Education & Training Archives - Smart Buildings Center

Online Training: Washington State Clean Buildings Performance Standard – What do installers, vendors & building operators need to know?

October 13, 2022 By Britton Rife

Tuesday, November 1st
11:00 AM – 1:00 PM Pacific Time

Description
This free training will provide an introduction to the Washington State Clean Buildings Performance Standard (CBPS) and highlight tools and resources available to installers, vendors, and building operators to assist building owners with energy efficiency improvements that may be required for standard compliance.

Presenter’s bio
Rebecca Sheppard is a Senior Project Manager at the Northwest Energy Efficiency Council and Smart Buildings Center. She holds an MBA, is a Building Operator Certification (BOC) Level II graduate and has a certificate in Construction Management from the University of Washington. Throughout her career including her time as a Resource Conservation Manager, she has worked on various building retrofit projects, energy management and analysis, project management, and capital projects.

Successful completion of the training provides 2 points towards maintaining your Building Operator Certification (BOC) Credential and .20 IACET CEU’s towards the renewal of other industry certifications, certificates and licenses.

Register Here

This training is funded and supported by:

Webinar: Draft Emissions Targets for Seattle Building Performance Standards, October 25th at 12pm

October 13, 2022 By Britton Rife

Join the Office of Sustainability & Environment (OSE) for a technical webinar at which OSE and SBW Consulting will share the draft greenhouse gas intensity targets under consideration and the analysis conducted to inform the targets. Presentations will be followed by the opportunity for comments and questions. OSE will also provide a brief overview of the proposed policy and the updated timeline.

This webinar is a follow-up to open houses in April and June that provided detailed background and the draft policy framework. Recordings and slides from those events are available at www.seattle.gov/building-performance-standards.

Date: October 25, 2022 from 12:00pm to 1:00pm
Location: Online via Zoom
Pre-register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_3nqYS-oWSo-v6_dCnCagNg

This webinar will be recorded and posted on the OSE website afterwards.

About the Policy: Performance standards are a powerful tool to reduce climate pollution and transition toward cleaner, healthier buildings where we live and work. This policy is projected to reduce emissions from Seattle’s buildings (in total) 27% by 2050. This 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 2026 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 and timeline.

2022-2023 Better Buildings Webinar Series

September 22, 2022 By Britton Rife

This annual series brought to you by the U.S. Department of Energy will showcase the latest topics, technologies, and trends to help your organization accelerate its efforts to save money, reduce waste and reduce carbon emissions. These webinars bring you the latest actionable insights from leading organizations and industry experts. Click here to view details about each webinar and register.

Topics for this season include:

Decarbonization
Electrification
Financing Solutions
Workforce Development
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
And More!

The next webinar in the series is on Financing Decarbonization Projects on Tuesday, September 27th from 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM ET. Learn about the financing mechanisms Better Buildings Financial Allies use with organizations interested in decarbonization projects, with practical steps to identify and source capital from grants, third-party investors, bonds, and more. Register here.

Webinars are typically held on Tuesdays at 11 a.m. ET. Don’t miss this chance to hear from experts in the field and your peers in energy efficiency – check out the full series schedule and sign up today!

No-Cost Program Prioritized for Buildings in Seattle Serving BIPOC & Frontline Communities to Meet State Clean Buildings Law

September 5, 2022 By Britton Rife

The new Seattle Clean Buildings Accelerator technical support program assists building owners or managers to meet the WA Clean Buildings Law (applies to commercial, nonprofit & nonresidential buildings 50,000 ft² and larger) and reduce building emissions. An educational path for all buildings and individualized coaching will be starting this fall. Coaching training spaces are prioritized for buildings that serve or have importance to frontline communities (e.g., black, indigenous, people of color, immigrants, refugees, youth, elders, houseless people, disabled people, LGBTQ+ people, low-income). This could include many types of buildings or those with tenants like nonprofit organizations, small/local businesses, museums, shelters, community centers, worship facilities, health centers, nursing homes, and more. Register for a Sept 7^th (noon – 1pm) info session or visit the program website to learn more and watch a past info session recording.

Transatlantic Energy Efficiency Forum – The Role of Electrification, Sept 22nd

September 5, 2022 By Britton Rife

Decarbonizing Buildings – The Role of Electrification

This virtual event will discuss the transatlantic movement away from fossil fuels and gas toward carbon-free electricity.

In the US, buildings are responsible for 28% of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. But more than half of American houses still use gas or other fossil fuels as their main source of heating and cooking, which results in the production of hazardous gasses including methane, carbon dioxide, and many more.

Washington State is the first in the US to have statewide energy codes that require building electrification. We want to find out if building electrification is the push to switch from using fossil fuels for cooking and heating to clean energy consumption.

Questions we will cover in our virtual event:

What fuel-switching incentives and electrification programs exist?
Does electrification play the same role in Germany and Washington State?
What role will utilities play?
What has to happen in addition to carbon-free electricity?

Key Takeaways:

Find out if electrification is a key component of a green transition
Understand how Germany and Washington State can learn from each other
Learn about the role of renewables – status quo and goals
Gain insights about German technologies

Register Here!

Find the link to part 1 of this virtual event series here.

SBC Announces 2022 BOC Operator of the Year!

September 1, 2022 By Britton Rife

The Smart Buildings Center (SBC) and Building Operator Certification (BOC) program are proud to announce the 2022 BOC Operator of the Year: Matthew Wardell, Building Maintenance Supervisor for the City of Kentwood, Michigan.

Each year, BOC requests nominations for people working to improve the energy efficiency of their work environment using skills they learned in the BOC program. We received many impressive 2022 nominations detailing how methods learned in BOC classes are helping people make improvements in their work environments, but Matt’s story stood out among the rest.

In his role at the City of Kentwood, Matt manages nine city buildings, four of which are staffed 24 hours a day. Matt was pivotal in completing the Consumer’s Energy Building Tune Up Program in four City of Kentwood owned buildings from 2020 to 2022. The buildings were benchmarked using Energy Star Portfolio Manager, and all four buildings were significantly improved by Matt’s efforts. His BOC training and hard work translated into the following:

Energy savings in the four buildings of a total 586,592 kWh annually
$46,927 in annual electric cost savings
Energy savings equaling 21% of the total buildings’ energy use
The City Hall’s Energy Star score increased by 114%
The City Hall’s Energy Usage Intensity (EUI) decreased by 23.5%

Matt believes BOC training is valuable because it touches on the many different aspects of energy conservation. He has found BOC training to be helpful as it builds and expands on knowledge in the many different areas of operating healthy and efficient buildings. The thing he enjoys most about his work is having a positive impact.

The SBC and BOC program applaud Matt on his efforts to improve the City of Kentwood’s building energy performance and congratulate him on being named as 2022 BOC Operator of the Year!

Know someone who deserves recognition for their work in the industry? Nominations will open for the 2023 BOC Operator of the Year award in May, so stay tuned!