Education & Training Archives - Smart Buildings Center

Help Move Building Projects from Scope to Financing with C-PACER 10/27

September 16, 2026 By SBC staff

Energy engineers, contractors, ESCOs, and other building professionals are often among the first to identify the improvements a building needs — and the capital required to get the work done. Understanding available financing options can help those projects move from recommendations to implementation.

Join C-PACER program administrators and professionals from across the Puget Sound region on October 27 at 9Zero in Seattle for the 2026 Puget Sound C-PACER Symposium to learn how Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy and Resilience (C-PACER) financing can support eligible building improvements, including energy efficiency, HVAC, electrification, resilience, and other qualifying projects.

The symposium will bring together the key players involved in C-PACER projects, including building owners, C-PACER lenders, first mortgage lenders, brokers, engineers, contractors, commercial real estate professionals, and program administrators.

For professionals who help owners identify, scope, and implement building improvements, the symposium is an opportunity to learn when C-PACER may be a good fit, how to introduce it earlier in project planning, and who to connect with when a project needs financing. It’s also an opportunity to build relationships with the owners, lenders, and other professionals needed to move more projects forward.

The event is free, but registration is required.

Register: https://luma.com/z6jermrp

For questions about C-PACER financing or the symposium, please contact Don Robinson at [email protected].

Back to School Season – For All of Us!

September 14, 2026 By SBC staff

It’s back to school season, and many of us at Building Potential and the Smart Buildings Center sent our own kids back to the classroom this week. Others among us have watched our kids grow up and walk across the stage at college and trade school graduations, launching into their first careers. Maybe back to school just means more buses and more traffic on the roads each morning. Maybe it means welcoming cooler, cozier weather after summer. Or maybe it means football season is finally here.

Whatever September means to you, here at Building Potential and the Smart Buildings Center, it’s always back to school season. We believe learning doesn’t stop when you leave the classroom, and there’s always an opportunity to build your knowledge, sharpen your skills, further your career, or start a brand new one in the energy efficiency and decarbonization field, and to meet others doing this work alongside you.

Here’s what’s on the calendar:

• Continuing education webinars through SBX Plus — ongoing opportunities to keep learning year-round. Learn more

• BOC courses are open for registration across the country — a great next step whether you’re just starting out or looking to formalize the skills you already have. Find a course

• Smart Buildings Exchange (SBX) returns to Seattle on November 9th and 10th. Join us for two days of connection and learning with the region’s energy efficiency and decarbonization community. Register here

However you’re settling back into fall, we hope you’ll take a moment to invest in yourself, or your team. We’d love to see you at one of these upcoming events.

SBX 2026 Prize Drawings & 9/12 Early-Bird Registration Deadline

September 7, 2026 By SBC staff

This year, when you attend SBX 2026 on November 9th & 1oth you will be entered into a prize drawing for two great prizes: a $500 airline travel voucher and a $250 Hyatt travel voucher! All you need to do is check in at the registration table and be present when the drawings happen each day during the networking happy hours.

SBX features a great line up of inspiring speakers and engaging sessions(opens in new tab), and by just showing up you have a great chance at winning these prizes.

Early-bird registration ends on September 12th – register today and save!(opens in new tab)

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(opens in new tab)Discounts are available for SBX sponsors, Building Potential members, and BOC students and grads. Please reach out to Britton Rife(opens in new tab) if you need a discount code.

Understanding Envelope Tradeoffs: Navigating the Component Performance Alternative Pathway in the Commercial Washington State Energy Code (WSEC-C)

September 4, 2026 By SBC staff

Registration Link:

https://washington.zoom.us/meeting/register/2ad2XZM8RReTc2GyKrVLrQ#/registration

Sponsors:

The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA)

Moderator:

Heather Burpee, UW Integrated Design Lab

Presenters:

Teresa Moroseos, UW Integrated Design Lab

Pia Westen, SHKS Architects

Andi Burnham, Delta E Consulting

Date: Sep 30, 2026 from 12-1 via webinar

CEUs: 1.0 AIA HSW or Certificates of Completion

Description:

Architects make many design decisions that shape envelope performance, yet UA trade-off analysis is often viewed as outside their scope. This webinar introduces the UA trade-off pathway as a practical design and compliance tool for commercial buildings under WSEC 2021. Participants will learn the fundamentals of U-factor and total UA analysis, how the trade-off pathway differs from prescriptive compliance, when it can provide useful design flexibility, and how envelope design strategies can be evaluated using the WSEC Webtool.

