The Canadian chapter of the International Building Simulation Association

About IBPSA

IBPSA-Canada is a regional affiliate of IBPSA (also known as IBPSA-World), a non-profit international society of building performance simulation researchers, developers and practitioners, dedicated to improving the built environment. This section provides an overview of IBPSA-World's mission, goals, and organization. For further details on IBPSA-World can be found at http://www.ibpsa.org/

IBPSA's mission

IBPSA is founded to advance and promote the science of building performance simulation in order to improve the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of new and existing buildings worldwide.

IBPSA's vision

The building industry, without a doubt, is one of the most important industrial and economical sectors influencing the quality of life and the environment. And yet, planners and property developers pay very little attention during the design process to the life-cycle cost of owning and operating buildings.

Building Simulation offers the potential to cope adequately with building performance related concerns, as well as with the construction process. Increasingly, computer based models (programs) are being employed to aid in the design, operation, or management decision making process. The DEVELOPMENT, EVALUATION, USE IN PRACTICE, and STANDARDIZATION, of the models and programs in therefore of growing importance. For building Design, Construction, Operation, Maintenance and Management activities, there is also an urgent need for the INTEGRATION of "generally applicable" and "generally accepted" methods and tools, for various applications, each having various levels of complexity and/or various types of end-users. Also important is the TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER issue within the building modeling field.

To take a leading role in the promotion and development of building simulation technology, IBPSA aims to provide a forum for researchers, developers and practitioners to review building model developments, Facilitate evaluation, encourage the use of software programs, address standardization, accelerate integration and technology technology transfer. So that, one day:

members all over the Globe will find membership in IBPSA worthwhile and profitable in their area of interest;
governments, industry, utilities and academic institutions will look to IBPSA for guidance in determining policies, areas of research, and application development in building simulation;
local chapters around the Globe will benefit from the body of knowledge and experience available through IBPSA;
IBPSA will act as a clearing house for software products and services in building simulation; members will network with other members and societies through electronic means;
IBPSA will provide a framework for strategic alliances for information and cooperation in R&D and Technology Transfer.

IBPSA's goals

The following goals were identified at the inception of IBPSA:

Identify problems within the built environment that may be solved by improved simulation tools and techniques;
Identify the performance characteristics of buildings on which simulation should be focused;
Identify building performance simulation research and development needs and transfer new developments to the user;
Promote standardization of the building simulation industry; and
Inform and educate its members and the public regarding the value and the state-of-the-art of building performance simulation.

IBPSA's function

The key functions of IBPSA are to:

Seek advice of building designers, owners, operators, and developers, regarding the proper role of building performance simulation;
Promote simulation through education programs, advertising, and other means for the good of the building simulation industry;
Building a scientific base upon which all interested in building simulation may draw;
Develop software framework form which improved building performance computer programs may be developed;
Enhance the proper application of simulation tools;
Help achieve an integration of computer aided drafting (cad) with engineering and performance software by identifying standard methodologies and data files;
Prepare and/or sanction training courses, technical forums, journals, newsletters and other material to educate its members and the public regarding building performance simulation;
Sponsor/co-sponsor research and development projects to improve simulation tools and practices;
Survey available simulation codes and publish descriptions of the characteristics of the codes;
Serve as a clearing house for public domain computer code in building performance simulation;
Assist private and public sector computer program developers to learn and use public sector codes thereby stimulating the development of new tools and methods;
Organize building elements terminology and other definitions to achieve the necessary standardization that will serve the industry;
Assist codifying organizations to understand and interpret standards of practice prepared by the IBPSA;Support various communication media including an active electronic network to keep its membership informed; and
Promote the exchange of information on building performance simulation internationally and with other disciplines.

Organization of IBPSA

IBPSA is an international organization with regional affiliate organizations around the world. Since the regional affiliate organizations often have names like “IBPSA-USA” and “IBPSA-France”, the parent organization is sometimes referred to as “IBPSA-World” to clearly distinguish it from the regional affiliates.

IBPSA (IBPSA-World!) is governed by a board of directors elected by the membership of all the regional affiliates. In addition to the president, vice-president, secretary, and treasurer, the board is made up of members-at-large and representatives sent by the regional affiliates.

Each regional affiliate will have their own governing board.