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Resources for Sustainable Facility and Community Planning/Design

This page provides access to comprehensive building design guides, case studies, analysis tools and software, and other technical resources for sustainable building, project, and community development. We provide these resources for state- and local-level energy analysts, officials, and decision makers who are interested in requesting help from the Technical Assistance Project.

Sustainable Building Design

  • DOE's Building Technologies Program — Tools Directory

    Offers a comprehensive guide to creating more efficient, affordable buildings. The site provides guidelines, tools, success stories, and links to assist in the process of designing, constructing, or renovating high-performance buildings.

  • DOE's High Performance Buildings Program — Toolbox

    Provides general guidelines, simulation software, and resources to help with the design of high-performance commercial buildings.

  • DOE's EnergySmart Schools

    Provides decision makers with tools on how to plan, finance, design, build, and operate an EnergySmart school.

  • Buildings Energy Data Book

    Includes statistics on residential and commercial building energy consumption, including data on construction, building technologies, energy consumption, and building characteristics.

  • Community Energy Opportunity Finder

    Helps communities explore untapped opportunities for economic development, pollution prevention, and risk reduction through energy efficiency. The Rocky Mountain Institute created this interactive, Web-based tool.

Case Studies

  • Building America

    Provides information on the private/public partnership that develops energy solutions for new and existing homes.

  • High-Performance Federal Buildings Database

    Showcases examples of sustainable building projects in the federal government. By accessing this Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) database, users can examine project details or explore construction or retrofit ideas.

  • Buildings Technologies Program Publications

    Provides access to DOE-produced case studies and brochures that focus on EnergySmart schools, high-performance buildings, zero-energy homes, and other resources.

  • Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Project Profiles

    Provides information on the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™, which encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices. The site provides information on universally understood and accepted tools and performance criteria.

Buildings Analysis Tools/Databases

  • Buildings Energy Calculators and Software

    Links to tools and calculators that help building managers make decisions about using energy efficiency technologies in buildings.

  • Software for Sustainable Building Design

    Accesses software that helps design more energy-efficient buildings, audit energy use in buildings, examine the economics of sustainable projects, and model components of building systems. The software was developed by the Environmental Energy Technologies Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

  • Whole-Building Design Guide Tools Database

    Provides access to online building design tools, which are grouped according to intended use.

Buildings Analysis Software

  • Federal Renewable Energy Screening Assistant

    Provides access to the tool, also known as (FRESA), which helps with screening for building- and facility-scale applications. FRESA screens for photovoltaics (PV), solar hot water heating, and wind energy at the building scale; and screens for photovoltaics (PV) and wind energy at the facility scale.

  • EnergyPlus Energy Simulation Software

    Accesses the software, which models heating, cooling, lighting, ventilating, and other energy flows as well as water in buildings.

  • WATERGY Software

    Provides access to a spreadsheet model that uses water/energy relationship assumptions to analyze the potential of water savings and associated energy savings.

  • Building Life-Cycle Cost Program

    Accesses the BLCC 5.3-07 program, developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology to provide computational support for the analysis of capital investments in buildings.

  • Facility Energy Decision System

    Provides access to the software, also known as (FEDS), a decision-making tool for energy efficiency that can quickly and objectively identify energy improvements that can maximize savings.

  • Weatherization Assistant

    Accesses a site that outlines a family of easy-to-use but advanced energy audit computer programs that identify the cost-effective energy-efficiency retrofit measures for a home. The site accounts for local weather conditions, retrofit measure costs, fuel costs, and specific construction details of the home.