Riddle Me This:

It’s color and goal are lockset at start 
But process and flow, tradition in part
Panic pros and bank, compared to the “cart”
Though known by us all, we tear it apart

The answer to this riddle can be found in this:

YouTube Documentary: "Achieving Best Value"

Over the past few years, I’ve read a number of articles, white papers, and case-studies concerning Net Zero Energy and High Performance Green Buildings. Just about all of them offer design process & construction technology advice, and step-by-step directives to achieve a “Net Zero Energy High Performance Green Building”…wow, that term is a mouth-full.

By example, the white paper put out by BD+C (www.bdcnetwork.com) entitled “Zero and Net-Zero Energy Buildings + Homes: Eighth in a series of white papers on Green Building Movement” has a sidebar:

Step-by-step Design Map to Net-Zero Energy

William Maclay, AIA, a principal with Maclay Architects, Waitsfield, Vt., offers this step-by-step guide to net-zero energy building design

1. Employ a highly collaborative, integrated design process.
2. Elongate the building along the east-west axis to maximize daylight.
3. Shoot for envelope criteria of R-60 for the roof, R-40 for the walls, and R-20 for the below grade foundation.
4. Identify the optimal energy-generation system for the site and climate.
5. Specify mechanical systems that support the net-zero goal, such as air-source or ground source heat pumps.
6. Set up a monitoring system to ensure that all building systems are operating properly.
7. Provide for periodical review of energy-performance data to identify any problems and better educate the building owner in how to monitor and run the facility.

This white paper provides an excellent recounting of the unique activities, strategies, and dynamics for the design and construction process that yields a Net Zero Energy High Performance Green Building. The list above is the fundamental precipitates of that process.

Our industry has long understood the ‘life-cycle’ benefit of facilities operating at low energy consumption, the conceptual notion of “Green”, and the social and economic benefits of “High Performance”. What’s the hold up? Why are not all of the world’s buildings being designed to achieve “Net Zero Energy High Performance Green Buildings”? Heck…why are not ALL building owners DEMANDING Net Zero Energy?

In A word…Price

From my bias, what is missing from the ‘step-by-step’ for creating a Net Zero Energy High Performance Green Building, is addressing the issue of cost (or, from the owner’s perspective: Price).

Answer me this. If one could purchase a “Net Zero Energy High Performance Green Building” that satisfied all of the ‘desires’ of an otherwise “NON-NZEHPGB, why would one not?

To me, the fact that the DOE/NREL Research Support Facility (RSF) was created without adding funding dollars to the Congressional Appropriation (in other words: funded at a NON-NZEHPGB price) is an “impressive story” worth telling.

What is impressive about the RSF Project outcome is not the design and construction process detailed in the white paper. It's what we in the industry are trained to do. I’m not at all surprised at the talents, innovation, commitment, integration, and results of the dedicated design and construction professionals from throughout our industry as exemplified by the Haselden/RNL/Stantec Team (and their associates). For us who are design and construction professionals, it comes as no surprise that these results can be achieved, or that our professionals are up to the task.

What is impressive about the RSF Project outcome is how the owner (DOE) achieved the NZEHPGB results without adding time or money to the acquisition. It goes to the prior question; with no difference in Price, “why are not all building owners demanding Net Zero Energy High Performance Green Buildings?”

What is impressive is how DOE/NREL learned and embraced an inverted acquisition strategy known as “Problem-Based Contracting”, using a strategy that applied a performance-based statement of work within a fixed-price design-build procurement model.

What is impressive is how the designers and builders of the RSF came to trust the commitment of the owner, and how they embraced and leveraged the “Problem-Based Contract” embodied by the project’s RFP Conceptual Documents.

What would be impressive is a “step-by-step” accounting of getting talented design and construction professionals to guarantee delivering a NZEHPGB at a NON-NZEHPGB Price.

Here is the documentary film that explains how “Problem-Based Contracting” applies a performance-based statement of work within a fixed-price design-build procurement model. It is the story of what went on before the designers and builders signed the contract on the RSF Project.

It’s color and goal are lockset at start
But process and flow, tradition in part
Panic pros and bank, compared to the “cart”
Though known by us all, we tear it apart

"Budget for a Green Building"