The International Conference for Enhanced Building Operations (ICEBO) is an annual forum of international building energy-efficiency experts that focuses on the persistent optimal performance of buildings. The conferences provide a stimulating, cross-cutting exchange among engineers, architects, energy managers, government agencies, contractors, suppliers and building scientists.
ICEBO is an outgrowth of building commissioning, a process initially designed to ensure that new buildings operate as they were designed to operate. The importance of the process became apparent in the late 1970s, when new buildings designed to be energy efficient, following the 1973-74 OPEC oil embargo, failed to meet their design targets. Commissioning provided a path through building conception, design, construction, and acceptance.
The success of commissioning spread to existing buildings, retro-commissioning, and previously commissioned buildings, recommissioning. The Texas Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) obtained a registered trademark for Continuous Commissioning® and CC® to help ensure quality control for the more rigorous measures required for persistent superior building performance. The goal is to ensure that the building systems remain optimized continuously, recognizing the importance of adjustments, when building uses change, and the opportunities for improvements, when advanced technologies are introduced.
The Texas A&M Energy Systems Laboratory, a division of TEES, inaugurated the annual ICEBO conferences in 2001 as a forum for the exchange of experience and ideas among those dedicated to ensuring that buildings perform optimally throughout their lives.
The vision is international. The conferences rotate between U.S. and international venues.
ICEBO 2004 in Paris, France
ICEBO 2005 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
ICEBO 2006 in Shenzhen, China
ICEBO 2007 in San Francisco, California, USA
ICEBO 2008 in Berlin, Germany
ICEBO 2009 in Austin, Texas, USA
ICEBO 2010 in Safat, Kuwait
The leaders of ICEBO are also leaders in the International Energy Agency’s collaborative research and development program. The ICEBO 2007 meeting included reports on the status and plans of IEA Annex 47 on Cost-Effective Commissioning of Existing and Low Energy Buildings and on the Asian-Pacific Conference on Building Commissioning.
The conferences bring together experts in both building energy research and building operations. Through technical sessions, symposiums, seminars, forums and tabletop exhibits, ICEBO gathers and distributes information on the newest energy technology, applications, and products from throughout the world. The agenda is expanding to include the environmental benefits of enhanced building operations, including the reduction of NOx to meet U.S. air quality standards and the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In these areas, ICEBO works closely with the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers, the U.S. Green Building Council, the Building Commissioning Association, the California Commissioning Collaborative, and others.
