US Green Building Council Illinois – Rahul Rathore – 2017

Goals 

The Illinois chapter of U.S. Green Building Council, a national non-profit working to promote buildings that are environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy, wanted to create a framework for introducing energy management principles to facilities and portfolios who can’t afford various programs. EDF Climate Corps fellow Rahul Rathore was enlisted to help improve the BIT program– a new economical building sustainability improvement framework designed to reduce operational impacts of such buildings on the environment.

Solutions

To get an understanding of the BIT framework, Rathore conducted interviews with stakeholders, analyzed the outcomes of the pilot program, collected feedback from potential users, and consulted with some housing research specialists. He realized that making the framework implementable for any building type and user was a challenge for the success or wide adoption of the program. The issues that needed to be addressed were:

• Streamlining the implementation of the framework
• Leveling the degree of knowledge and motivation amongst individuals implementing the framework

Rathore recommended transforming the conventional program manual into a training manual that would work in tandem with an interactive online resource repository. To make it even more user-friendly, he suggested executing it in a milestone-based format, in addition to setting small, measurable and tangible goals for the user. Rathore also identified the opportunity to develop implementation paths based on the building profile that would ease the critical thinking required by users, and provide solutions and strategies by offering suggestions and examples. 

Potential Impact

A clear majority of existing buildings lack resources or performance standards to obtain LEED or a similar certification. The BIT framework will be the first program of its kind to help the roughly 75% of existing buildings operating below LEED’s required energy performance threshold, gain the resources and performance standards needed to  needed to make improvements from their own baselines in energy, water and waste and work toward potential building certifications over time. Rathore’s analysis and recommendations will be pivotal in eliminating the hurdles faced during the implementation of BIT’s beta-version.