Materials

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 enough enough? This session is about finding the sweet spot between existing and desired, and how to balance expense vs savings.

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 the market, as is NYS through EO #22. Let’s learn about how we can address steel, asphalt, concrete, and glass to radically and significantly reduce embodied carbon in our buildings and horizontal design!

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 achievable envelope performance criteria and define critical design components. This leads to more rigorous conversations with construction partners and more certain cost outcomes. We will explore recent thermal studies of panelized enclosure solutions for large scale high rise buildings that meet Passive House performance criteria.

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 sustainable food and forest systems are all key elements of climate resilience and justice. In this session, learn how building materials fit into this pattern as we explore a UN report on biomaterials and a Northeast initiative to scale their use in the built environment.

The impact of building materials on human and environmental health has received increased attention, and hundreds of design firms have pledged to support healthier materials. Ensuring healthier material selections requires complex decisions and collaborations. Acknowledging this challenge, how can the industry adopt meaningful material health goals across all projects? How can we build on the work others are doing?

Dense packing cellulose in roof slopes has been a common insulation retrofit strategy in New England for a long time, however technically it has not been allowed by code without the inclusion of venting or foam insulation at the roof sheathing for condensation control. Previous BuildingEnergy presentations have suggested that further research should be done to evaluate whether vented attic space above unvented dense-packed slopes could manage moisture more effectively than insulating all the way up to the ridge.

Retrofitting buildings to reduce operating emissions is a key climate strategy. Viable, affordable, and scalable strategies must be implemented. However, we must avoid a surge of embodied carbon emissions from the manufacturing of building materials. This presentation showcases research and case studies evaluating the embodied carbon investment of varying retrofit assembly strategies and construction methodologies in cold climates with the expected operational carbon savings. We will hold an introductory how-to workshop on low embodied carbon approaches that exist today.

Join principals of New Frameworks and Builders for Climate Action for a critical look at our practices that have endeavored to embed justice and belonging alongside the highest goals for building health, efficiency, and carbon storage in projects - for the purpose of workshopping how our industry can scale carbon storage and justice, rapidly, to address climate justice.

With rising determination to fight the climate crisis worldwide, practitioners are finding the Passive House standard a potent solution for the building sector. As passive and other sustainable building standards are proliferating worldwide, those standards meet a host of different location-specific challenges. This diverse panel of women architects and certified Passive House consultants are seeking to understand the adaptation of the Passive House standard globally.

Curtis + Ginsberg Architects has completed 6 multifamily Passive House buildings, with two more in construction and six more in design. Steven Winter Associates has completed over 20 Passive House buildings, with 15 more in construction and 30+ more in design. We have collaborated on many of these projects. By reviewing variations in the systems, we can draw conclusions about what works best for structure, envelope, ventilation strategy, heating and cooling systems, and on-site generation.

Have you heard about the building standard that's not a standard? Learn how to create energy efficient, healthy, sustainable homes with an emphasis on making the concepts and technical details accessible to builders and designers of all levels of development. Two of the four co-authors of the Pretty Good House Book will go through the essential elements of what makes a Pretty Good House and share how it can help make low-carbon energy efficiency more accessible to contractors, designers, and clients.

Electrifying the manufacturing process of building materials is a critical step towards decarbonizing the built environment. Going where no companies have gone before, two leading edge companies share their journey to reduce the carbon impact of their product. Each will tell their story on their path to decarbonizing their manufacturing process. This is the prologue, and the episode continues as they stretch their goals.

Concrete accounts for approximately 11% of annual global carbon emissions. It is a material too important to ignore. Learn how BU’s Center for Computing and Data Sciences applied low-carbon concrete goals and selected structural elements to reach the highest Portland replacement concrete in Boston to date. See how opportunities in design, construction and supply chain were used to substantially decrease the climate impact of concrete used. Then discover national and local low-carbon material initiatives that are underway and growing.

Public school projects are a highly visible commitment from a community towards future generations, serve a wide range of students from diverse backgrounds, and are a valuable resource to the surrounding community. This case study will show three projects that aimed to fit within the goals and budget of a public institution while focusing equally on energy, carbon, water, and waste. Linking the strategies for each goal to impacts on the health and well-being of students provides a new framework for evaluating the impacts of design.

Operational carbon is challenging but attacking embodied carbon is a complete nightmare! How can firms streamline the deadly research drain and get compliance across all teams for low carbon, healthy material choices? Owners, how can you set and ensure compliance with your standards when onboarding design teams? Builders, how can you leverage your buying power to accelerate market transformation through aggregation without having to change any behavior?