Skipping Stone, Schneider Electric and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory announced today the formation of a committee tasked with enhancing the current Demand Response LEED Pilot Credit. The team, led by Skipping Stone and composed of Schneider Electric and the Demand Response Research Center (DRRC) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, will collaborate on enhancing the credit to enable commercial building owners and LEED green building projects to earn credits in LEED for enrolling in utility or wholesale market demand response programs.
The enhanced program will provide LEED projects with demand response definitions, participation options for buildings, and implementation and documentation requirement guidelines. The team will also develop a robust market research agenda to study participation across markets, adoption criteria, load reduction scenarios, utility service territory benchmarking and implementation technology drivers. To assist buildings in identifying existing demand response programs, Skipping Stone will provide U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) members with a searchable national database of programs.
“Demand response is unique in comparison to other LEED credits as it requires coordination with the utility and wholesale markets,” said Brendan Owens, Vice President, LEED Technical Development, USGBC. “By bringing this team of experts from the energy and building communities together, USGBC will benefit from the combined expertise.”
“Demand response is a new path for USGBC and critical to the building communities’ involvement in the smart grid,” indicated Mark MacCracken, USGBC Chairman.
“One of our key strategic initiatives focuses on taking buildings into the energy markets through demand response initiatives,” said Jim Anderson, Vice President, USA Utility and Smart Grid Business for Schneider Electric. “Being asked to assist USGBC by providing our proven building and implementation perspective is an honor in this groundbreaking endeavor.”
The revised Demand Response LEED Pilot Credit will be published later this spring. Based on feedback from participating buildings, the market research generated in the market pilots and input from pilot sponsors, recommendations will be made for eventual integration of the Demand Response Credit into the Energy & Atmosphere Credits in the next version of the LEED rating system, LEED 2012.
To propel building community adoption of both demand response and the revised LEED credit, USGBC will be launching a series of utility service territory market pilots. Skipping Stone has been named as the market pilot manager and is currently developing stakeholder support with potential host utilities, market operators, regulators, enabling technology and services providers and other interested parties.
“This USGBC initiative is a game changer for the adoption of demand response by the commercial building sector,” said Peter Weigand, Skipping Stone Chairman and CEO. “We hope that the energy community gets behind these market pilots because this it is a great opportunity to help drive commercial sector adoption of load management programs.”
Related Stories
| Mar 16, 2011
Foster + Partners to design carbon-neutral urban park for West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong
Foster + Partners has been selected by the board of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority to design a massive 56-acre urban park on a reclaimed harbor-front site in Hong Kong. Designed as a carbon-neutral development, “City Park” will seamlessly blend into existing streets while creating large expanses of green space and seventeen new cultural venues.
| Mar 16, 2011
CALGreen v. LEED: How does California's new green building code compare to LEED?
The California Green Building Standards Code (CALGreen), the country’s first statewide green building code, seeks to establish minimum green building standards for the majority of residential and commercial new construction projects across California. As the requirements of CALGreen take effect this year, many wonder how the new code compares with other established green building standards, such as the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED rating system. Let’s review…
| Mar 11, 2011
Texas A&M mixed-use community will focus on green living
HOK, Realty Appreciation, and Texas A&M University are working on the Urban Living Laboratory, a 1.2-million-sf mixed-use project owned by the university. The five-phase, live-work-play project will include offices, retail, multifamily apartments, and two hotels.
| Mar 9, 2011
Hoping to win over a community, Facebook scraps its fortress architecture
Facebook is moving from its tony Palo Alto, Calif., locale to blue-collar Belle Haven, and the social network want to woo residents with community-oriented design.
| Mar 9, 2011
Winners of the 2011 eVolo Skyscraper Competition
Winners of the eVolo 2011 Skyscraper Competition include a high-rise recycling center in New Delhi, India, a dome-like horizontal skyscraper in France that harvests solar energy and collects rainwater, and the Hoover Dam reimagined as an inhabitable skyscraper.
| Mar 9, 2011
Fast food franchises are taking the LEED
Starbucks, Arby’s, and McDonald’s are among the top when it comes to fast food franchises implementing sustainability practices. This article takes a look at the green paths these three brands are taking, and how LEED factors into their business and their future.
| Mar 8, 2011
Building, energy performance rating site launched
The Institute for Market Transformation and the Natural Resources Defense Council announced the launch of BuildingRating.org, the world’s first comprehensive resource on energy performance rating and disclosure policies for commercial buildings and homes.
| Mar 8, 2011
BlueCross HQ campus awarded LEED Gold
BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee announced its certification as a LEED Gold campus, established by the U.S. Green Building Council and verified by the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI). BlueCross’ headquarters, totaling 950,000 square feet of office space, is the largest LEED Gold corporate campus in Tennessee, and the second largest in the nation.
| Mar 2, 2011
Design professionals grow leery of green promises
Legal claims over sustainability promises vs. performance of certified green buildings are beginning to mount—and so are warnings to A/E/P and environmental consulting firms, according to a ZweigWhite report.
