Sustainable Building Technical Manual - Etn-presco.net

The purchase and maintenance of all required equipment and distribution systems isincluded in the scope of the vendor’s service. The vendor is also responsible for paymentof all associated utility bills, thus having an incentive to integrate energy-efficiency measuresto achieve lower costs. The consumer of the service benefits by being able to incorporatefixed annual payments in its budgets, and by reducing the risk associated withfluctuating utility rates (see Chapter 24, “Local Government Financing”).Telecommuting and “Virtual Offices”The development of mixed-use communities incorporating work-home options is animportant new concept for the building industry. With the expansion of telecommunicationscapabilities, the option of working at home either on a full- or part-time basis hasbecome a viable and compelling option. In 1994, full-time telecommuters reached 9.1million in the United States, up 20 percent from 1993. 16 Increasing application of thisnew trend will the impact of commercial buildings and the requisite infrastructure onemployers and local government resources. Resulting building square-footage reductionsshould also occur, allowing organizations to lower their capital expenditures, while maximizingtheir usage of workspace.The benefits to employees of telecommuting are many. By working at home, employeesare able to cut down on commuting time. Economic savings result from lower gasolineand auto maintenance costs, in addition to the associated personal time savings and benefits.For the concept to take hold, however, employers will have to develop new ways ofevaluating employee performance.Larger-scale national patterns of telecommuting on office-building design could result is anew definition of the use and need for buildings. By eliminating the requirement foremployees to commute to work to perform typical office functions, the result is an entirelydifferent office-building layout. Workers might come to the site to attend meetings or discussprojects, which would influence office design to enhance networking and conferencing.Private offices assigned to one employee would rarely be needed. Shared offices, or thenew concept of “hoteling” (temporarily assigning) work spaces, could become the norm.Natural Disasters, Property Insurance, andGreen BuildingsSince 1986, the insurance industry has paid approximately $68 billion in catastrophelosses associated with natural disasters. The losses are primarily due to wind-related perils,such as hurricanes, tropical storms and tornadoes (representing 70 percent of thetotal losses), as well as earthquakes and fires. Hurricane Andrew in the Southeast UnitedStates in 1992 and the Northridge earthquake in California in 1994 resulted in losses ofbillions of dollars. In 1994, the second-worst year on record, losses totaled $13 billion.Much of the nation’s population growth is occurring in coastal areas where there isgreater risk of hurricanes and other wind perils. Experts have predicted a rise in sea levelover the ensuing decades. Significant coastal erosion is already occurring, affecting propertiesinsured at an estimated $3 trillion in the Atlantic and Gulf regions alone. 17New practices to mitigate future losses to the insurance industry are being advocated primarilydue to the leadership of DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy,the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Insurance Institute for Property LossReduction (an insurance industry association), and the Electric Power Research Institute’s(EPRI’s) Disaster Recovery Business Alliance. An insurance industry study sponsored byEPRI examines types of electric power-related losses after natural disasters. It identifiestechnologies that could mitigate loss and enhance recovery. In certain regions, for example,renewable energy could serve as an uninterruptible back-up system for power users,including communications systems, buildings, and equipment. 18