As building owners and developers become increasingly concerned about rising energy costs and potential obligations under climate change programs, building energy modelling helps provide a preview into a building’s likely energy use and allows decisions affecting energy use to be made before a shovel even hits the ground.

To ensure that professionals modelling a building’s energy use have the skills necessary to produce an accurate model, ASHRAE is launching a Building Energy Modeling Professional certification.

Criteria to improve the accuracy of building energy models will help address some of the growing concerns within the building community that building designs do not necessarily translate to actual energy use once a building is constructed.

Professionals who pass the certification exam will have demonstrated their ability to evaluate, choose, use, calibrate, and interpret the results of energy modelling software, as well as confirm their competence to model new and existing buildings and systems with their full range of physics.

The certification will also highlight a consultant’s ability to act as a leader for projects that focus on energy efficiency, especially projects that deal with green buildings and building labeling programs, such as bEQ.

The Building Energy Modeling Professional program will help the individuals who earn it to distinguish themselves by providing confirmation of their skills and specialties by an internationally recognized engineering society. Professionals with such certifications have better chances of being hired, promoted, and/or tapped for working on certain types of design projects.

ASHRAE’s newest certification will become available at testing centers located around the world in March 2010 and was developed in collaboration with the U.S. affiliate of the International Building Performance Simulation Association and the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America.

Visit <www.ashrae.org> for more information.