多年来，规范和标准一直在不断变化和改进，真诚地努力创造更好的建筑。然而，数据和历史表明，在过去50年中，能源使用强度（kBTU/SF）的实际降低几乎没有取得进展。我们必须问自己为什么？本文探讨了规范和标准与交付市场的实际产品（建筑）之间脱节的原因，并将讨论是否需要采取国家措施来建立建筑专业认证，由建筑规范官员和市政当局制定并实施更好的质量控制，并且这些努力能够/将会导致建筑物真正达到或优于当前可用的规范和标准。 引文:内华达州拉斯维加斯ASHRAE会议论文

Codes and standards have, through the years, continued to change and improve in an honest and sincere attempt to create better buildings. However, data and history has shown little progress has been made in the actual reduction in the Energy Use Intensity (kBTU/SF) over the last 50 years. We must ask ourselves the question-WHY? This paper explores the reasons for this disconnect between codes and standards and the actual product (buildings) delivered to the marketplace and will discuss if a national effort needs to be undertaken to establish building professional accreditation, develop and enforce better quality control by building codes officials and municipalities and could/would these efforts result in buildings that would really perform to or better than the codes and standards currently available.