In the CGB world, what are some of the most widely used techniques to adjust to changing temperatures throughout the year? During winter, what is most commonly used for energy-efficient insulation/heating? And for hot, summer weather, what are some of the most widely used cooling methods?

How much do the seasonal weather patterns play into the thought process behind design/building? I would assume that they go hand in hand....

im not sure about design but when you live in a home that isnt quite built for large climactic fluctations a great way to keep your house warm for winter is thermal curtains. i just went shopping with my sister for fabric for curtains. theyre great because you can make 2 sets of cutains. the under layer is thick thermal material, something that resembles wool (but isnt so costly) that can be ugly since you wont see it. and that means that you can buy material from the sale rack! and then the outer layer is the pretty curtains that only create a thin layer but can be used yr round. exposed windows let out massive amounts of heat and let in a lot of cold. buying or making thick curtains will definitely help you out on your winter gas bills.

i just realized that my reply was totally off topic...sorry but its still good to know!

Any commercial building that can not maintain perfect stable comfort throughout all of the seasons has a serious energy problem. Commercial buildings have control systems and if one has to adjust for changes of seasons then either they have a limited control system that does not work and or they have other more serious problems.

A simple way to determine this is to peform an energy benchmark review; I have posted an article about this in the past here at Greeniacs. All you need to do is to total the last 12 months electrical consumption and divide that total by the total conditioned square feet. If the building is office and you are not operating at 11-16 kilowatt hours per square feet per year then your building has a serious energy problem and is wasting large amounts of energy. If that is the case let me know as I could easily help bring the usage to the proper levels and do so under a two year payback.

In short no building should require any seasonal temperature changes and weather patterns should not affect the operations at all. An efficient building is making hundreds of continual adjustments every minute and everything should be automatic. What you are describing is a building out of control.