Presenters:

Stephen Selkowitz, Department Head, Building Technologies Department, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA

Mark Frankel, AIA, ASHRAE, LEED AP, Technical Director, New Buildings Institute, White Salmon, WA

Paul Schwer, PE, LEED AP, President, PAE Consulting Engineers, Inc., Portland, OR 

Clark Brockman, AIA, LEED AP, Associate Principal, Director of Sustainability Resources, SERA Architects, Portland, OR

Session sponsored by Ideate, Inc.

Perhaps no concept in the green building movement is more immediately enticing and elusive than that of Net Zero Energy (NZE) buildings. A building that makes as much energy as it uses over a year is a compelling objective, yet the US Department of Energy’s Zero Energy Building’s website catalogues only seven commercial buildings that have attained this performance goal. This threshold is the key prerequisite in the Living Building Challenge associated with combating climate change from global warming pollution. Many factors combine in the pursuit of NZE buildings, from dramatic building energy efficiency dependent on complex system interrelationships, to climate dependent renewable energy systems, to the most unpredictable and capricious factor of all: the building’s occupants. The most elegant and refined NZE building design has no chance of success without deliberate and ongoing participation by its occupants – this factor is clearly a large contributor in the low number of actual NZE buildings. The green building community must overcome this hurdle. The benefits are so significant to society and building owners, near and long-term, that success must begin to be achieved and rapidly expanded across the building industry. 

This session will be conducted by industry leaders who will review and explore what has been done, what’s being done and what is yet to come in NZE buildings. Session participants will then break into groups to discuss strategies and solutions to this vexing goal that so many are aspiring to reach.

Presenter Bios

Stephen Selkowitz

Stephen has over 30 years of experience in building energy performance and sustainable design, with an emphasis on research, development and deployment of energy efficient technologies and design practices. Projects range from basic materials research for advanced façades and daylighting, to development of new energy simulation tools for integrated building design and operations, and from near term demonstrations of emerging technologies to research for a new generation of “zero energy” or “carbon-neutral” buildings.

Paul Schwer

As president of PAE Consulting Engineers Paul Schwer has led the firm’s emergence as a national leader in sustainable building design. He has provided expertise for dozens of high performance buildings including more than 30 LEED projects. He is currently working on Net Zero Energy projects from Maryland to Oregon. Because of his commitment to sustainable buildings, Paul is featured in the new Natural Step film, “A Passion for Sustainability.”

Mark Frankel

Mark has been consulting on energy efficiency and sustainable design for over 17 years. He led the development of the Advanced Buildings Core Performance program, a prescriptive energy program for savings of 20-30% over code. Mark also co-authored a recently released study of LEED building energy performance. Currently he is involved in national coalitions to improve and encourage building performance feedback to the design community.

Clark Brockman

Clark is a frequent lecturer and panel participant on green building process and policy, and the connections between buildings and climate change. In March of 2008, Clark traveled through China and conducted green building workshops in multiple cities on a USDOE grant. He is the co-chair of the Governor of Oregon’s Energy Efficiency Legislative Workgroup for the 2009 session. Clark led the team for the Rose House, Portland’s first home to strive for Net Zero Energy performance.