Thousands of buildings have been designed and built with a goal of energy performance. Some are formally recognized as sustainable structures using a variety of criteria including energy performance, e.g., those with USGBC LEED certification. However, many of these buildings offer less than desirable operating efficiencies, often a short time after construction.

Through an ASHRAE Grant, a student group is instrumenting, monitoring and simulating energy use in two existing sustainable structures. This paper presents results midway through this research, highlighting the beginning research for two areas of investigation. The buildings under study include:

• A LEED® Silver student services center located on a Midwestern university campus. This is a four year old, approximately 42000 ft² (3900 m²) structure with a green roof, geothermal heat pumps, waterless urinals, rain water flushing toilets, and a bioswale.
• A residential-sized structure designed to demonstrate energy conservation on a Midwestern private elementary school campus. The building is over 30 years old, earth-bermed, passively solar heated and ventilated with a recently replaced green roof, recent photovoltaic system and wind generator.

This is one of several papers to discuss the details of how the results of instrumentation and simulation contribute to improved on-going sustainability.