SBC staff, Author at Smart Buildings Center

Estimating Your Building’s Emissions and Draft Targets for Proposed Seattle BEPS, Thursday Mar 23 12-1

March 14, 2023 By SBC staff

Registration is open for March 23: Estimating Your Building’s Emissions and Draft Targets for the Proposed Seattle Building Emissions Performance Standards (BEPS)
Are you new to understanding your building’s greenhouse gas emissions and want to learn some simple steps to understand your building’s climate impact? Join the Office of Sustainability & Environment (OSE) on this beginner-friendly webinar on Zoom to learn how to quickly estimate and track your building’s current greenhouse gas emissions and estimated proposed targets. Learn more and REGISTER HERE. For details on the proposed BEPS policy, visit www.seattle.gov/building-performance-standards or contact [email protected].

Translation services are available upon request. Call (206) 233-7184  or email [email protected].

About the Proposed Policy: Performance standards are a powerful tool to reduce climate pollution and transition toward cleaner, healthier buildings where we live and work. The proposed BEPS policy is projected to reduce emissions from Seattle’s buildings (in total) 27% by 2050. This proposed policy would gradually phase out carbon pollution from existing nonresidential and multifamily buildings over 20,000 sq. ft. through mandatory greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions targets beginning 2027 for the largest nonresidential buildings. Targets would become more stringent over time, to net-zero GHG emissions by 2050. Visit www.seattle.gov/building-performance-standards for more information.

Demo the Fluke ii910 Precision Acoustic Imager!

February 15, 2023 By SBC staff

The Smart Buildings Center Tool Lending Library is excited to announce the latest addition to our tool inventory, the Fluke ii910 Precision Acoustic Imager, which can quickly pinpoint and measure leaks in compressed air, gas, steam, and vacuum systems, even in noisy environments. These types of leaks can be a huge waste of energy, and detecting them has traditionally been a tedious and time-consuming process… until now.

Adam Sheffield, Fluke’s Territory Sales Manager for Northern Washington, will join us at the Smart Buildings Center to share pro tips to help get the best results with this instrument. We’ll also have several units available for hands-on learning.

Participation in this event will qualify as 1.5 BOC credential maintenance points.

Thursday, March 9, 2:30-4pm

Smart Buildings Center

1200 12^th Ave. S., Suite 110

Seattle, WA 98144

Webinar: A National Retailer’s Decarbonization Journey with BrainBox AI

February 13, 2023 By SBC staff

Thursday, February 23rd | 12 pm EST

70% of American consumers have said they would adjust their shopping habits if they knew that a store wasn’t operating sustainably.

With over 200 stores coast to coast, see how Sleep Country director of ESG Mary de Guzman is making their brick-and-mortar operations greener. She joins Rebecca Handfield, VP of Marketing & PR at BrainBox AI, to discuss their project together and the development of a successful ESG strategy.

Reserve your seat for the live webinar!

AESP Seeking Input on Flexible Demand Management Workforce Training, Update

February 7, 2023 By SBC staff

The Smart Buildings Center has partnered with the Association of Energy Services Professionals (AESP) on an exciting project that will change the future of energy workforce development, and we are looking for your input.

AESP is developing free, online, flexible demand management workforce training and needs your feedback on the proposed course outline.

UPDATE: This is a re-post of our January 18th blog post, the deadline is lifted. If you haven’t yet provided feedback consider taking a few minutes to do so now.

To give feedback, go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BENEFIT-NEEC

The initial course content plan addresses critical gaps in flexible demand management workforce education. Whether you are new to the field or have years of experience, you stand to benefit; this is a once-in-a-decade opportunity to rapidly upskill our entire community in demand management. To get it right, we need to know if the proposed course curriculum meets YOUR specific needs.

WSU Building HEROes Podcast

January 26, 2023 By SBC staff

Recently Melanie Danuser, Smart Buildings Center Director of Education & Training, and Rebecca Sheppard, Smart Buildings Center Senior Project Manager, sat down with the staff of the Washington State University Integrated Design + Construction Laboratory (ID+CL) to discuss the mission and vision of the mission division of Northwest Energy Efficiency Council, Smart Building Center programs and the Building Operator Certification trainings. ID+CL and NEEC are partnering with Northeastern University to develop and launch curriculum focused on grid interactive efficient buildings, and how to engage occupants as buildings get smarter. Listen here on apple podcast, the WSU website, or the embed below.

In many ways, a building’s efficiency relies heavily on the building operator. In this episode, WSU spends time with Melanie and Rebecca learning about the Northwest Energy Efficiency Council. They focus on improving the energy efficiency of buildings through training and resources for building operators in the PNW.

The U.S. Department of Energy Announces the Buildings Upgrade Prize

January 18, 2023 By SBC staff

The Buildings Upgrade Prize (Buildings UP) is offering more than $22 million in cash prizes and technical assistance to teams across America with winning ideas to accelerate widespread, equitable energy efficiency and building electrification upgrades.

“We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to leverage billions of dollars in funding available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Inflation Reduction Act, utility rebate programs, and many other sources to upgrade our existing buildings and help address climate change,” said Alejandro Moreno, Acting Assistant Secretary for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. “Transforming existing buildings is a complex task. Each building has its own set of needs related to size, use, age, location, and more—there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Buildings UP is designed to build capacity within multi-stakeholder teams to develop a variety of solutions and drive the implementation of effective building upgrade initiatives across the country.”

Visit the US Department of Energy website or learn more about the Buildings UP Prize.

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