Blog - Smart Buildings Center

Seattle 2030 District Vision Awards…reimagined!

September 24, 2020 By SBC staff

This year’s Seattle 2030 District Vision Awards will be held online on October 15th at 4 pm PT! If you haven’t had the chance to attend one of their annual in-person events, now’s your opportunity. The hour-long program will feature the inspiring work from the Vision Award winners who have led notable sustainability projects or have significantly reduced emissions in transportation, water, and energy use in buildings. There will also be raffle tickets for some exceptional items and a silent auction to bid against other participants. This event is free; register here to save a seat: https://2030districts.ejoinme.org/register

GridFWD 2020, Oct 6-15 (Virtual)

September 24, 2020 By SBC staff

GridFWD 2020 will once again bring together a wide range of stakeholders to address the challenges and opportunities facing our energy community. The theme for this year’s virtual event, Power to the Community, reflects our industry’s commitment to not only reliable, affordable and clean electric power, but also the welfare of our customers, co-workers and communities during these unprecedented times. Scheduled from October 6 to October 15, the event comprises many virtual sessions of varying size and format to allow attendees to explore and share ideas, best practices and novel solutions to modernize the grid and ensure power to the community. Start at GridFWD.com. NEEC members can use the promocode, Partner2020 to save 25% off the ticket price.

Join Us Next Week for Virtual Smart Buildings Week!

September 8, 2020 By SBC staff

If you haven’t already, register to join us for Virtual Smart Buildings Week September 14^th-18^th, 2020! Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday during the lunch hour (12-1 pm PT) a virtual session will feature an engaging panel discussion covering smart buildings topics including Using Data and Analytics to Improve Performance, Grid Enabled Efficient Buildings, Achieving Persistent Operational Performance, and Creating Intelligent Spaces. These one-hour sessions each qualify for 1 Building Operator Certification (BOC) credential maintenance point and 0.10 IACET CEUs towards the renewal of industry certifications, certificates and licenses including but not limited to AIA, PE, LEED, IFMA, ASHRAE, and AEE.

Register Now!

Watch the Smart Buildings Week Welcome Address from Rimes Mortimer, General Manager of Industry Innovation at Microsoft Corporation.

Building Tune-Up Accelerator Program – Final Technical Report Published

September 3, 2020 By SBC staff

In 2016, as part of its Climate Action Plan, the City of Seattle passed a mandatory Building Tune-Ups requirement (SBTU) for commercial buildings over 50,000 square feet gross floor area, with a focus on optimizing energy and water performance by identifying low or no cost solutions related to building operations and maintenance.

The Tune-Up Accelerator (TUA) Program was an opportunity for building owners to meet the requirements early and receive incentives from the utilities for the corrective actions implemented to optimize building performance. 102 buildings completed the TUA program representing 6.9 million SF total and about 18% of the target market buildings with 50,000-100,000 SF. The final technical report for TUA program is published on the City of Seattle Office of Sustainability and Environment (OSE) website.

The Smart Buildings Center (SBC) was a program partner and served as a primary provider of training & curricula, Tool Lending Library (TLL) support, project tracking and help desk support for the Tune-Up Accelerator (TUA) Program.

SBC along with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and OSE led the development of the curriculum, which was centered around a customization of PNNL’s Building Re-tuning training for SBTU requirements. To track deliverables required by each participant and evaluate savings resulting from corrective actions taken by buildings, a robust custom database was created by SBC.

SBC also conducted Measurement & Verification (M&V) services on 10% of the participating building population which included onsite verification and data analysis. The aim of M&V was to evaluate the energy and cost savings resulting from energy measure implemented by the buildings.

Read more about the findings of the Building Tune-Up Accelerator Program in the final technical report here!

To Learn more about our Tool Lending Library, click here!

Proposed King County 2020 Strategic Climate Action Plan Announced

September 3, 2020 By SBC staff

The executive-proposed 2020 Strategic Climate Action Plan (SCAP) was transmitted by King County Executive Dow Constantine to the King County Council on August 27, 2020. The County Council will review and schedule public hearings to consider adoption of the SCAP this fall and winter. Read the full news release of the 2020 SCAP.

The SCAP is a five-year blueprint for County climate action, integrating climate change into all areas of County operations and work with King County cities, partners, communities, and residents. The SCAP outlines King County’s priorities and commitments for climate action for decision-makers, employees, partners, and the public.

The full proposed 2020 Strategic Climate Action Plan is available to download. The three main sections are described here and each is available for individual download below.

Download the 2020 SCAP

Smart Buildings: Recommended Reading

August 26, 2020 By SBC staff

The following excerpts are from recent building technology and facility management articles that capture some of the topics and questions that will be addressed during SBC’s Virtual Smart Buildings Week September 14-18. Learn more about the session topics and speakers here: https://smartbuildingscenter.org/smart-buildings-week/ and register for the virtual series here: https://virtualsmartbuildingsweek.eventbrite.com.

Memoori Article: Dumb Buildings are the Real Losers in a post-COVID World
COVID-19 is one of the most disruptive events human society has experienced in the last 75 years. Beyond the struggles of 2020, this harsh reminder of the biological threats we face will go on to reshape the way we live for years to come. At the center of this debate is commercial real estate (CRE) — the indoor environments where people of different households gather — where 50% to 100% drops in occupancy levels have been common for months. CRE must now adapt to a post-COVID world that will create new winners and losers to reshape the buildings industry forever. Continue reading

BUILDINGS.com Article: Data-Driven Building Design That Gives More Than It Takes
HDR’s Regenerative Design Framework moves beyond basic high-performance design toward renewal-focused impacts and metric-driven targets for carbon, water, nutrients, air, biodiversity, societal and health categories. This holistic approach is intended to flex to accommodate design projects of all sizes, typologies and performance levels.

Understanding that even today’s high-performance buildings have a negative impact on the environment and their occupants, HDR believes it’s time for a collective leap toward a regenerative future, where design has a “net-positive” impact on the environment. Continue reading

Contact Us