October 11 Forum Program

7:30 a.m. -3 p.m.       Registration Open

7:30-8:30 a.m.            Last Chance Breakfast in the Exhibitor Showcase Expo Hall

8:30-10 a.m.                Breakout Sessions 

High-impact morning breakout sessions examine key aspects of zero energy, embodied carbon, and building electrification through codes and policy, design, and operations.

Technologies: What We Have, What We Need (1.5 AIA LU|HSW CEUs)
Room: Junior Ballroom 1
Take stock of the current state of the building technologies needed to drive decarbonization at scale.  Presenters will share the latest developments in heat pumps, heat pump water heaters, induction cooking, renewable energy, and energy storage systems, and discuss the options for full electric kitchens and how equipment needs differ in residential vs. commercial kitchens. This session will also provide a high-level view of needs and drivers for renewables, including renewable gas, and various forms of storage devices such as batteries and thermal storage options.

Moderator: Brett Webster, RMI

Presenters: 
Ram Narayanamurthy, EPRI, Heat Pumps and Heat Pump Water Heaters

Richard Young, Food Service Technology Center, Using Energy Efficiency to Decarbonize Kitchens

Shanti Pless, NREL, Renewables, Storage and Demand Responses

Utilizing Cost Effective Solutions for Getting to Zero (1.5 AIA LU|HSW CEUs)
Room: Junior Ballroom 4
With the perception that zero energy costs more, how will the design and construction industry move toward zero energy as standard practice? This session will look at the key factors driving higher construction costs, review a set of principles and ideas to reduce costs significantly. Presenters will share new cost research, and case studies will cover how to balance efficiency with cost-effectiveness.

Moderator: Lisa Matthiessen, HGA

Presenters:
Jessica Iplikci, Energy Trust of Oregon | Shilpa Surana, NEEA
Getting from A to ZE: How an Oregon Utility Program is Charting the Way with Net Zero Fellowship Research Grants

Mike Steffen, Walsh Construction Co., Exploring A Path To More Cost-Efficient, Energy-Efficient (Zero Energy) Affordable Housing

Philip Donovan, Little | Alex Lowrie, Little
Net Zero and On Budget: What We Did and How Much It Cost

A Global Call to Action for Zero Embodied Carbon (1.5 AIA LU|HSW CEUs)
Room: OCC 208
Getting to zero requires targeting both operating and embodied carbon. Buildings are responsible for 39% of global carbon emissions–28% attributed to operational carbon, and 11% to embodied emissions from materials and construction processes. As the industry responds to the challenge of eliminating operational carbon emissions from the energy consumption of buildings through design improvements, standards and regulations, embodied carbon becomes even more significant. This session will present a theory of change with case studies that aim to be zero embodied carbon discussing the feasibility of building density goals on embodied and operating carbon and explain the role that building reuse plays in achieving a zero carbon future.

Moderator: Tony Saracino, Autodesk

Presenters:
Victoria Burrows, WorldGBC, Bringing Embodied Carbon Upfront

Ann Edminster, Design AVEnues LLC | Larry Strain, Siegel & Strain Architects
Thinking Small, Not Tall, to Get to Zero Carbon

Marsha Maytum, LEDDY MAYTUM STACY Architects | Ryan Jang, LEDDY MAYTUM STACY Architects
Embodied Carbon & High Performance in Landmark Structures: The Transformation of Fort Mason Pier 2

The Next Challenges in Electrification (1.5 AIA LU|HSW CEUs)
Room: Junior Ballroom 2-3
Getting to zero leaders can go farther, faster, together to develop innovative, durable, and equitable policies and buildings that can address energy use in buildings. Attendees will get an update on the landscape of policy to address energy use and carbon emissions in buildings. Electric building case studies will highlight all-electric space and water heating systems, with both airside, waterside heat recovery, and show how we can maximize the potential for car charging to speed growth in electric vehicle market share.

Moderator: Diane Bailey, Menlo Spark

Presenters:
Peter Vierthaler, Northwest Partners LLC, Create Capacity for Car Charging with Energy Conservation Upgrades

John Elliott, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, A Laboratory Building Electrification Case Study at Berkeley Lab

Amy Wheeless, NW Energy Coalition | Poppy Storm, 2050 Institute
Building Electrification Levers in Washington State

Building-Grid Harmonization and Decarbonization (1.5 AIA LU|HSW CEUs)
Room: OCC 210/211
Design teams are in a unique position to create buildings that improve grid operations. Attending to issues of time of energy use and peak demands will help create smart, flexible, grid-connected buildings can be an asset both in net energy reduction and peak demand management. This session will examine the steps of reducing consumption, siting renewable energy resources, and creating grid enabled buildings that go beyond building efficiency and provide the flexibility needed to help reduce grid cost and increase the reliability, resiliency, and efficiency of the electric grid.

