Commercial buildings will soon be able to connect to the “Smart Grid” with ease thanks to a new strategic relationship between industry alliances LonMark® International and OpenADR, say the organizations. LonMark and the OpenADR Alliance, a nonprofit corporation created to foster the development, adoption and compliance of a Smart Grid standard known as Open Automated Demand Response (OpenADR), are working together to enable interoperability between certified products that will better enable commercial buildings to manage their energy uses on the Smart Grid.

The Continental Automated Buildings Association has completed a collaborative research study to identify, define and size the principle business opportunities presented by the growth of smart grids in relation to intelligent buildings.

Calling all engineers, designers and other interested parties to enter the Green Leaf Inn Green Building Challenge. The Challenge asks for participants to design an Energy Management Control System;  providing a strategy and product selection to control, manage and gather data on an integrated renewable energy system for the Green Leaf Inn (GLI), opening Spring 2013 as the first Net Zero Energy Hotel in North America. Interested parties must submit completed entry forms online by July 1 at www.thegreenleafinn.com.

To help owners reduce their energy costs, a new building labeling program has been developed by ASRHAE that not only rates buildings according to the in-operation energy use but also provides owners with suggested measures that can improve energy efficiency.

LonMark® International, a non-profit international association recognized for the certification, education and promotion of interoperability standards for control networking, has announced the winners of its Best of the Year Awards for 2011. The annual awards honor products, companies, projects and individuals that have demonstrated innovation, vision and leadership.

Changes to help make buildings and systems more sustainable are part of the newly published version of the high-performance green building standard from ASHRAE, the USGBC, and the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES).