This year’s Greenbuild works to make sustainable buildings accessible to everyone

This is my fifth year attending Greenbuild and I am excited that my hometown of Chicago will again host the green building conference. I have come to appreciate the educational value and community that Greenbuild provides more and more each year, and I’m delighted Chicago will get to add to the tradition once more.

Greenbuild’s theme this year, Humans by Nature: The Intersection of Humanity & the Built Environment, covers a wide array of topics that define how we relate to the world we live in. One of these topics is enhancing building efficiency and performance, an ongoing mission that is at the very core of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and Greenbuild.

Moreover, the mission statement highlights the importance of making sustainable buildings and environments accessible to everyone. As one of the founding cities of the BIT Building energy efficiency program, Chicago reflects these ideals, and the BIT Building program is a clear example of accessibility in action.

Improving building performance

Developed in partnership with the Clinton Foundation, Environmental Defense Fund and Seventhwave, BIT is a framework that assists building owners and operators in making incremental performance-driven improvements in energy, water and waste. Starting with measurement and benchmarking of key performance metrics, operators are guided through a set of 16 proven best practices to meet savings goals of 10 percent, 20 percent and even 30 percent over their current usage.

BIT is targeted to small and medium-sized buildings where operators are rarely incentivized or guided toward continuous improvement of operational energy. Typically, well-known efficiency certifications like LEED are out of reach for these buildings.

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The program works to empower all stakeholders with an understanding of the cost and energy saving benefits of building performance, helping to overcome barriers and drive improvements in a streamlined and flexible way that reduces the upfront cost and commitment for owners and operators and targets the main drivers for improvement.

BIT Building will now be managed by Southface Energy Institute, a fantastic organization for the skills and resources needed to take the program to the next level.

If we are to truly reduce carbon pollution, every community must be engaged in the adoption of vetted climate mitigation and adaptation strategies and solutions. Fortunately, green design and technology where we live, work and learn can make a community more efficient, economically viable and resilient. BIT Building can help communities get there.

Ready to register? Learn more about why you should attend, and then register for a four-day or three-day conference pass. Or, explore the floor, courtesy of EDF! Use code GB18REGMBRS10 at registration to claim your complimentary expo hall pass.

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