Resources Archives - Smart Buildings Center

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

January 18, 2023 By Jacob Hubbell

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.

AESP Seeking Input on Flexible Demand Management Workforce Training

January 18, 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.

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.

Please take a few minutes to provide your input by Monday, January 30^th, 2023.

A Proven Approach to High-Performance HVAC Improves Efficiency, Health & Comfort

January 18, 2023 By SBC staff

This resource is brought to you by BetterBricks

Very high efficiency dedicated outside air systems (very high efficiency DOAS) pair the highest performance HVAC equipment with key design principles to provide cleaner and safer indoor air, enhance indoor comfort, and reduce commercial building HVAC energy use. This approach has been demonstrated to reduce HVAC energy use by an average of 69% when compared to a code-minimum version of the existing equipment (often a packaged rooftop unit).

Very high efficiency DOAS consists of the following key elements:

A high efficiency HRV/ERV that features 82% or greater sensible effectiveness.
High-performance heating and cooling system that meets ENERGY STAR® performance standards.
Ventilation fully separated from heating and cooling.
Right-sized heating and cooling equipment.

To learn more about very high efficiency DOAS, including through case studies, research, and technical guides, visit: https://betterbricks.com/solutions/very-high-efficiency-doas

Seattle Clean Buildings Accelerator Updates

November 15, 2022 By SBC staff

The following updates about the Seattle Clean Buildings Accelerator—a no-cost technical support and training program for building owners and operators to meet the requirements of the Washington Clean Buildings law and reduce carbon emissions—were provided by Stillwater Energy and the Seattle Office of Sustainability & Environment.

The Educational Pathway—a web-based resource—is live! https://www.seattlebuildingsaccelerator.com/
- This educational pathway is self-led online and is available to all audiences and building types who need to comply with the WA Clean Building law (buildings that are 50,000 square feet or larger).
- To access, we ask building owner/operators to complete a brief form to help us learn more about their building’s needs, so that we can grow and tailor the resources as we make updates.
- We will continue to update this site with resources and information to help buildings comply with the WA Clean Buildings law and reduce carbon emissions.
The first cohort of the Light Coaching Pathway launched October 12 with six organizations enrolled! We are now enrolling for a second cohort in December.
- The light coaching pathway provides tailored support and hands-on assistance.
- Seattle is prioritizing the Light Coaching Pathway for building(s) located in or serving frontline communities including black people, Indigenous people, sovereign tribal nations, communities of color, immigrants, refugees, youths, elders, houseless people, disabled people, LGBTQ+ people, and people with low and no income. This may include many types of buildings like non-profits, buildings with small businesses important to or owned by frontline communities, museums, shelters, healthcare facilities, community centers and more.
- If you know of a building that is in or serves frontline communities, please send them our way for an upcoming informational session on Tuesday, November 29 from 12:00 – 1:00 PM. Register here: https://bit.ly/SeattleCleanBuildingsInfo_Nov29

For additional information, see the Seattle Clean Buildings Accelerator flyer or reach out to cleanbuildings@stillwaterenergy.com.

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

October 13, 2022 By SBC staff

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 SBC staff

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.