In a recent article “Breaking Down Net Zero Building: Reality or Wishful Thinking?” Ashley Halligan, analyst for Software Advice, interviewed several experts to gather insight about the growing trend of net zero building. She took the time to speak with experts Brian Anderson, Founding Partner of Anderson Porter Design; Dru B. Crawley, former Commercial Buildings Team Lead for the Department of Energy and current Director of Building Performance at Bentley Systems; Jeff Blankman, McCormick’s Sustainable Manufacturing Manager; and Blake Bisson, VP of Sales & Marketing at Ekotrope.
Her article uses a case study of McCormick’s recent achievement of net zero following retrofits and energy efficiency efforts at its 363,000 square foot food distribution.
The experts weigh in with suggestions for both current facility retrofits and recommendations for projects intended to achieve net zero in its design phase, and ends with whether they think this is an achievable status on a wide-scale basis. With the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, all commercial buildings will, after all, be required to achieve net zero by 2050.
This chart, provided by Pike Research, demonstrates how a reduction in consumption paired with alternative energy resources like PV panels can create an energy equilibrium–resulting in net zero usage.
Read the complete story here.
Here are a few clearly explained reviews of the article posted at enerdynamics, green lodging news, ecocloud, and other energy conscious design and building blogs referencing it.
See these related reports of a university building and a business in Iowa to reach net zero: Maharishi University of Management to open new Sustainable Living Center, a net-zero energy bldg. (see additional coverage listed at the end of this article) and The Sky Factory meets ‘net zero’ goal with huge solar array | Sky Factory goes solar | Bloomberg Business Week: The Sky Factory meets ‘net zero’ goal with huge solar array [The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa]. Video reports: KTVO: Heartland business becomes first entirely solar-powered company in Iowa | The Sky Factory Goes Solar and KTVO News: Groundbreaking Sustainable Living Center a source of pride in Fairfield | WHO TV: BEYOND GREEN: Building Produces Extra Energy
Tags: alternative energy resources, climate, environment, Maharishi University of Management, net zero, reducing energy consumption, solar array, sustainable building, Sustainable Living Center
The Uncarved Blog 
July 26, 2012 at 5:05 pm |
The goal of Net-Zero Energy Building (NZEB) to generate at least the same amount of energy as buildings consume doesn’t solve the problem of how to construct buildings which are completely self sufficient. A more holistic approach is to reach beyond NZEB to Zero Energy Concept Building (ZECB). ZECB is a leap forward ahead of NZEB because Zero Energy Concept Building includes technology to purify waste water and improve indoor air quality by harnessing the power of Mother Nature to replenish these resources. ZECB addresses poor indoor air quality which has been linked to health problems, while at the same time applying natural processes defined as fixed-film ecology for waste water purification. With fixed-film ecology water is used and reused in diverse ways; continuously cycling through nature’s cleansing process through a series of wetland tanks which do double duty by scrubbing the indoor air through the process of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is a natural charge particle technology that makes pollutants heavy causing them to drop out of the air which is the natural method of cleansing indoor air. For more about understanding a definition for ZECB click on this link
https://sites.google.com/site/zeroenergyconceptbuilding/defining-zecb-for-the-green-collar-economy
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