2030 Challenge Baseline Set

The American Institute of Architects, American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Architecture 2030, Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, and U.S. Green Building Council have reached an agreement setting a baseline for the goals of the 2030 Challenge, which calls for an immediate 50% reduction in the fossil fuel use of all new buildings, and net-zero use of fossil fuel in buildings by 2030 (see

EBN

Vol. 15, No. 12). The group has agreed that the baseline from which to measure the target goals should be the national average site energy consumption of existing U.S. commercial buildings as reported by the 2003 Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS). The average site energy intensity of commercial buildings in 2003, according to the survey, was 91 kBtu/ft² (1,043 MJ/m²). More information on the 2030 Challenge is available at www.architecture2030.org.