greenpromise&delivery conference in Vancouver earlier this year. How to Stay on the Performance Track addressed the most common causes for buildings failing to achieve their targeted and predicted performance from building concept to its actual operation. SIX VULNERABILITIES The speakers' panel identified six important stages where gaps can occur: project vision; design; construction; handover; operation; and optimization. The overwhelming consensus was the need for better collaboration in the industry and better information management. To begin, at the design stage, it’s key to clearly define the performance target and also the hierarchy of the individual goals of the building. “For example, just stating LEED Gold or Platinum doesn’t give a defined picture of what is the target performance,” said Mikler. “We need to go much deeper to target specifics, especially elements that can be
“These buildings have complex systems – if they don’t have a good understanding of how they’re supposed to work, how are they suppose to operate them?” measured such as energy and water.” Design should be delivered in an integrated fashion with all the stakeholders involved instead of teams working in silos. “The quality of the design team also makes a big difference,” he advised, noting that selecting a team based on lowest fee might be reflected in the outcome of the quality of the design. John Lutz, Senior Building Performance Advisor at Integral, stressed that the commissioning authority should be involved early on
in a project but is “often an afterthought.” Involving the commissioning authority early provides greater opportunity to identify possible operation, installation, and performance issues long before they become an issue. Energy modelling should also be done early in the design stage. But Ali Nazari, Integral Principal, acknowledged there is some confusion when it comes to energy modelling because there are different ones. “Each modelling has a different purpose and it’s very important to
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