Kutztown, PA – Performance By Design is the title of a new video that will focus on high performance building through the integrative design process. A five-minute preview was offered to audiences at RMI 2009, held recently in San Francisco. The video is a project of the Rocky Mountain Institute and is being produced by Group Positive, the 7group member company focused on communications, and run by 7group partner Tom Keiter.

The intended purpose of the new video is to introduce and underscore the process of integrative design as fundamental to achieving high performance buildings without a cost premium. It is intended for audiences including the design community, engineers, and building owners. The video looks at six building projects to introduce the process and underscore a series of underlying qualities that contribute to success: a process that is goal driven, requires continuous collaboration, is an iterative process, is based on whole systems understanding, provides education for all stakeholders, and is engaged at conception and follows through occupancy.

Amory Lovins, chief scientist at Rocky Mountain Institute defines the process in the video, “By integrative design I mean that you optimize the whole building as a system rather than the components in isolation.”

The six projects include the Desert Living Center in Las Vegas (LEED Platinum), the Chicago Botanic Gardens (registered LEED Gold), the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (LEED Platinum), the Empire State Building energy retrofit, the Willow School in Gladstone, NJ (LEED Gold and Platinum), and the Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh, PA (pursuing the Living Building Challenge and LEED Platinum).

Victor Olgyay, a principal with Rocky Mountain Institute, “If you want to get a high quality building you need to really understand how all the pieces fit together. Integrated design allows you to do that in a way that’s comprehensive and optimizes all of those pieces.”

View the short promo at: www.sevengroup.com/videos/

The film is dedicated to the memory and vision of Greg Franta, FAIA (1950-2009) Senior Vice President, Built Environment of the Rocky Mountain Institute and was made possible by generous funding from the Ayrshire Foundation and the 71 donors to RMI’s Greg Franta Leadership Fund.