The Built Environment Is Becoming More Sustainable and Resilient. What About You?

By Sonya M. Pouncy, CEM, CMVP, LEED-AP. Sonya is a senior engineering consultant with Energy Sciences. The firm helps clients meet energy challenges with practical solutions that reduce waste and increase net operating income.

In the construction arts industry we often use terms like sustainability and resiliency to describe very specific design goals for the built environment. With evolving definitions like:

• sustainability, n. “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to their own needs”¹
• resiliency, n. “the ability to reduce the magnitude and/or duration of disruptive events”²or the “capacity to adapt to changing conditions and to maintain or regain functionality and vitality in the face of stress or disturbance”³

It’s easy to forget that such terms have been around long before these specialized meanings came into being. It’s also easy to forget that these terms don’t apply exclusively to their industry-specific uses. At Energy Sciences, we know that buildings and communities need to be sustainable and resilient. But, we also know that people need to be sustainable and resilient, too.

We need to persist in and adapt to an ever-changing work environment. Technological advances, new products and new ways to doing things, as well as evolving standards of care and construction codes require that architects, engineers, building systems designers, building constructors and building inspectors be vigilant about our readiness to responsibly discharge our duties for a sustainable and resilient built environment. One of the best ways we can ensure our continued resiliency as industry professionals is through continuous learning. Plain and simple, this means we need continuing education and professional development so we can be prepared to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow.

To help ensure that the engineers, scientists and technologists of Energy Sciences are prepared to meet those challenges, we’ll be attending industry conferences such as the AESP Annual Conference in San Antonio, TX later this month and the ASHRAE Annual Conference in Kansas City, MO this summer. We’d love it if you joined us there! Click on the above hyperlinks for conference details.

And, to help ensure that our fellow members of Michigan’s design & construction community are also at the forefront of best practices for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of a sustainable built environment, Energy Sciences will continue offering technical training on a variety of topics including:

• 2015 Michigan Energy Code and ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2013
• Lighting System Controls and Function Testing Requirements of the 2015 Michigan Energy Code
• Energy Efficiency and Energy Conservation Principles
• Sustainability
• Sustainability 2.0: Resiliency
• Commissioning Fundamentals
• Retro/Re-Commissioning Building Systems for Optimized Performance
• Energy Assessment Fundamentals
• Leveraging Energy Star Portfolio Manager
• Net Zero Energy Buildings
• How to Conduct a Compressed Air Energy Kaizen
• and more!

Code-related classes qualify for State of Michigan CEUs. All classes are taught classroom style and include real-life examples.  Depending on the nature of the class, hands-on learning opportunities may be included as well. And, while in general course are established, they can be tailored to suit your specific needs for content, time and audience. Classes may even be held at your office instead of the training facility.

No one knows what the future holds, but we know for sure that it’ll be different. Contact us for a copy of our training catalogue and make sure that you’ have the critical knowledge you need to be resilient in 2019.

1. The Bruntland Report (Report of the World Commission on the Environment and Development: Our Common Future), 1987.
2. A Framework for Establishing Critical Infrastructure Resilience Goals: Final Report and Recommendations by the Council. National Infrastructure Advisory Council, 2010.
3. Resilient Design Institute, 2012.