Councils/Projects

The National Institute of Building Sciences accomplishes its mission to serve the nation and public interest through the following councils and programs that work to support advances in building sciences and technology:

Consultative Council – The Consultative Council advises the Institute’s Board of Directors and oversees assigned consensus projects.  The body is comprised of elected members from each of the 12 interest classifications and the chairs of The Institute’s other councils and standing committees.

Security and Disaster Preparedness Programs

Building Seismic Safety Council (BSSC) – BSSC, a building industry association-based council, develops nationally-applicable seismic design provisions through the National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.  In addition, BSSC advocates practical NEHRP-based improvements to the nation’s model building codes.

Multihazard Mitigation Council (MMC) – MMC advocates reducing the total losses associated with natural and other hazards by fostering and promoting consistent and improved multihazard risk mitigation strategies, guidelines, practices, and related efforts.  MMC programs include the American Lifelines Alliance.

Multihazard Risk Assessment / HAZUS – HAZUS (short for Hazards U.S.) is a geographic information system (GIS)-based software program that estimates the consequences of a natural disaster before it happens. The Institute produced the HAZUS Earthquake Model for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in 1997 and added models for riverine flooding and hurricane wind hazards in 2004. The program is available from FEMA for free. With this information, community decision makers, emergency managers, police and fire officials, and government administrators can better ready a region for disaster events. The Institute periodically updates HAZUS to support mitigation planning, respond to user needs and offer new and refined capabilities.

Facility Performance and Sustainability Programs

Building Enclosure Technology and Environment Council (BETEC) – BETEC fosters public/private cooperation for environmental quality and energy efficiency in buildings. BETEC-developed publications such as the Envelope Design Guide are available on the Whole Building Design Guide, www.wbdg.org. The Council is developing a commissioning guideline for building enclosures. Through a cooperative agreement with the American Institute of Architects, BETEC has formed and organized Building Enclosure Councils in numerous U.S. cities.

High Performance Buildings Council (HPBC) – The Council’s overall goal is to put standards in place to define the performance goals of a high performance building in order to facilitate the design, construction, financing, and operating buildings with an emphasis on life cycle issues rather than initial costs. The HPBC identifies the metrics and level of required performance for specific design objectives (energy, security, durability, moisture, acoustics, etc.) for building products, subsystems and systems; and references industry standards for validating these performance requirements.

National Mechanical Insulation Committee (NMIC) – The Institute formed the NMIC to provide a forum for the improvement of information on the performance, use, testing and standardization of mechanical insulation in buildings and industrial facilities. The committee developed the Mechanical Insulation Design Guide (MIDG) on the Whole Building Design Guide website.

Information Resources and Technologies Programs

buildingSMART alliance – This council provides industry-wide, public and private leadership and support for the development, standardization, and integration of building information modeling technologies to provide for full automation of the entire life cycle of buildings.  The Alliance, in association with the American Institute of Architects and the Construction Specifications Institute, develops and publishes the consensus-based United States National CAD Standard^®. The Alliance also sustains the consensus-based National BIM Standard. The Alliance coordinates projects establishing best business practices, enterprise architecture, education transformation, research and development throughout the industry. The Alliance acts as the North American chapter of buildingSMART International a consortium of 30 countries with like goals.

Whole Building Design Guide (WBDG) – WBDG is a comprehensive, Internet-based portal to a wide range of federal and private sector, building-related guidance, criteria & technology.  It creatively links information across traditional professional disciplines to encourage integrated thinking and a “whole building” performance.  Users can access WBDG information through a series of “levels” by way of three major categories 1) Design Guidance (including Building Types, Space Types, Design Objectives, Design Disciplines, and Product and Systems), 2) Project Management (including Delivery Teams, Planning & Development, Delivery and Controls and Commissioning) and 3) Operation and Maintenance (including Real Property Inventory and Computerized Maintenance Management Systems.)  The WBDG includes a comprehensive library of over 12,000 design criteria, other construction documents and executable programs from federal and private organizations.

ProjNET – Project extranet (ProjNet^SM) is an internet-based service that allows the secure exchange and processing of design and construction information among authorized business partners.  ProjNet offers a suite of tools to manage owner-related business processes including design reviews, bidder inquiry, requests for information and construction submittals reviews. ProjNet facilitates the formal oversight, control, review, management, and secure exchange of complex project documents among and between all project stakeholders.

Facility Maintenance and Operations Committee (FMOC) – The FMOC works within the industry to improve the performance and longevity of buildings and building systems through consistent, effective and proper facility maintenance and operation. The committee provides industry-wide, public and private support for the creation of high-quality facilities. It promotes the sharing and integration of procedures and disseminates best practices. FMOC also actively provides feedback on a number of National Institute of Building Sciences programs and interacts with outside agencies to improve facility maintenance.

Total Building Commissioning – This Institute program is an industry wide process to develop a comprehensive set of building system commissioning guidelines.  Total Building Commissioning is the systematic process of ensuring that the performance of the facility and its systems meet the design intent and the near- and long-term functional and operational needs of the owner and occupants.

National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities (NCEF) – The Institute manages the National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities (NCEF), created by the U.S. Department of Education in 1997.  NCEF provides comprehensive information on planning, designing, funding, constructing, improving, and maintaining safe, healthy, high-performance schools on the NCEF website. NCEF identifies, abstracts, and disseminates information on the planning, design, construction, renovation, operation, and maintenance of the nation’s schools.