RESEARCH FOUNDATION

The initial funding for the Research Foundation was underwritten by IGP and an endowment fund was established to fund future research.

There are numerous major cross-cutting priorities for human and environmental health. The research categories of interest to IGP, consistent with the USGBC Research Committee Position Statement on Research Funding (March 2007) are as follows:

• Transformation of the Marketplace: Develop real estate valuation and financial risk assessment methods/tools for higher performance buildings. Evaluate environmental impact of regulations and financial incentives.
• Establish information technology and design process innovation for sustainability. This area would advance building information models, interoperable software tools and product data management to reduce costs and errors while improving all aspects of performance over the design-construct-operate lifecycle of a building.
• Evaluation and metrics: Develop and test effective building performance metrics and field evaluations for sustainability. This area would develop performance assessment protocols, databases, and benchmarks that would be used to compare predicted
  and measured performance (i.e., energy, water, indoor environmental quality) for a range of building types.
• Water: Develop and test effective building performance metrics and field evaluations for sustainability. This area would develop performance assessment protocols, databases, and benchmarks that would be used to compare predicted and
  measured performance (i.e., energy, water, indoor environmental quality) for a range of building types.
• Land Use: Quantify the impacts of land use and transit-oriented planning on energy, health and environmental quality. Develop model zoning in support of
  high-performance green building approaches.
• Materials: Develop and refine life cycle assessment, databases and tools to facilitate holistic evaluation of materials’ environmental and health impacts. Build data in areas such as occupational health risks, manufacturing emissions’ affect on surrounding communities. Develop product and building designs for deconstruction and reuse. Develop industry-specific materials flow analysis, accounting methods and tools. Develop and evaluate modular building system technologies and transfer into appropriate markets.
• Indoor Environmental Quality: Develop personal climate control systems for improved energy and human performance with life cycle cost analysis. Develop mixed-mode building systems for new and existing buildings that support natural conditioning
  integrated with advanced mechanical and control systems. Examine health impacts of moisture and microorganisms. Quantify impacts of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) on worker performance, productivity and health.
• Energy: Develop high performance, climate-responsive building envelopes and their integration with HVAC and lighting systems, examining features such as operable façades for natural ventilation, façade-integrated HVAC, lighting quality, day lighting, and shading performance. Further develop technologies for power demand management, on-site (“distributed”) energy generation (especially renewable energy). Evaluate energy impacts of development patterns and transportation modes.

If you would like to partner with IGP and an internationally recognized research university
that advances our knowledge of sustainability and helps to shape the research agenda
of the Foundation, contact:

          Email: info@InstituteofGreenprofessionals.org

          Mail: Institute of Green Professionals
          1972 Bell Tower Lane
          Weston, FL 33326   USA