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The Energy Technologies Area (ETA) is unique in translating fundamental scientific discoveries into scalable technology adoption. Our approach combines an understanding of the marketplace and the role of state and federal regulation and policies. ETA's research drives real-world, practical results that affect and improve the everyday lives of Americans and those across the globe. Saving energy and battling the Climate Crisis are key to the foundation of our research, which is driven by technoeconomic analysis and in-lab experimentation and discovery.

Berkeley Lab Receives Commissioning Industry Award

November 4, 2021

Berkeley Lab received the prestigious Benner Award at the Building Commissioning Association (BCxA) 2021 Annual Conference October 7, 2021.

Berkeley Lab was recognized for its outstanding leadership in the area of commercial building commissioning, which is a systematic and intensive quality assurance process that ensures greater energy efficiency, enhanced safety, and lower building operation, and maintenance costs. The annual Benner Award is named for Nancy Benner, a pioneer in advancing building commissioning as a profession.

Berkeley Lab’s researchers have conducted building commissioning work for the past 28 years.

Jessica Granderson (pictured at lower left; a separate Benner Award recipient, Tom Poeling of U.S. Engineering, is at right) accepted the award on the Lab’s behalf. Contributions by Mary Ann Piette, Evan Mills, Eliot Crowe, Hannah Kramer, and Granderson were recognized. The award comes shortly after the publication of Berkeley Lab’s most recent research on commissioning costs and benefits, “Building Commissioning Costs and Savings Across Three Decades and 1,500 North American Buildings,” in the journal Energy and Buildings.

Piette, the BCxA noted, was the lead author of a 1993 report, The Need for Improved Commissioning of Energy Efficiency Measures in Commercial Buildings, which she presented at the first year of the association’s conference. She also started a seven-year program with the Bonneville Power Administration in 1985 to study the efficiency of new building performance.