BuildingEnergy Boston 2024 Sessions

Tue, 03/19/2024 - 9:00 am - Tue, 03/19/2024 - 10:00 am
Session Title	Speakers	Areas of Focus
Tuesday Keynote — Climate Changed: What Will You Do When Your Project Floods? In light of the catastrophic flooding which occurred throughout the Northeast region in 2023, we must challenge ourselves to confront the increased likelihood of extreme weather events and diminished… Full Description	Elaine Hoffman Jennifer Johnson Patrick Murphy	Building Systems Design and Construction Process Energy Production and Storage Policy, Codes, and Standards

Tue, 03/19/2024 - 10:30 am - Tue, 03/19/2024 - 12:00 pm
Session Title	Speakers	Areas of Focus
Mitigating Refrigerant Leakage in Residential Electrification With rapid heat pump deployment and increased use of refrigerants, mitigating the global warming impact of refrigerant leaks is critical to achieving the climate benefits of electrification projects… Full Description	Jon Harrod Brendan Kavanagh
Biomaterials: A Regional and Global Movement for Climate Justice and Resilience Building with bio-based materials allow us to address the combined crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and social inequity. Workforce development, housing access, regional supply chains, and… Full Description	Jacob Deva Racusin Ace McArleton Chris Hardy	Justice and Equity Materials Training and Workforce Development
Learn to Create Your Own Manual J Energy Model When used early in the design process, energy modeling is a powerful tool for decision making, not only for sizing equipment but also for shaping buildings and selecting materials. Iterative energy… Full Description	Gwendolen St.Sauveur	Building Envelope Building Systems Design and Construction Process Training and Workforce Development
Equitable, Data Driven, Domestic Hot Water Decarbonization While electrification of domestic hot water is picking up steam, outdated sizing guidelines result in oversized, expensive, and inefficient systems, especially in affordable multifamily housing. New… Full Description	Charlie Simek Neil Donnelly	Building Systems Design and Construction Process Justice and Equity

Tue, 03/19/2024 - 1:00 pm - Tue, 03/19/2024 - 2:00 pm
Session Title	Speakers	Areas of Focus
Global Passive House: Extreme Climates and Cultural Challenges What does it take to meet the Passive House standard in countries with extreme climates? Can Passive House be adapted to specific cultural demands that seem at odds with Passive House principles?… Full Description	Ilka Cassidy Christina Aßmann Sangeetha Sambandam Sayo Okada	Building Envelope Design and Construction Process Health and Comfort Justice and Equity
Beyond Anthropocentrism: Practical Design for Resilient Building Enclosures As part of a whole-building design approach, building enclosure is a key lever in reducing operational carbon emissions. With early phase detailing, precise thermal modeling can be performed to set… Full Description	Andrew Steingiser Shu Talun	Building Envelope Design and Construction Process Health and Comfort Materials
Resilience and Sustainable Design for Laboratories: Harvard Science and Engineering Complex Case Study This session will present a case study of the 544,000 sf Harvard Science and Engineering Complex, one of the most sustainable and resilient buildings ever constructed. The project employed a highly… Full Description	David Madigan Erik Hegre	Building Envelope Building Systems Design and Construction Process Health and Comfort
Energizing Tomorrow: Navigating the Identification and Evaluation Processes for Successful Geothermal Projects Join us for an enlightening panel session that delves into the pivotal role geothermal can play in commercial and network scale building decarbonization, energy consumption reduction, and climate… Full Description	Joshua Soble Bill Foley Isabel Varela Tim Ashmore Brock Yordy	Building Systems Design and Construction Process Operations and Maintenance
The Green Upgrade Calculator: A New Economic Modeling Tool for Home Decarbonization This session will present RMI’s new freely available economic modeling software for different home decarbonization technologies (e.g., rooftop solar, battery storage, weatherization, air-source heat… Full Description	Ryan Shea Christopher Haringa	Building Envelope Building Systems Energy Production and Storage

Tue, 03/19/2024 - 2:30 pm - Tue, 03/19/2024 - 3:30 pm
Session Title	Speakers	Areas of Focus
A Revolution in Embodied Carbon: Four Pivotal Materials Learn about the "Fab Four" top embodied carbon materials and how we can reduce their environmental impact. The Federal Government is focused on this topic through a pilot procurement process to shift… Full Description	Jodi Smits Anderson Jim D'Aloisio	Design and Construction Process Materials Policy, Codes, and Standards
Pretty Good Reno: The Greenest House Is an Existing House An existing house represents an enormous amount of “up front” carbon that has already been committed. The more we can re-use it, the less carbon we are releasing per unit of housing. But when is… Full Description	Emily Mottram Dan Kolbert Chris Briley	Building Envelope Building Systems Design and Construction Process Materials
Systems Thinking for Resilient Homes, Communities and Organizations This session will explore the use of systems thinking to accelerate decarbonization in homes and organizations. Through a case study of a single family property being redeveloped as a Passive House… Full Description	James Moriarty	Business and Finance Design and Construction Process Training and Workforce Development
Hot Water Electrification: Methods to Reduce First Costs, Embodied Carbon, and Operating Costs Producing domestic hot water is costly in terms of energy required to physically heat water, and financially when opting to use electricity to do so. Advances in DHW system efficiencies and industry… Full Description	James Petersen Daniel Perez	Building Systems Policy, Codes, and Standards
Energy as a Human Right: Virtual Microgrids in Low-Income Communities What was once a vision by the Green Justice Coalition (GJC) to support environmental justice communities by making them resilient and removing fossil fuels in their neighborhoods is becoming reality… Full Description	Lydia Lowe Kailash Viswanathan Elena González Sari Kayyali	Business and Finance Energy Production and Storage Justice and Equity Policy, Codes, and Standards

