This month, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) introduced a Web-based tool that evaluates multifamily and commercial projects for energy performance by analyzing energy, environmental and cost-performance data.
Specifically, Building Industry Reporting and Design for Sustainability (BIRDS) is a new tool that can help users determine whether going beyond state or local energy codes, which set minimum requirements for efficiency, could provide energy savings that surpass the initial investment in energy upgrades. BIRDS evaluates projects across 12 environmental impact categories including land use, ozone depletion and carbon footprint.
This tool joins NIST’s online Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability tool that monitors the economic and environmental impact of building products. The institute calls BIRDS a hybrid alternative to the use of either whole-building life-cycle assessments (LCAs), or individual BEES reports for each of the many products detailed for a project.
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