Green Building Initiative president keynotes ASHRAE High-Performance Buildings Conference

PORTLAND, Ore. – Green Building Initiative (GBI) President Jerry Yudelson presented a keynote talk on April 8th at the ASHRAE High-Performance Buildings conference in San Francisco. Yudelson also participated in a discussion organized by the National Institute of Building Sciences around the topic of defining net zero energy buildings.

Yudelson says, "The pressing issue of our time is dealing with climate change, and reducing the operating energy use of buildings is critical to that effort." He has committed the GBI to take a leading role in rating and certifying high-performance buildings as it updates and improves its national Green Globes rating standards over the next few years.

In his presentation, Yudelson shared performance results of super-green buildings from around the world, showing how high-performance designs actually perform. Based on a two-year study of 55 top-certified buildings in 18 countries in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia, he showed similarities and differences in energy performance by region. Yudelson's study is incorporated in his most recent book, The World's Greenest Buildings: Promise vs. Performance in Sustainable Design (London and New York: Routledge, 2013).

Yudelson's presentation also discussed how these buildings got that way, in terms of design process and technologies used. His message: the key to high performance is to set high expectations, use an integrated design process and "design with the end in mind."

Jerry Yudelson was named President of the GBI in January 2014. He is a nationally recognized author and speaker on green building. Yudelson is a professional engineer, LEED Fellow and was named a National Peer Professional by the US General Services Administration.

The ASHRAE High-Performance Buildings Conference is an annual event bringing together national and international experts in designing and operating high-performance buildings.