Green Building Research Fund

The Green Building Research Fund is a one-time grant program created to raise awareness of the critical need for research funding and spur research that will advance sustainable building practices and encourage market transformation. The grant program was announced in February 2008 in response to the USGBC Research Committee’s findings published in Green Building Research Funding: An Assessment of Current Activity in the United States, which indicated that applied research and development fall alarmingly short of what is needed to meet the challenges of a building sector that has a profound impact on people and the environment.

The fund enabled USGBC to act immediately while leveraging matching funds and encouraging other organizations to increase their own research commitments. USGBC committed $2 million to the program, while the Research Fund is generating $1,150,825 in matching funds and leveraging additional activities and partnerships. $500,000 of the Fund is dedicated for K-12 school research relating to occupant impacts – a topic of special concern to USGBC. 

Overview of Selected Research Projects

The selected proposals excelled due to the quality of topic, methodology and potential impact.

• Research topics cover each of the five categories of environmental performance that are addressed within the LEED green building certification system: Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy & Atmosphere, Indoor Environmental Quality and Materials & Resources.
• Topics are responsive to the National Green Building Research Agenda.
  
• Grant recipients represent a diversity of organizations, locations and funding amounts ($90,000 to $250,000).

Recipients

Download the Grant Recipient List  for summaries. 

The original research proposals are available below:

• A Green Roof Energy Calculator (ETA: November 2010)
  
• An Open Source Searchable Database to Assess the Impact of Environmental Strategies on Outcomes in Healthcare Facilities (ETA: May 2010)
  
• Design for Reuse Primer(ETA: August 2010)
  
• Development and Implementation of a New Protocol for Testing the Ability of Building Materials to Passively Reduce Indoor Ozone and Its Reaction Products (ETA: July 2010)
  
• HVAC Control Algorithms for Mixed-Mode Buildings (ETA: January 2012)
  
• Improvement of Porous Pavement System for on-site Stormwater Management (ETA: October 2010)
  
• Integrated Building Water Management (IBWM) Modeling - A Proposed Tool for LEED Assessment & Education (ETA: March 2011)
  
• Investigating Opportunities for Improving Building Performance Through Simulation of Occupant and Operator Behavior (ETA: November 2011)
  
• Multi-Variate Study of Stormwater BMPs (ETA: November 2010)
  
• Quantifying the Impact of Daylight and Electric Lighting on Student Alertness, Performance, and Well-being in K-12 Schools (ETA: October 2010)
  
• The Evaluation of Green School Building Attributes and Their Effect On the Health and Performance of Students and Teachers in NY State (ETA: October 2010)
  
• Transportation Energy Intensity Index (ETA: July 2010)
  
• Using a New Application of Existing Monitoring Technology to Quantify the Relationship between Classroom Ventilation and Student Performance (ETA: January 2012)
  

Outcomes

Lack of Morning Light  Keeping Teenagers Up at Night (RPI LRC press release and peer-reviewed journal article). Posted March 11, 2010.

This web page was last revised on March 11, 2010.