Commercial Buildings

This is the first report on the development of savings estimates for NEEA’s BetterBricks Initiative. While planning estimates were developed as part of the BetterBricks Boardapproval process, this project represents the first attempt to use actual Initiative data as the source for savings estimates that are directly linked to Initiative activities.

In 2007, the BetterBricks Design and Construction (D&C) initiative made significant advances in promoting changes in practice that lead to low-energy, integrated design solutions. The network of five integrated design labs (IDLs) and the BetterBricks Business Advisor assisted architecture firms throughout the region on dozens of projects in the target markets, began promoting a uniform…

The first evaluation of the Design & Construction component of NEEA’s BetterBricks initiative finds that early progress is being made toward the goal of promoting high performance buildings through the practice of integrated design. Accomplishments in 2006 include signing agreements to work intensively with three prominent architecture firms to design buildings that perform at least…

The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance’s BetterBricks Building Operations Initiative was slated to begin in January 2006.  Personnel changes delayed the start of development activities for several months. The initiative has benefited from a foundation established through its predecessor, the pilot Building Performance Services (BPS) initiative, particularly with respect to the relationships with key service providers…

The BetterBricks Grocery Initiative (Grocery Initiative) was approved by the NEEA Board of Directors in July 2005; it works directly with regional grocery wholesalers and larger chain operators (greater than five and less than 35 locations) to change energy-related business practices. Efforts with national chains are also planned, but have not yet been fully identified.…