SBC News - Smart Buildings Center

ACEEE Summer Study Proceedings Published

October 31, 2024 By SBC staff

Earlier this year, Building Potential submitted a paper that was accepted for publication in the conference proceedings for the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) Summer Study, an annual conference held at Asilomar in Pacific Grove, CA. ACEEE is a well-respected non-profit research organization that influences “transformative policies to reduce energy waste and combat climate change.” In the buildings sector, ACEEE “works to help national, state, and local governments develop, implement, and adopt whole-building solutions that significantly improve the energy efficiency of our existing buildings.” The annual conference attracts a broad swath of policy makers, researchers, and other influential changemakers from around the world.

Melissa Sokolowsky, Senior Project Manager at Building Potential, attended the Summer Study and was invited to present highlights of the paper, titled “Equitable Workforce Development in Decarbonizing Existing Buildings”, at a poster session during the conference. The paper explores the opportunities and benefits of diversifying the building operations workforce that are presented by various factors, such as the acceleration of decarbonization initiatives at the federal, state, and local levels and existing workforce gaps that are projected to increase.

The conference was also a great opportunity to connect with representatives from some of our partner organizations and collaborators, such as Washington State Department of Commerce, Energy Trust of Oregon, Slipstream, AESC and more!

Building Potential’s paper can be found at the following link:

https://www.aceee.org/sites/default/files/proceedings/ssb24/assets/attachments/20240722163155891_82c0b0cb-1459-45a7-859f-e5cb3820d187.pdf

The full conference proceedings including all accepted papers can be found by browsing the Summer Study Proceedings under Events on aceee.org. Our paper is included under Buildings in Panel 13A – Workforce.

Sources:
https://www.aceee.org/about-us
https://www.aceee.org/program/energy-efficiency-buildings

Smart Buildings Center Partner Wins National Award

October 24, 2024 By SBC staff

The Smart Buildings Center congratulates our partner, the Greater Seattle Chapter of IFMA, on winning the National Large Chapter of the Year award from IFMA national. SBC Director of Education and Training, Melanie Danuser, serves as Vice President of Education for the chapter and was present at the annual World Workplace conference to accept the award with other chapter leaders. Read on for the announcement from the chapter:

The Greater Seattle Chapter of IFMA is thrilled to announce we have won the Large Chapter of the Year award!

Thank you to @IFMA for the honor and a huge shoutout to our board for their phenomenal work. The chapter has truly launched from COVID era struggle to a facility management powerhouse and we couldn’t be more proud. A special thank you to all of our sustaining and program sponsors who make what we do possible.

Keep an eye out for our new event schedule in the coming month for 2025, we’re preparing for an even better year and can’t wait to spend it with all of you!

Smart Buildings Exchange 2024 Session Recordings Available!

September 10, 2024 By SBC staff

Last month the fourth annual Smart Buildings Exchange (SBX) delivered a value-packed three days of conversations focused on the market opportunity for smart buildings and solutions to some of the challenges currently facing the commercial, corporate, and institutional real estate industries.

The conference kicked off with a virtual Opening Plenary featuring industry leaders discussing the public, private and tax credit resources that will catalyze the decarbonization of the built environment. Following the Opening Plenary were virtual sessions on Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings as a Utility Resource, Indoor Environmental Quality – Field Results Inform Operational Practices, Planning & Implementing Campus-Scale Decarbonization, and Making Buildings Smarter – Live Demonstration.

The second day of the conference began with a virtual Plenary Session on Innovations for an Electrified & Decarbonized Future which examined where we are with the pace of innovation – technology, construction, finance, and policy – and what more we need to do to go further faster. The day continued with virtual sessions on Building Owner/Manager Guide to Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings, Choosing the Smart Buildings Platform Right for You, Fault Detection & Diagnostics – Real World Lessons for Field Service, and Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) Reporting – Losing the Acronym, Improving the Result.

The third and final day of the conference was held in-person in Seattle and featured opening remarks from Dawn Lindell, General Manager and CEO of Seattle City Light, followed by panel discussions with leaders from Washington State, Oregon, Colorado, the U.S. Department of Energy, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on how different jurisdictions are structuring building performance standards, and how existing building commissioning can offer an initial path to standard compliance.

All of the virtual SBX session recordings are now available on the Smart Buildings Center YouTube Channel so you can watch any you missed and rewatch any you enjoyed. The recording for the in-person day will be available in the coming days.

Thank you to all sponsors, planning committee members, speakers, and attendees who helped make the event a success!

First School District in WA to Comply with CBPS

September 6, 2024 By SBC staff

OLYMPIA SCHOOL DISTRICT has become the first school in Washington to achieve compliance with the Clean Building Performance Standards! The achievement was supported by Climate Corps Fellow Grace Yockey, who drafted critical documents for submission.

Yockey worked on the Energy Maintenance Plan, detailing the district’s energy efficiency improvements, as well as the Operations and Maintenance Plan, showing how buildings will be operated and maintained. “Olympia School District’s Capital High School was the first building to submit and get approved,” Grace said, “our submission can serve as a model and resource.”

Yockey’s supervisor and team lead, Frank Wilson, is the Executive Director of Operations at Olympia School District. “Grace has an excellent grasp of our district goals,” Wilson shared, “They align well with her own personal beliefs, which helps keep the [sustainability] conversation at the forefront.”

The accomplishment was published in the Spring 2024 WAMOA journal.

Follow SEI on LinkedIn for more info and posts like this!

Building Potential and Smart Buildings Center Education Program Named as Partners on Federal Grants

September 4, 2024 By SBC staff

Building Potential and Smart Buildings Center Education program are excited to announce the organizations were named as sub awardees on two federal grants with our partners the City of Seattle Office of Sustainability & Environment (OSE) and WA Department of Commerce!

City of Seattle’s OSE – Building Potential named as partner to provide technical help desk support and development of BOC curriculum to support Building Emissions Performance Standard

WA State Dept of Commerce – SBCEP named as partner to scale Climate Corps Fellow program and additional support for Clean Buildings Performance Standard compliance

We are proud to announce these partnerships and look forward to continuing to work with OSE and Commerce by creating and expanding access to technical resources and educational programs that help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and expand the skills of our green workforce.

SBX Session Highlight: Fault Detection & Diagnostics – Real World Lessons for Field Service

August 20, 2024 By SBC staff

Join us virtually for the Smart Buildings Exchange (SBX) 2024 Fault Detection & Diagnostics – Real World Lessons for Field Service session on August 28th from 1:00 – 2:15 pm PT.

Recent field research provides valuable insight on the quantity, common occurrence, and persistence of faults detected in Fault Detection & Diagnostics (FDD) systems. These results, published by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), are important for building operators/field service personnel and FDD software developers. This session will feature a lead researcher from LBNL and expert voices from field service and in-house operations staff on how FDD can be best used for operational improvement. Panelists include Jessica Granderson (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory), Seth Ferrara (MacDonald-Miller Facility Solutions), Jeremy Richmond (MSIe), and Mike Bigelow, Seattle Children’s Hospital.

You don’t want to miss this session — register now!

View the full agenda & register for free today!

Event schedule
Day 1 (virtual): August 27^th 8:45am-2:15pm Pacific
Day 2 (virtual): August 28^th 9am-2:15pm Pacific
Day 3 (in-person, Seattle): August 29^th 9am-1:30pm Pacific

View the full agenda & register for free today!

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