Press Release
28th May 2013
Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) welcomes development of CarbonBuzz platform to further understanding of building energy use
The launch of the new CarbonBuzz energy benchmarking platform will take place on 6th June 2013 at City Hall, London. This free online tool enables users to record, share and compare the real energy use of their building portfolios, and track the energy use of existing buildings, refurbishments and new build projects.
Benchmarking building energy data and sharing knowledge is a key focus for CIBSE and the Institution has supported the CarbonBuzz initiative as it has developed.
Keynote speakers Justin Snoxall, Head of the Business Group at British Land, and Ian Taylor, Partner Studio Leader at FCB Studios, will introduce the platform and its benefits. British Land, CIBSE'S Carbon Champion of the Year 2013, has delivered energy performance savings of 39% across its London portfolio, and is using CarbonBuzz to monitor performance across its estate.
The new CarbonBuzz platform delivers the ability to store annualised energy records to capture year-on-year energy consumption of buildings. Both an anonymised database and published datasets can be filtered and reports generated to assess the energy consumption of projects and portfolios.
“CIBSE welcomes the collaborative industry-wide focus of the initiative, as well as its ability to help develop understanding around the gap between predicted and operational energy use,” commented Hywel Davies, Technical Director, CIBSE. "We are encouraging architects and building services designers to upload their projects to CarbonBuzz."
The tool caters for the needs of a broad range of stakeholders including local authorities, government portfolio managers, developers, landlords, investors, architects, engineers and facilities managers, and has been piloted extensively with them.
CIBSE, along with the RIBA, has already helped spearhead the publication of a project’s energy consumption data in annual awards schemes; and it is a way for entrants to the CIBSE Building Performance Awards to demonstrate their energy credentials.
Supported by CIBSE and RIBA and led by Aedas R&D, the CarbonBuzz platform is the outcome of collaborative research between architects and engineers that has been funded jointly by the Technology Strategy Board and industry partners. FCB Studios, Davis Langdon, AECOM, XCO2, BRE and Autodesk, have worked closely on the platform development alongside the academic partner UCL*.
The incoming CIBSE President, George Adams in his recent Presidential address “Whole Life Thinking” said that engineers working in the built environment had an urgent responsibility to help reduce energy consumption and provide for adaptation of buildings and cities to respond to the challenges of climate change whilst accommodating the needs of rapidly growing populations. The Carbon Buzz initiative is a step towards facilitating this.
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Notes to editors
About CarbonBuzz
Thursday 6 June 2013, 5.45pm, City Hall, The Queen’s Walk, London SE1 2AA
The Carbon Buzz platform was launched in 2008. It was developed under the UrbanBuzz funding stream to address the need for a rigorous and transparent benchmarking methodology. A second round of funding from the Technology Strategy Board was secured in 2009 for a further 3-year development focus.
*University College London
About CIBSE
The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) is considered the standard setter of professional practice and authority on building services engineering. It publishes guidance and codes which are internationally recognised as authoritative, and sets the criteria for best practice in the profession.
For more information about the Institution please visit www.cibse.org
Contacts
PRESS OFFICE SERVICE – Samantha Dawe or Kate Stewart, The Think Tank
T: 020 7831 2225 Email: samanthad@thinktank.org.uk or kates@thinktank.org.uk
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