The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced the recipients of its 2008 Green Building Research Fund grants.  The Green Building Research Fund was created to spur research that will advance sustainable building practices and encourage market transformation. The 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.  A quarter of the fund is dedicated to research on occupant impacts in K-12 schools.

"We‚ve identified an enormous need for green building research," said Rick Fedrizzi, President, CEO and Founding Chair of USGBC. "The research grants are part of USGBC's commitment to better understand what is working and what more can be done, which will inform USGBC's programs and the entire building industry."

Continued Fedrizzi, "The selected proposals drive knowledge, policies, tools and technologies and inspire corresponding industry and government-wide action."

USGBC's Research Committee, in its role as the grant selection panel, reviewed 216 pre-proposals and 38 full proposals, spanning a broad range of topics, including K-12 school facility research.  The highly competitive field was narrowed down to 13 final selections.

"The portfolio of research projects address a range of critical environmental needs in the building industry, encompass diverse approaches and proposed outcomes, and are well distributed geographically across the U.S.," said Gail Brager, Chair of USGBC's Research Committee.

The selected proposals excelled due to the quality of topic, methodology and expected impact.  Research topics covered each of the five categories of environmental performance that are addressed within the LEED green building certification system.   Grants ranging from $90,000 to $250,000 were awarded to the 13 research teams.

The research projects selected for funding include:

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

To see the list of grant recipients and research abstracts, download the recipient list.  Visit the GBRF Web page for additional information and periodic updates.