Conducting Charrettes for High-Performance Buildings
High-performance buildings seek to reduce environmental impacts while enhancing the comfort, health, and productivity of occupants. To achieve these goals, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) recommends that design performance goals be established at the inception of high-performance building projects. A multidisciplinary project team should outline key preliminary action items required to achieve the sustainability goals. According to NREL, these steps are best achieved by conducting a collaborative work session, known as a charrette, for high-performance building projects, i.e., a “greening charrette” or “eco-charrette.”
Sustainability Officers interested in conducting a greening charrette can refer to NREL’s “A Handbook for Planning and Conducting Charrettes for High-Performance Projects,” which contains extensive resources necessary to design a charrette specific to sustainable design. The handbook provides an overview of charrettes and explains why they should be conducted, the topics that should be covered, and the participants and experts that should be invited. It also provides information regarding charrette logistics, scheduling, and preparation as well as guidance to facilitators on how to keep participants motivated and effectively host a productive charrette. In addition, the handbook contains commonly used charrette materials (e.g., invitation letters and sample agendas), sample presentations that can be used as templates, and examples of charrette final reports. The American Institute of Architects has a best practices summary entitled “Eco-Charrettes Save Resources, Build Teams” that Sustainability Officers can reference for an eco-charrette case study.
Energy that comes from sources that are not depleted by use. Examples include energy from the sun, wind, and small (low-impact) hydropower, plus geothermal energy and wave and tidal systems.The ability or potential of a physical body to do work. The most common forms of energy are heat, light, mechanical (moving parts), and electrical.