Tue, 03/19/2024 - 4:00 pm - Tue, 03/19/2024 - 5:00 pm
Session Title	Speakers	Areas of Focus
Building as Teacher: Education, Resilience, and Sustainability from the Inside Out Franklin Cummings Tech is transforming from a technical/vocational post-secondary school into a 21st-century hub for workforce development, offering technology-focused, vocational, and green economy-… Full Description	Gail Sullivan Carrie Havey Aniruddha Nene Dr. Marvin Loiseau
Thermal Resilience as a Retrofit Metric This session will discuss thermal resilience as a benefit of passive building strategies, and its impact on occupant safety during an outage situation. The session will explore modeling methods to… Full Description	Al Mitchell

Wed, 03/20/2024 - 9:00 am - Wed, 03/20/2024 - 10:00 am
Session Title	Speakers	Areas of Focus
Wednesday Keynote — The Power of Systems Thinking: Designing Equitable and Resilient Infrastructure Our built environment is often developed in silos, with individual owners, engineers, and designers identifying opportunities, constraints, trade-offs, and costs solely within their project boundary… Full Description	Katie Wholey

Wed, 03/20/2024 - 10:30 am - Wed, 03/20/2024 - 12:00 pm
Session Title	Speakers	Areas of Focus
The RESNET Carbon Trifecta: HERS Index + CO2 Index + Embodied Carbon The "trifecta" of RESNET standards concerning operations (HERS Index), the grid (CO2 Index), and embodied carbon together provide the capacity to analyze Carbon Usage Intensity. This session will… Full Description	Andy Buccino Nicole Burger Jacob Deva Racusin
Efficiency is Decarbonization Our most abundant and easiest decarbonization effort is the often-neglected investment in efficiency. Sometimes referred to as the “negawatt,” many programs (primarily weatherization) stress making… Full Description	Andrew Padian Heather Nolen

Wed, 03/20/2024 - 1:00 pm - Wed, 03/20/2024 - 2:00 pm
Session Title	Speakers	Areas of Focus
IRA One Year In: The Fast-Evolving Facts of the Inflation Reduction Act It's still early days for the Inflation Reduction Act, but projects are already applying for funds. Providing massive funding for many categories of energy projects, the IRA is especially… Full Description	Jacob Goldman
How Building Professionals Can Harness Geothermal Energy for New Climate-Resilient Housing at Scale Space conditioning accounts for more than 40% of home energy consumption. Geothermal heat pumps are the most efficient way to heat and cool a building, making them the most impactful way to reduce… Full Description	Ryan Carda
Resilient Design for Facilities, Communities, and Climate In October 2022, Boston Medical Center opened an 82 bed behavioral health center unlike any other. This session explores how a former 1960s nursing home was transformed into an NZE inpatient facility… Full Description	Nancy Hanright Tracey Weeden Jess Farber Nicole Voss
Monitored VRF Performance in New Multifamily Buildings Speakers will review findings from a DOE-sponsored study of VRF performance in three new, multifamily buildings in New York City. Two of the buildings are affordable Passive House properties. The… Full Description	Dylan Martello Shari Rauls

Wed, 03/20/2024 - 2:30 pm - Wed, 03/20/2024 - 3:30 pm
Session Title	Speakers	Areas of Focus
Quality and Quantity: Strategies for Accelerating Single Family Passive Houses This session will present three case studies showing various aspects of the rapid development of single-family passive buildings. Each uniquely addresses the ability to a) expedite the process of… Full Description	John Loercher Andy Allwine Matthew Bowers
Lowering Total Carbon Emissions in a Dorm: Strategies for Design and Construction Discover how two innovative dormitories in Vermont, 17,000 square feet each, set new standards in low carbon emissions, both in construction and operation. This presentation delves into a comparative… Full Description	Bill Maclay Catherine Earley Jacob Deva Racusin Andy Shapiro
Massachusetts Stretch and Specialized Codes This panel will discuss the Massachusetts Stretch and Specialized Codes, including key provisions such as thermal bridge accounting and mitigation, thermal energy demand intensity (TEDI), ventilation… Full Description	Paul Ormond Joanne Bissetta Christopher Grey Olivia Brady
Leveraging the Logic of Offsite Construction: A Gamified Training This will be a fun, fast-paced and interactive session that invites designers and architects to try their hand at deploying the logic of panelization to adapt a design for offsite construction and… Full Description	Seth Clarke Cody Berwick

Wed, 03/20/2024 - 4:00 pm - Wed, 03/20/2024 - 5:00 pm
Session Title	Speakers	Areas of Focus
Buildings as Power Plants: The Growing Role of Virtual Power Plants in the Northeast Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) are aggregations of smaller aggregated Distributed Energy Resources (DER) like solar and batteries that act like a traditional power plant. This session will define the… Full Description	Anna Demeo Steven Hopengarten Matt Golden
They're Making Me Do What? BERDO 2.0 from the Building Owner Perspective Building performance standards are no longer a theory. Programs that have been in development for years are now being implemented and building owners are being asked to improve the performance of… Full Description	Andy Winslow Aidan Callan Stephen Ellis Neetu Siddarth
Passive House Verification: Get It Done Right, and Early With the continued adoption of the MA Specialized Energy Code, the certification of Passive House buildings in MA and the wider region will continue to expand in all markets. Effective completion and… Full Description	Kellie Murphy Rylee Noonan Joe Bodine
What We Wish Everyone Knew: Using Commissioning Discoveries to Make Buildings Better Audience participation will be welcome during this interactive session exploring avoidable issues found during commissioning, how they result in brand new systems being installed in ways that… Full Description	Nate Goodell Louis Vogel