Customized Services

For those design professionals seeking in-depth expert design consultation beyond what our guidelines offer, SBIC offers Peer Reviews and Design Charrettes as well as Customized Workshops.

Peer Reviews & Design Charrettes
An expert team of SBIC member designers, engineers, and energy analysts will provide reviews of proposed building designs, and recommend resource conservation and energy-efficiency strategies that are appropriate to your project and budget. By integrating daylighting, passive solar strategies, natural ventilation, and renewable energy options, you can significantly reduce your operating costs over time, while creating a more healthful and productive environment.

We can help you evaluate the merits of building integrated photovoltaics, rain water collection, pervious surfaces, bio-retention, and other sustainable 'whole building' strategies, and perform cost analysis to determine which options are right for your particular project and budget. We'll also look at the benefits of specifying low or no-VOC green building materials and finishes, which can significantly improve indoor  environmental quality.

Many building owners and managers foundnd that these improvements pay for themselves many times over in the course of the structure's life, and that simple payback – the time required for material, system, and design upgrades to be recouped by lower energy costs and other operational savings – occurs within the first few years of operation.

We offer technical expertise in each of the following areas:

• Energy performance analysis using leading-edge design tools such as DOE 2.1E, Designing Low-Energy Buildings with ENERGY-10® software, RADIANCE, and computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
• Use of rating tools such as the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED rating system
• Production of case studies, marketing and promotional materials, press releases, videos, web site content, reporting and documentation
• Green building materials and indoor air quality
• Design charrettes, follow-up evaluations, and guidance on finding potential funding sources for your particular project

Customized Workshops
SBIC can customize a workshop to meet the specific needs of any organization. Because project management often varies from organization to organization, the Council has made it a point to address these unique differences in the context of our customized workshops.