Moderator: Greg Arcangeli, Austin Energy

Presenters:
Lisa White, Passive House Institute US, Passive Buildings as Baseline for the New Grid

Pierre Bull, Center for Sustainable Energy, Deriving New Wholesale Market Revenue Opportunities and Maximizing Customer Utility Savings with Behind-the-Meter Distributed Energy Resources (DER)

Alison Lindburg, Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance | Paulomi Nandy, Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance
Grid Interactive Buildings in the Midwest

10-10:30 a.m.           Networking Break

10:30-11:30 a.m.     Jolt Sessions

Jolt sessions are fast-paced one-hour events designed to present many similar topics in rapid succession. Hear how the landscape of energy storage is changing, learn about essential technologies, and see new zero case studies.

Metrics and Measures (1 AIA LU|HSW CEUs)
Room: Junior Ballroom 2-3
Metrics and definitions matter. For decades building performance targets have been based on energy efficiency and are now shifting to focus on decarbonization and climate change. By evaluating building energy greenhouse gas emissions, we can form a more accurate methodology to measure the net impact of a building, offering a more truthful way of assessing our built environments. Attendees will study the differences between various energy and carbon metrics, evaluate implications for building design, and understand how these metrics can impact municipal policies to achieve zero carbon goals.

Moderator: Julie Hughes, IMT

Presenters:
David Mead, PAE | Karina Hershberg, PAE
True Greenhouse Gas Emissions: A Bold New Approach to Tracking Sustainability

William Eisenstein, UC-Berkeley | Eric Rubin, Energy Solutions
Zero Carbon Buildings and Communities in California: A Feasibility Study

Margaret Pigman, Resource Refocus LLC, Metrics Matter: Exploring the Performance of ZNE Homes Using Energy and Carbon Metrics

Essential Technologies for Getting to Zero (1 AIA LU|HSW CEUs)
Room: Junior Ballroom 1
The U.S. building industry is creating new products, advancing manufacturing techniques, and altering construction approaches to meet the needs of zero energy and carbon goals. This session will show attendees how building envelopes have evolved and how they progressed to achieve zero energy goals; evaluate three key standard HVAC design features that are outdated and not supporting zero energy; and understand how off-site, modular construction can overcome productivity and help zero energy buildings adoption issues in the national construction market.

Moderator: David Reynolds, ERS

Presenters:
Stacey Rothgeb, NREL | Shanti Pless, NREL
Inserting Zero Energy Design into the Growing Offsite Prefab Construction Market 

Jonathan Heller, Ecotope, Design for Off: Decarbonization of Existing Buildings

Henry Siegel, Siegel & Strain Architects | Nancy Malone, Siegel & Strain Architects
Building Envelope for Net Zero Buildings: Lessons Learned Over Twenty Years

Flipping the Script on New Homes with Sales, Marketing, and Tools (1 AIA LU|HSW CEU)
Room: OCC 208

Come January 1, 2020, California’s new Energy Code will reflect the most substantial whole-building construction improvements to new single-family and multifamily residences in the country. Learn how CA is taking the initiative to flip the script and preparing the industry for change by providing tools – such as the ZNE Cookbook to provide an example, cost-optimized ZNE feature-packages – workshops, and a fresh approach to marketing and sales of California Clean Energy Homes. Ultimately, changing the narrative of energy codes being perceived as added requirements, and instead establishing new homes as better-built, healthier, and more cost-effective when compared to typical existing homes.

Moderator: Will Vicent, Southern California Edison

Presenters:
Ian Hammon-Hogan, BIRAenergy

Nick Brown, Build Smart Group

Chris Kuch, Southern California Edison

How Did They Do That? Getting to Zero in Complex Building Types (1 AIA LU|HSW CEUs)
Room: Junior Ballroom 4
A zero energy misnomer is that only small, low-EUI buildings can achieve zero. Attendees will hear from three project teams that challenged this idea. First, a zero energy pharmaceutical manufacturing lab. Second, a high-volume grocery store retrofit in downtown San Francisco while keeping the doors open to customers. Third, one of the U.S.’s largest airports, San Francisco International Airport’s Terminal 3, will use 60% less energy and incorporate lifecycle-cost analyses plan to incorporate best-in-class energy systems. The projects will prove that getting to zero is possible in complex building types.