Topics will include:

Why architects should care about UA trade-off analysis
UA basics: a building science overview and what UA means
Prescriptive compliance versus the UA trade-off pathway
When UA trade-off analysis is useful, including examples from practice
Where U-factors come from
Demonstration of using the WSEC Webtool to conduct a UA trade-off analysis

The webinar will also briefly discuss when the Total Building Performance (C407) pathway may be appropriate for projects requiring additional flexibility, as well as upcoming code considerations, such as thermal bridging calculations.

Learning Objectives:

Explain the basic concepts of U-factor, envelope area, and total UA, and describe how they relate to building envelope performance.
Distinguish between the prescriptive envelope compliance pathway and the UA trade-off pathway under WSEC 2021.
Recognize common sources of U-factor information, including code lookup tables, manufacturer data, and calculated assembly values.
Understand the basic workflow for using a UA trade-off tool to evaluate envelope design options and support energy code compliance documentation.

SBX Day 2 Highlights | 9/12 Early-Bird Registration Deadline

September 2, 2026 By SBC staff

We’ve almost finalized the agenda for Smart Buildings Exchange (SBX) 2026 and wanted to share some highlights for Day 2!

We’re excited to have Perry England (MacDonald-Miller Facility Solutions) provide the SBX Day 2 Welcome Remarks followed by an Opening Keynote on “Accelerating Performance at the Speed of Innovation” by Megan Owen (McKinstry). Joseph Aamidor (Aamidor Consulting) will deliver the Lunch Keynote on “Smart Buildings in a Chaotic World” and Poppy Storm (2050 Institute) will deliver a forward-looking Closing Keynote on “What Will It Take to Reach Scale?”

Also on SBX Day 2, Nicole DeNamur (Climate Aligned Law) will moderate a debate between Larry Eisenberg (Ovus Partners 360), Kristin Gustafson (Eide Bailly), and Eli Lieberman (Washington Builds) centered on the question: should building performance continue to be financed as one-off owner projects, or treated like infrastructure? Topics will include green banks, public vs. private capital, utility investment, and the capital models most likely to unlock scale.

Early-bird registration ends on September 12th – register today and save!

Discounts are available for SBX sponsors, Building Potential members, and BOC students and grads. Please reach out to Britton Rife if you need a discount code.

Upcoming Webinar 9/17: ESPC 1.0: Energy Savings Performance Contracting (ESPC) in the K-12 Market

August 31, 2026 By SBC staff

Energy Savings Performance Contracting (ESPC) helps K–12 schools fund critical facility upgrades through verified energy savings. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and the National Center on School Infrastructure (NCSI) are co-hosting an upcoming webinar that will introduce the fundamentals of ESPC and demonstrate how schools, as well as other municipal and state facilities, can benefit from this proven project delivery approach.

Using the K–12 market as an example, this webinar will provide an introduction on getting started with ESPC (“ESPC 1.0”). Panelists will discuss topics relevant across the MUSH market (municipalities, universities, schools, and hospitals), including best practices for selecting and contracting with an energy service company (ESCO), strategies for avoiding common pitfalls, and lessons learned from successful ESPC projects.

Featured panelists include:

· Anisa Heming, U.S. Green Building Council – Center for Green Schools

· Dan Dowell, Johnson Controls

· Christopher McIntyre, Warren County Kentucky Public Schools

The discussion will be moderated by Kathryn Chelminski and Dana Robson (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory), along with Jeff Vincent of NCSI. The webinar will include opportunities for audience engagement and is intended for K–12 school leaders, state and local agencies, ESCOs, and other stakeholders interested in energy performance contracting.

This webinar is the first in a four-part series exploring ESPC opportunities across the MUSH market. Future sessions will include:

· ESPC for state and local governments

· ESPC financing structures

· Using the newly updated ESPC Model Documents

The series will also highlight the eProject eXpress (ePX) online platform, which enables MUSH organizations to track energy savings, manage project information, and securely store and share ESPC project data.

Thursday, September 17th at 10:00am Pacific/1:00pm Eastern to learn how ESPC can help schools and other public facilities improve infrastructure, reduce energy costs, and achieve long-term operational savings.

Register for the webinar here: https://go.lbl.gov/espc-K12-webinar

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