PAYETTE’s AIA 2030 Commitment Reporting for 2011

The places that we live, work, and play represent the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in America, as well as the world. The design and construction industry has made significant strides toward creating high performance buildings, and is therefore positioned to have a profound impact by continuing to foster high performance building and reducing building-related greenhouse gas emissions. As architects, we understand the need to exercise leadership in creating the built environment.

As part of this effort in January 2011, PAYETTE signed on the AIA’s 2030 Commitment. The commitment states that the firm will commit to designing carbon-neutral buildings by the year 2030. Interim goals have been set up to work towards carbon neutrality, with the current commitment of a 60% reduction over the national average energy use intensity (EUI). You can find out more here.

We are pleased to share PAYETTE’s reporting for our first year as we benchmark and better understand our predicted energy use intensity (PEUI). The firm performed better than expected showing an average of a 51% reduction in energy usage compared to a typical building. 40% of our projects, by building area, met the 2030 target of a 60% reduction. By comparison, the 56 firms that reported in 2010 showed an average of a 35% reduction, with an average of 12% of the projects meeting the 2030 goal. So while we haven’t met our commitment goals yet, we have shown an above average performance and are well positioned to try to hit that 60% reduction target for 2012.

Below are the graphics from the report submitted to the AIA.

Additionally, the firm reported on how many of our projects have or will complete an energy model. While the national average last year was 58%, over 95% by area of our projects were modeled and we are committed to making that 100% for 2012. Furthermore, 58% of our projects will have operational energy data collected after they are constructed, which will allow us to better understand how our designs perform.