Beyond Green™ Awards Now Address Resilience
The National Institute of Building Sciences
Sustainable Buildings Industry Council (SBIC) has incorporated resilience into its
2014 Beyond Green™ High-Performance Building and Community Awards. The awards program, which issued its 2014 Call for Entries today, highlights those initiatives that shape, inform and catalyze the high-performance planning, design, construction and operations processes. This year, for the first time, buildings and communities can be recognized for their contributions to building and community level resilience.
“With the number of natural disasters increasing, as well as the growing focus on resilience at both the government and industry levels, the SBIC Board felt it was important to highlight the role resilience plays in achieving high-performance buildings and communities,” said Ryan Colker, J.D., who is program director for the council. “By recognizing communities and projects that have made their buildings more resilient, we hope to inspire others to take meaningful steps that could save lives and protect property in the future.”
The Beyond Green™ Awards recognize buildings, initiatives and innovations that best exemplify the eight design objectives of a high-performance building: sustainability, accessibility, aesthetics, cost-effectiveness, functionality, productivity, historical sensitivity, and safety and security. Resilience falls within the ‘safety and security’ attribute, which promotes designing and constructing buildings that resist natural and man-made hazards.
Award categories include: High-Performance Buildings; High-Performance Attributes and Systems; High-Performance Initiatives; and Innovations for High-Performance Buildings and Communities; as well as the Greg Franta Memorial Award for an individual’s outstanding contributions to high-performance, sustainable building design and construction.
Once selected, the winners of the Beyond Green™ High-Performance Building & Community Awards will be invited to present their projects and receive their awards at a special Beyond Green™ Awards Luncheon, to be held during
Building Innovation 2015: The National Institute of Building Sciences Third Annual Conference and Expo, the week of January 6-9, 2015. The awards presentation gives winners an opportunity to share directly with leaders in the building community, highlighting the challenges and opportunities they faced while delivering high-performance buildings.
Winning projects will be published on the
WBDG Whole Building Design Guide® website. Additional recognition will include an announcement in the Institute’s newsletter, a plaque, posting of the case study on the SBIC website and potential inclusion in future SBIC technical guidelines and publications.
The deadline to apply for the
2014 Beyond Green™ Awards is Friday, October 31, 2014, at 5:00 p.m. EDT. Take this opportunity to recognize a deserving high-performance project, particularly one that addresses resilience. The application process is now available online.
Submit an entry today!