Each 90-minute track session receives 1.5 continuing education units from the following professional organizations: AIA, BPI, GBCI, InterNACHI, NAHB, and NARI. To receive your credits, you must sign in at the beginning of each session
Track Co-chairs: Rachel White, Greener Every Day and Jonathan Kantar, Sage Builders
Health Opportunities and Pitfalls of Energy Upgrades–What Doesn’t Smell Can Still Hurt Us
Session 1: Wednesday, March 6, 11:00am-12:30pm
Session Chair: Samantha Wood, Coldham & Hartman Architects
Session Speakers: Ellen Tohn, Tohn Environmental Strategies; Jonathan Wilson, The National Center for Healthy Housing
Description: Energy upgrades can profoundly impact indoor air quality. While following best practices for ventilation and source control may reduce exposure to pollutants, ignoring air quality issues can lead to significant health risks. This session presents new EPA guidelines for protecting occupant health during energy upgrades, as well as new research on changes in occupant health after weatherization. It’s a must know subject for programs and companies seeking to minimize liability issues and improve client health.
The Resilient Home
Session 2: Wednesday, March 6, 2:00pm-3:30pm
Session Chair: Kristina Eldrenkamp, Albert, Righter & Tittmann Architects
Session Speakers: Marc Rosenbaum, South Mountain Company; Ben Graham, Natural Design Build
Description: What are the basic characteristics of a resilient home? In a changing world that is both unsustainable and unpredictable, how well are the occupants’ needs–for food, water, heat, waste treatment, electrical power and communications–met? What aspects of the community support resilience? Two professionals will present examples of their thinking about how to embody resilience in our homes and communities. We’ll also examine the balance between good design and human behavior in envisioning resilience.
Taking Deep Energy Retrofits to Scale
Session 3: Wednesday, March 6, 4:00pm-5:30pm
Session Chair: Brian Butler, Boston Green Building
Session Speakers: Linda Wigington, Affordable Comfort; Greg Pedrick, NYSERDA; Matt Berges, Environmental Health Watch
Description: What is the potential for the Deep Energy Retrofit (DER) as a market rate solution for existing housing, especially affordable housing? Are there other scalable paths to achieving deep reductions in home energy use? This session will review barriers and opportunities on a broad scale. Presenters will share lessons learned from The Thousand Home Challenge, NYSERDA’s DER program in New York, and an Environmental Health Watch study of DERs in lease-purchase housing in northeast Ohio.
Standing Up to Extreme Weather
Session 4: Thursday, March 7, 8:30am-10:00am
Session Chair: Kerry Koskinen, RetroFuture Remodeling
Session Speakers: Ben Brungraber, Fire Tower Engineered Timber; Len Morse-Fortier, Simpson, Gumpertz and Heger
Description: The changing climate and growing frequency of extreme weather events present enormous challenges to our homes. As we retrofit and build for high performance, how can we ensure that homes can stand up to heavier snowfall, flooding, higher winds and the like? In this session two structural engineers will share their insights—based on years of experience building durable wood structures and investigating building failures—on best practices for designing resilient and high performing homes.
Historic Preservation Meets Building Science: The Mallett Deep Energy Retrofit
Session 5: Thursday, March 7, 10:30am-12:00pm
Session Chair: Andrew Webster, Coldham & Hartman Architects
Session Speakers: Peter Troast, Energy Circle; Kohta Ueno, Building Science Corporation; Peter Warren, Warren Construction
Description: This recently completed project set out to demonstrate the compatibility of historic preservation and deep energy retrofits. The project, a renovation of an 1886 cottage, generated considerable controversy within the historic preservation community. A series of compromises allowed the project to go forward and achieve remarkable air tightness levels. The presenters will review the process associated with planning DERs in historically relevant structures as well as the specifications required to achieve exceptional air tightness.
Passive House Standard: Suitability for the Mainstream Market
Session 6: Thursday March 7, 2:00pm-3:30pm
Session Chair: Mike Duclos, DEAP Energy Group
Session Speakers: Alan Gibson and Matt O’Malia, GO Logic
Description: The passive house standard is a new and important standard for building energy performance and sustainability. But is it suitable for mainstream construction? The presenters address this question by presenting one year of monitored performance data for two certified passive houses, and sharing progress on a 36-unit, clustered, pedestrian-based co-housing development built to the passive house standard. This project is potentially the largest passive house standard production housing development in North America.
Closing Forum: What will be the hot topics at BE25?
Session 7: Thursday March 7, 4:00pm-5:30pm
Session Chair: Paul Eldrenkamp
Session Speakers: TBA
Description: The final session of the day will wrap up everything we learned at BE13 by forcing us to think out loud about where all our new-gained knowledge is taking us. The format: Six NESEA thought leaders will work within the pecha kucha framework to offer their predictions regarding what we’ll be grappling with in the sessions and workshops at Building Energy in March, 2025. This will followed by a period of quick-paced audience discussion. The 90 minutes will then wrap with a compelling preview of NESEA, 12 years hence. This closing session will offer an engaged response to the too-rarely asked question: “Just where are we going with all of this?“
