Owners

In building or retrofitting affordable multifamily housing, owners and developers committed to sustainability have several certification metrics to choose from, depending on their goals, budget, and practicalities. In this moderated panel, three experts will examine the benefits and challenges of the metrics they chose for their projects: Enterprise Green Communities, Passive House, and Zero Net Energy. Through case studies, our panelists will discuss the motivating factors behind each chosen metric, impacts on the design and construction process, and resulting performance.

Building owners and decision-makers of New York City’s largest buildings now have more information than ever before to understand their energy consumption and prioritize investments in new equipment and maintenance. Many building owners are undertaking efficiency measures as a result of this information, but they still face a range of obstacles to pursuing building upgrades, such as limited capital, difficulties navigating financing and incentive programs, and the complexities of undertaking energy efficiency upgrades.

The closing forum will feature 6 Pecha Kucha 20x20 presentations (20 slides, each for 20 seconds) followed by a discussion moderated by Matt Root. Participants will include three sages—John Abrams, Chuck Silver and Terry Brennan and three rising stars - Declan Keefe, Ace McArleton and Stephanie Horowitz. In 90 minutes, this session will teach you more about building, design, business, and life than you could learn in 10 years on your own.

Over 150 villages in Germany produce all of the electricity and most of the heat they consume.  In these so-called "bioenergy villages," renewable energy systems are driving economic growth.   This session will provide an overview of the growing movement in Germany toward communally-developed and owned energy systems, focusing particularly on two villages in northern Germany.  The development process for these villages will be explored, as will the factors contributing to their success.

Session two will dig deeper into two solutions – both fresher paths forward than the expensive model of centralized-systems solutions. First is a look into cities such as Atlanta, where the cost of water and wastewater have soared but the system and the treatment technologies are working. Second is the promising practice of source-separating urine for fertilizer production—a pilot in Falmouth, MA is demonstrating cost-effective alternative to building a new treatment plant.

This session is in two parts.Water is scarcer. Systems for both fresh and waste water are vulnerable. Water standards are increasingly stringent to protect ecosystems and public health. Since water and energy are so inextricably intertwined, the term, “water grid" provides a unique frame for exploring how to operate a more closed-loop system of water production and use. As architects, engineers, builders and municipal planners, what will we have to rethink and re-do about processing fresh and waste water in developing the next generation of the built environment?

The use of utility bills to benchmark building performance is a critical first step in any approach to energy conservation. However, utility bills can only tell you so much about how to improve building performance. Five multifamily buildings received circuit level electricity, temperature, and CO2 monitoring equipment. The data identified inefficient mechanical designs, incorrect installations, poor maintenance and individual apartments with high energy use. We will review what we measured and what we learned, including energy savings as a result of this monitoring strategy.

With net metering and clean energy policy being challenged across the country, the solar community needs to develop more sustainable solutions that reflect the real cost and benefit impacts that distributed energy resources have on the grid and society. This session will address efforts to create a better economic model for distributed generation throughout the Northeast. Among the issues discussed will be efforts to create value based rate structures to encourage solar, storage, security, smarts, and savings on the electrical grid.

Advances in building envelopes and HVAC equipment enable widespread use of air source heat pumps by many in the "Net Zero Energy" and "Passive House" movements. Steve Bluestone will report on two related items: a three year performance study of an air source heat pump system using hourly measurements (done with Henry Gifford and built above his garage) and the design and construction of his new 101 unit high performance rental building in NYC utilizing the same technology.