As noted in the editorial you'll find below in this Targeted Sustainable Facility eNews, rising energy costs, coupled with the growing volume of data on the financial paybacks associated with high-performance buildings, make a strong business case for owner-occupants to invest in sustainable design and construction. Initiatives, such as the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) and Environmental Protection Agency's ENERGY STAR program, are systematically enhancing the green building market and transforming the design, construction and contracting industries. According to the DOE, today's buildings consume more energy than any other sector of the U.S. economy, including transportation and industry. In addition, almost three-quarters of our nation's 81 million buildings were built before 1979.

The DOE's Energy and Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Building Technologies Program, in partnership with the private sector, state and local governments, national laboratories, and universities, works to improve the efficiency of buildings and the equipment, components, and systems within them. The program supports research and development (R&D) activities and provides tools, guidelines, training, and access to technical and financial resources.

The Building Energy Software Tools Directory at  www.eere.energy.gov/buildings/tools_directory/ provides information on 341 building software tools for evaluating energy efficiency, renewable energy, and sustainability in buildings. From the website, tools listed in the directory include databases, spreadsheets, component and systems analyses, and whole-building energy performance simulation programs. As a helpful guide, a short description is provided for each tool along with other information including expertise required, users, audience, input, output, computer platforms, programming language, strengths, weaknesses, technical contact, and availability.

I hope you'll find this information useful as we all search for ways to curb energy usage, cut costs and reduce our environmental footprint across the global existing building portfolio.