Leverage Technical Expertise to Achieve High Performance

Engineers and energy modelers are the technical experts that bring project performance goals to fruition. They play an essential role in a project's building system design, construction, and operation to achieve high performance targets.

Architects play a vital role in creating healthy, high-performing buildings. Their vision at the outset of a building project plays an important role in actualizing high performance goals.

Resources for Building Engineers, Architects, and Designers

Playbooks

• The Hub's Playbook for Engineers helps engineers and energy modelers use their technical expertise with the complex interconnections between building systems to help the design process and to help building owners meet their project performance goals.
• The Hub's Playbook for Architects helps architects align design with policy and compliance requirements as well as reach a project's high performance goals.

Implementation Guides

• The Hub’s Building Performance and Decarbonization Guide provides building owners and facility managers with practical strategies and step-by-step guidance for improving energy efficiency, reducing operational costs, and meeting state benchmarking requirements through building retrofits and system upgrades.
• USGBC, ASHRAE, and NYSERDA developed their Guide to Strategic Decarbonization Planning, which integrates planning, budgeting, and implementation in order to enable deep reductions in operational greenhouse gas emissions.
• The Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Solutions Center provides building owners and facility managers collection of proven energy efficiency solutions, financing tools, technical resources, and case studies to help implement building improvements that reduce energy costs while meeting state benchmarking and performance requirements.
• The William J. Worthen Foundation’s Building Decarbonization Practice Guide provides building owners and facility managers with practical, case study-based strategies for achieving zero carbon buildings, covering everything from design and construction considerations to specific guidance for multifamily, commercial, and institutional buildings.

General Resource Libraries

• The Building Decarbonization Coalition's Resource Library offers Illinois-specific guides, case studies, policy briefs, technical reports, and financing tools that help building owners, facility managers, and policymakers navigate the transition to clean energy buildings through electrification, energy efficiency, and decarbonization strategies.
• The Institute for Market Transformation's (IMT’s) Resource Library provides guides, toolkits, case studies, and policy briefs on building performance standards, energy benchmarking, and decarbonization strategies to help improve building efficiency while meeting compliance requirements and accessing available incentives.
• The Building Performance Association's Resource Library provides a collection of technical guides, webinars, case studies, and tools focused on energy efficiency, building science, and retrofit strategies to improve building performance while reducing operational costs and environmental impact.
• RMI’s Research and Analysis resources include guides, case studies, and analytical tools for implementing cost-effective building electrification strategies, accessing financing options, and developing phased approaches to achieve zero-carbon buildings while maintaining affordability.