Case studies of High performance Sustainable Buildings

Hartkopf, V., Yang, X., Azizan, A. (2009 in press) Case-studies of High Performance Sustainable Buildings UNEP
Sustainable Buildings & Climate Initiative, Paris.

Executive summary
In order to conduct the case studies, the authors developed a framework for best practices (Fig 1). The framework
consists of 4 principles and 6 techniques. The case studies originate from different countries with various climatic and
economic development conditions. The authors collected 36 case studies. In addition, best practices from 104 LEED and
AIA COTE Top10 buildings were collected.

Fig 1: Framework for best practices

The 36 case studies cover different building types in different climatic zones, at different economic and development
stages. The locations are shown on the map (Fig 2). Independently, the authors aim to collect additional case studies
worldwide.

Fig 2: Globally representative samples of high performance buildings

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The distribution of the LEED certified and AIA COTE Top 10 Award is illustrated in figure 3.

Fig 3: Ratings / Awards of the 104 US building cases investigated

Main findings are:

1. Fig 4 shows the energy performance for different building types. Based on these buildings, annual primary energy
consumption of less than 50kWh/m2 is an achievable goal for residential buildings. Net-zero energy houses are on
the horizon. For office buildings, the best practices show less than 100 kWh/m2 annual primary energy
consumption, and less than 200 kWh/m2 for laboratory buildings. A recently completed office building in Berlin,
Germany, uses less than 90 kWh/m2 annual primary energy (Barnim Service and Administration Centre). A project
currently being researched, the new head office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Berlin, reports less than 60
kWh/m2 annual primary energy consumption. More data will be collected for healthcare facilities. Developing net-
zero-energy buildings represents the next major opportunities. The Building as Power Plant (BAPP) is under
development at the Center for Building Performance Diagnostic (CBPD) at Carnegie Mellon University (Hartkopf,
etl, 2005).
2. Tracking best practices for global benchmarking is greatly facilitated with the increasing application of evaluation
tools worldwide, e.g.. CASBEE, LEED, BREEAM, Green Star etc.. However, the lack of measured actual
performance information in published case studies in different rating systems makes it difficult to collect
documented detailed data of best practices. Instead of providing verifiable data, predicted or simulated energy
performance data were communicated in most cases. The discrepancy between predicted and measured data is often
huge. In a newly released report by the New Buildings Institute, 30% of LEED buildings perform better than the
simulated level, 25% perform worse than expected, and some have serious energy consumption problems during
occupancy (Fig5) (Turner et al., 2008). Data on water-use, indoor environment quality (IEQ) and material use are
even more difficult to find.

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 Fig 4: Annual energy consumption for best practice cases investigated

Fig 5: Measured versus proposed savings percentages for LEED buildings

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3. In the future, more emphasis should be put on projects in developing countries. Crosscountry comparisons provide
information on the different lifestyles, building traditions and codes. For example, domestic hot water is a standard
amenity in western countries, but as illustrated by Shanghai Research Institute of Building Science (see case
summary), hot water is not supplied in office buildings in China. Ever increasing expectations, such as household
appliances (dishwashers, washing machines, dryers etc.), lighting fixtures, automobiles, etc., despite of potentially
huge individual efficiency improvements, the overall increase in the numbers of the appliances, lighting fixtures,
etc., lead to ever increasing energy and material demand in many developing countries. The successful cases in
developing regions collected in this report are showing the possibility of achieving high environmental performance
and occupant comfort through “low-tech” solutions, based on local resources and climate appropriate practices. In
the Inspiration Office Complex case in India , low-tech strategies such as natural ventilation, natural cooling and
local building material use were adopted. Despite the fact that few examples seem to exist, the authors identified
several best practices in developing countries. These include the Torrent Research Center in India, featuring passive
evaporative cooling systems and the METI School in Rudrapur, Bangladesh (a project of Aga Khan Awards 2007),
which uses various adaptive passive strategies, including the use of shutters and vertical garden façades, to achieve
high sustainable performance.
Green and sustainable building standards are well described in tools such as LEED, BREEAM and CASBEE. Moving to
what could be considered “symbiotic” or even “regenerative” building practices represents additional challenges.
“Symbiotic” would mean the living together of unlike organisms. Regards building system integration, this could be
interpreted to create building enclosures that would engage organisms, such as plants, bees, birds, etc to enable
climate/weather responsive day lighting, natural ventilation, passive and active heating and cooling. “Regenerative”
would take concepts of development of “sustainable” and “symbiotic” to an even higher level, namely engaging natural
forces and living entities to improve or even regenerate environments that would recreate ideal biospheric conditions,
which existed at a particular site before human interaction. The most appropriate example could be seen in replanting
abandoned mine tailing sites. This would not only grow biomass, but also regenerate the soil, clean the air, prevent toxic
water run-off and provide habitat for birds, mammals, insects, etc.
Several cases in India and Bangladesh are aiming at 'regenerative' buildings with passive strategies when most
sustainable buildings in the U.S. are still far below the 'symbiotic' level. In the developed countries, there are more
brownfield redevelopment cases, aiming at sustainable building goals, as well as historic building renovation cases,
which can be regarded as efforts towards "regenerative" practices within this context of improving existing facilities.
Information about the scope of the temporal, spatial and metabolic interdependencies is also provided explicitly in the
report (e.g., Intelligent Workplace at Carnegie Mellon University, Building as Power Plant project) as well (Hartkopf,
etl, 2005).