Targeting Objectives
Your Mission. Realized.
Every organization is different, but those within the same industry often have similar priorities. The first step in the high performance building process is to understand the organization’s mission and its current critical issues—and then determine which infrastructure components are affecting them.
Healthcare
High performance buildings contribute to the delivery of cost-effective, high quality healthcare. Here’s why:
- Healthy, healing indoor environmental quality is imperative for patients. It is also imperative for the physicians, nurses and staff to deliver high quality care. (Source: Targeting 100, Heather Burpee and Joel Loveland, 2010 University of Washington.)
- According to Energy Star for Healthcare, every dollar a non-profit healthcare organization saves on energy has the equivalent impact on the bottom line as increasing revenues by $20 for hospitals or $10 for medical offices.
- Indoor air quality is essential to the delivery of high quality healthcare. Poor HVAC performance has been tied to 10 percent of endemic nosocomial infections.
K-12 schools
America’s schools were the earliest adopters of high performance building concepts. The value of high performance schools is well established, according to Deane Evans, executive director of the Center for Architecture and Building Science Research at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Professor Evans lists seven key benefits that high performance schools typically deliver:
- Better student performance
- Increased average daily attendance
- Reduced operating costs
- Reduced liability exposure
- Positive influence on the environment
- Ability to use the facility as a teaching tool
More information is available through the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, through the U.S. Green Building Council’s website for Green School Buildings and the Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS).
Higher education
Leadership in higher education can leverage high performance buildings to attract and retain students and faculty by offering comfortable and productive environments for living and learning. The operational cost savings can provide the means to stabilize tuition, or to catch up on deferred maintenance.
- Fiscal challenges created by declining state and federal funding—and enrollments that are growing by as much as 10 percent annually in some states—can be partially offset by energy efficient buildings and operational efficiency.
- Students are demanding sustainable campuses, and colleges and universities are responding. Over 680 schools have joined the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), expressing their intent to reduce carbon emissions in the near future.
The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) provides additional information.
Industrial facilities
High performance buildings for industrial applications contribute to financial, unit cost, productivity and quality goals.
- Continuous monitoring and technologies enabling the precise management of facility temperature and humidity levels help reduce defects in manufacturing processes, such as pharmaceuticals, which must operate under strict climate control parameters.
- Energy costs typically represent 30 percent of a building’s budget. Improving energy efficiency reduces costs and helps keep manufacturers globally competitive.
- Quality working conditions with the right temperature, humidity levels, acoustics and ventilation can improve productivity by as much as 18 percent, reduce absenteeism, and improve employee retention.
An increasing number of corporations are leveraging high performance green buildings to build brand equity. Sixty-six percent of U.S. corporations believe that sustainability efforts provide competitive advantages through market differentiation.
Commercial real estate
Tenant complaints and turnover are lower and rental rates are higher in high performance buildings.
- According to a study by the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA), after insufficient space, “lack of comfort” is the leading cause of tenant loss. There is a 50 percent chance a tenant will move out if they lodge three or more major complaints about comfort in a year.
- In 2005, CoStar determined that in high performance LEED® certified Class A office buildings, occupancy rates are 3 percent higher and rents are 14.6 percent higher.
High performance buildings also improve asset value: According to Energy Star data, every dollar invested in energy efficiency can add $3 in building asset value.