Moderator: Marge Anderson, Slipstream

Presenters:
Jason Fierko, EwingCole | Thomas Kaufman, United Therapeutics
Urban Zero Energy, the Challenges and Triumphs at Unisphere

Jessica Tse, City and County of San Francisco, MarketZero: Taking an Existing Grocery Store to Scalable Near-ZNE 

John Galloway, San Francisco International Airport | Alejandro Pimentel, San Francisco International Airport
Getting to Zero in Large Complex Campuses 

Energy Storage Opportunities (1 AIA LU|HSW CEUs)
Room: OCC 210/211
Recent academic research and the assessment of a California energy storage incentive program have shown that behind-the-meter energy storage can cause emissions due to a mismatch of electric grid dynamics, building load profiles, and rate structures. However, emissions increases can be eliminated through careful energy storage control strategies. Attendees will hear how district-scale photovoltaics and battery banks can be implemented, optimizing system capacities and battery control strategies to maximize potential savings in first costs, annual utility costs, peak demand charges, and greenhouse gas emissions.

Moderator: Jamie Mandel, Rocky Mountain Institute

Presenters:
Jared Landsman, Integral Group, Photovoltaic and Battery Bank Optimization for District Scale Systems

Henry Richardson, WattTime | Tucker Ruberti, Enel X North America, Inc
Cleaning Up Batteries: Reducing Emissions and Cutting Costs for Building Energy Storage

Mark Frankel, New Buildings Institute, The Looming Energy Storage Revolution

11:30-12:45 p.m.      Luncheon Keynote + Panel
Room: Grand Ballroom

Industry Titans Lead the Way to Market Adoption of Zero Energy and Carbon (1 AIA LU|HSW CEUs)
Until recently, only the most innovative architects, engineers, contractors (AEC), and developers embraced ultra-energy efficiency buildings with renewables, and building-grid integration controls.  New zero energy and zero carbon pledges from leading industry trade organizations are accelerating the AEC community toward zero.  AIA, USGBC, ASHRAE, World Resource Institute and other industry giants have committed to progressing codes and policies, and providing their members with advanced education and design guidance for delivering on high performance buildings. Hear from market leaders about how their potential collective impact, as well as other industry commitments, can bring about the changes needed to reduce energy demand and curb carbon emissions resulting from the built environment.

Moderator: Michelle Thomas, Southern California Edison

Panelists:
Tom Phoenix, Principal | CPL Architects & Engineers, ASHRAE  Presidential Member

Anica Landreneau, Director of Sustainable Design, HOK, AIA Blue Ribbon Panel Committee, Presentation

Brendan Owens, Senior Vice President, U.S. Green Building Council

Debbie Weyl, Manager at Building Efficiency with the WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, World Resources Institute

1-2:30 p.m.        Breakout Sessions 

This final set of breakout sessions will leave you inspired as you hear about new research, policies, and buildings.
Take home lessons learned and prepare to implement them in your community.

Pioneering Pilots: Learning from Zero Programs that Transform the Market (1.5 AIA LU|HSW CEUs)
Room: OCC 208
Over the past eight years, billions of square feet of projects have reported design performance data in an effort to evolve the industry to meet zero carbon goals by 2030. Research on these buildings and the technologies incorporated contain critical clues for how firms of all sizes achieve high performance goals in design and patterns of how the 2030 goals can be met. Designers are using new research and data from getting to zero certification programs to guide design, performance validation, and recognition necessary to influence the evolution of the market in North America. This session will explore the status and progress of getting to zero programs and show how they were created to overcome market barriers and achieve deep energy savings.

Moderator: Brendan Owens, USGBC

Presenters:
Fin MacDonald, Canada Green Building Council, Piloting Zero in Canada

Gwen Fuertes, LMS Architects | Tate Walker, OPN Architects, Data Driven: How the 2030 Commitment Propels High Performance Design

Chris Ladner, Entegrity Partners, A Year of LEED Zero: Impact & Insights from Project Teams

Bryan Bomer, Green Building Division, DC Net-Zero Energy Elective Program Development

Beyond ZNE: Getting to Zero Carbon Buildings (1.5 AIA LU|HSW CEUs)
Room: Junior Ballroom 1
Three project teams aim for the same goal: to blaze a trail for the next generation of zero energy to zero carbon buildings by framing the statewide potential, decarbonizing, and scaling up. Featured project stories include: (1) a zero carbon (ZC) feasibility study, conducted for six building types across five California Climate Zones, (2) a new 400,000 square foot California Air Resource Board facility balancing ultra-energy-efficient design with meeting the unique demands of an emissions testing and laboratory facility with over 400 employees, (3) the Catalyst Building, a 159,000-square-foot five-story commercial building being constructed using mass timber and likely to be the world’s largest Certified Zero Energy building at the end of its performance period.

