decades.

Mazria said the NAIOP report was part of a “disinformation campaign that is obviously meant to stall, confuse and distort.”

“It is clear from a simple analysis of the study that NAIOP commissioned a building energy efficiency analysis to support predetermined results,” Mazria wrote on the Architecture 2030 Web site. “They contracted with ConSol, an energy-modeling firm, and asked them to analyze five (yes, only five) efficiency measures for an imaginary, square-shaped, four-story office building with completely sealed windows and an equal amount of un-shaded glass on all four sides of the building. In other words, analyze an energy hog.”

The reports says a 50 percent energy improvement beyond federal standards is technically impossible and reaching 30 is possible but only with solar panels and it would take up to 100 years to regain that investment.

Architecture 2030 has issued the 2030 Challenge with the following targets: all new buildings, developments and major renovations be designed to meet a fossil fuel, greenhouse gas emitting, energy consumption performance standard of 50 percent of the regional (or country) average for that building type. At a minimum, an amount of existing building area equal to that of new construction be renovated annually to meet a fossil fuel, greenhouse gas emitting, energy consumption performance standard of 50 percent of the regional (or country) average for that building type.

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