Blog - Page 64 of 124 - Smart Buildings Center

Join us at the First Annual Powerful Facility Energy Conference!

March 8, 2022 By SBC staff

March 17, 2022
Lynnwood Convention Center

The Seattle Chapter of the International Facility Management Association is excited to open registration for the first annual Powerful Facility Energy Conference! This is the first year our chapter has partnered with Puget Sound Energy, Seattle City Light, and Snohomish County PUD, to join the forces of our annual Education Symposium and the Electric League’s bi-annual Powerful Business conference. The conference, aimed at facility managers and owners, building operations and engineering staff, architects, engineers, and property developers, offers a variety of educational topics, ranging from practical energy solutions to emerging technologies and how the newest policies will affect all those who work in the built environment.

Attendees will learn strategies to improve energy performance and sustain operational cost savings; how to prepare for new codes and policies; and ways to keep your facility and career on track. Conference content provides the business community with the information necessary to find partnerships and solutions that save energy and money, improve comfort, and enhance productivity in their facilities. A series of three breakout sessions are offered throughout the day. Vendor display opportunities are available for companies interested in showcasing their products and services before an estimated crowd of 300 facility professional attendees. Welcome breakfast, lunch with a keynote speaker, and reception are all included.

SBC staff will be participating in conference sessions and exhibiting — stop by our booth and say hello!

Register Now

TEDx Sonoma 2022: Matt Golden on Decarbonizing the Grid

March 8, 2022 By SBC staff

Check-out this TedX from NEEC Board Member, Matt Golden, of Recurve. His talk summarizes the challenge before us as we simultaneously decarbonize transportation, buildings, and the grid, which in California, has led to an anticipated 4GW shortfall during the summer peak. Acting on this emergency, Governor Newsom established a new $160 million statewide Market Access program. In this new program, load flexibility in buildings will be used to address some of that 4GW shortfall. Using buildings in this manner supports California in meeting its carbon goals and provides an immediate and innovative solution to the alternative ways to address the shortfall (e.g. back-up generators). This is a great example of how building efficiency and performance can be leveraged to enable electrification of transportation and other elements of the clean energy transition by filling in needs on the other end in maintaining grid reliability. Kudos to Matt for an excellent talk.

Watch: TEDx Sonoma 2022 Matt Golden on Decarbonizing the Grid

Registration Open for Smart Buildings Exchange, Aug 22-24!

March 2, 2022 By SBC staff

The Smart Buildings Center is excited to announce that registration for Smart Buildings Exchange 2022 is now open! The free, three-day virtual event to be held August 22-24 will explore the role of smarter buildings in a changing energy landscape through interactive conference sessions focused on topics including:

Building electrification & decarbonization
System integration & cybersecurity
Smart technology’s role in improving ESG reporting
IT/OT network design & interoperability
Indoor air quality and occupant health & wellness
The evolving buildings operation & maintenance workforce
Optimizing buildings for hybrid work environments

Call for Speakers & Content
Do you have a suggestion for a dynamic speaker or topic with demonstrated application of smart technologies in buildings that should be considered for the SBX2022 agenda? If so, please send your ideas to Britton Rife. Any suggestions are appreciated!

In-Person Networking Events
In addition to the virtual conference sessions, regional in-person networking events featuring a livestreamed keynote address are being planned. If you are interested in hosting an in-person SBX networking event in your region, please contact Britton Rife to coordinate. Stay tuned for more details as plans are developed!

Sponsorship Opportunities
For more information about ways your organization or business can participate in the conference, please download our Sponsorship Prospectus or contact Stan Price for customized sponsorship/partnership opportunities.

Register for free today!

Building Electrification & Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings Executive Forum Recordings

March 2, 2022 By SBC staff

Thanks to all who joined us for our recent two-part ‘Why Smart Buildings?’ Executive Forum on Building Electrification & Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings. The recordings for the sessions are now available on the SBC YouTube channel at the links below.

Part 1 of this series brings together expertise from the policy, regulatory, ratemaking, and utility industries to discuss their view on what must change from current practice to ignite a robust market for Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings (GEBs). Speakers include: John Gibson – Avista Corporation, Ryan Hledik – Brattle Group, and Sangeeta Ranade – AlphaStruxure.

Part 1 Recording

Part 2 of this series features a panel drawn from the communities of building owner/manager, developer, service provider and research institutions to discuss the market side of this equation. Speakers include: Brett Bridgeland – RMI, Salone Habibuddin – Urban Visions, Mary Ann Piette – Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Hendrik Van Hemert – Edo.

Part 2 Recording

NEEC & SBC Welcome New Team Member

February 14, 2022 By SBC staff

The Northwest Energy Efficiency Council (NEEC) and Smart Buildings Center (SBC) are pleased to announce that Rebecca Sheppard is joining our team!

As Senior Project Manager at NEEC, Rebecca will support the organization’s footprint with Grid-interactive Efficient Building operations and act as a strategic lead and technical advisor on smart building technologies, overall building electrification and policies that support the role of higher performing buildings in the clean energy economy. Rebecca has worked as a Resource Conservation Manager for the past 5 ½ years and has experience in the energy management of buildings, data analysis, building controls, energy efficiency projects, project management and facility operations. Her educational background includes a Business Management degree, an MBA degree, a Construction Management Certification from the University of Washington, as well as BOC training. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with family and friends, horseback riding and camping.

NEEC and SBC are proud to welcome Rebecca to the team!

Resilient, Healthy HVAC Doesn’t Have To Cost So Much

February 14, 2022 By SBC staff

A recent study conducted by the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA), Red Car Analytics (RCA) and the University of Oregon (UO) shows that commercial building operators can reduce the risk of viral spread by more than 25% with two steps: 1) increase ventilation rates by 217%, 2) add in-room filtration units. Unfortunately, most HVAC systems that can handle this increased ventilation and filtration will also dramatically increase HVAC energy usage.

Thankfully, according to the same study, there are higher efficiency HVAC solutions, such as very high efficiency DOAS, that can run efficiently under acute ventilation conditions while using 37% less energy than less efficient HVAC options. To learn more about this study and the ways building operators can adapt their HVAC approaches to foster healthy indoor environments without wasting energy, read the full article on NEEA’s BetterBricks.com.

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