Moderator: Alice Sung, Greenbank Associates

Presenters:
Paul Erickson, Affiliated Engineers, Inc (AEI) | Anne Cotter, ZGF Architects
Scaling Up: Insights from the New CARB Net-Zero Energy Emissions Testing and Research Facility 

Carrie Brown, Resource Refocus LLC, Beyond ZNE: The Carbon Mitigation Potential of California Buildings

Ivan Jose, McKinstry | Nick Edney, McKinstry
Spokane’s Catalyst: Large Scale, Grid Optimized, Carbon Positive Construction, Combustion Free, District Energy, Higher Ed = Zero Energy Awesomeness

Getting to Zero at the Community Scale: Charrette (1.5 AIA LU|HSW CEUs)
Room: OCC 210/211
No building is an island. Examining the built environment at a community scale allows for a more comprehensive evaluation of planning and design alternatives to reduce total carbon. This interactive session will present a fictitious medium-sized city’s downtown district consisting of several blocks of commercial and residential construction. The area must accommodate a set number of new jobs and households in order to meet the city’s future population and employment growth projections. Participants must determine where and how to add the new building capacity while attempting to reduce the total operational and embodied carbon of the district as close to zero as possible. The exercise’s goal is to highlight the importance of addressing energy usage in existing buildings and embodied carbon in new construction, and spur a discussion of tradeoffs between operational and embodied carbon at the community scale.

Facilitators:
Miya Kitahara, StopWaste

Emily Alvarez, StopWaste

Frances Yang, Arup

Wes Sullens, USGBC

Zero Energy Educational Buildings (1.5 AIA LU|HSW CEUs)
Room: Junior Ballroom 4
Colleges and universities are employing aggressive strategies toward high performance campuses. This session will explore how new capital improvement and construction projects incorporate energy targets, integrated design approach, carbon capturing materials, behavioral change, and robust communications reduce building energy demand, water usage, and carbon impact of materials, for notable long-term operational energy and cost savings. Research presented will include a recent study on decarbonizing university buildings comparing electrification to biogas-based approaches, and resulting building efficiency, capital, and operational costs.

Moderator: Alexis Karolides, Point Energy Innovations

Presenters:
Pauline Souza, WRNS Studio | Hormoz Janssens, Interface Engineering
Integrated Approach Drives Effective Design Choices to Achieve School’s ZNE/ZNC Goals

Lois Arena, Steven Winter Associates, Inc. | Karla Butterfield, Steven Winter Associates, Inc.
Higher Education with a Lower Footprint

Alexis Karolides, Point Energy Innovations |  Peter Rumsey, Point Energy Innovations
Electrification as a Path to Zero Carbon University Buildings – Lessons from the UC Study

Defining the Possible in International Zero Energy Districts (1.5 AIA LU|HSW CEUs)
Room: Junior Ballroom 2-3
Zero energy districts are growing across the world at a scale well beyond anything in the United States. Come find out about projects in China, India and Europe that are defining what’s possible for district-scale and even city-scale zero energy or near-zero carbon projects.

Moderator: Mona Chandra, National Grid

Presenters:
Yihan Hao, Rocky Mountain Institute, Near Zero China

Seth Coan, Rocky Mountain Institute

Victoria Burrows, World GBC, Bringing Embodied Carbon Upfront

Cesar Ulises Trevino, Bioconstrucción y Energía Alternativa, Advancing a Net Zero Energy Buildings Agenda in Mexico & Latin America

2:45-4 p.m.      Closing Keynote + Wrap
                             Room: Grand Ballroom

Moderator: Cathy Higgins, New Buildings Institute

Zero is a Many Splendored Thing
As California charts a path to full decarbonization of its buildings and beyond to the broader economy, the meaning of Zero is changing. Certainly high energy performance is de rigueur! Measuring and managing emissions performance requires new tools and improved situational awareness at the operational level. Each new building can no longer be considered in isolation, but rather must contribute to the robustness of a dynamic network. California’s agencies, industry and stakeholders have embraced the challenges of orchestrating a clean, reliable, safe and equitable energy future.

Presenter: Andrew McAllister, California Energy Commission

Come Together, Right Now, Over ZNC
The need to achieve deep energy efficiency in buildings, with flexible and grid-responsive loads supplied by clean electricity has never been more urgent. New York State has now joined an elite group of states that are helping to lead the nation in the fight against climate change and has set in motion a just transition for all. But none of us can do this alone. Drawing parallels to the automobile industry, this talk will make the case why we all need to work in concert with our sister states – in particular California and New York – to have the best chance of success. Together we can build a thriving zero carbon buildings ecosystem of solution providers, manufacturers, consultants and contractors, with a skilled and efficient labor force.

Presenter: Greg Hale, NYSERDA

4 p.m.                 Adjourn

4:30 p.m.          Closing Reception hosted by AIA East Bay — Fiesta Zero!

Join the AIA EB Chapter, CASBA and ECN Bay Area for a celebration of Local Climate Action.  Hear remarks from Ida Clair, the California State Architect, recognition of the Embodied Carbon Network—Bay Area, and announcement of the Bay Area Carbon Storing Building Challenge. Enjoy local food while sipping your favorite beverage. The event will be held at the AIA EB offices at 1405 Clay Street.