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Username
Jay Field
Proposer First Name
Matthew
Proposer Email
jay.field@timberhp.com
Proposer Last Name
O'Malia
Proposer Phone
(207) 815-5429
Proposer Job Title
Co-founder and Vice-President
Proposer Additional Info
Matthew O’Malia is an award-winning architect with a nationwide reputation for innovation and expertise in the design of high performance residential and institutional buildings. O’Malia is co-founder and executive partner or OPAL Architecture and co-founder and vice president of TimberHP by GO Lab, which will soon become the first company to manufacture wood fiber insulation in North America, inside a former paper mill in Madison, Maine. O’Malia’s move into building materials manufacturing grew out of his early work in the Passive House movement in the Northeast and his determination to use his professional life to address the growing climate crisis. O’Malia and his business partner, TimberHP by GO Lab co-founder and President Joshua Henry, purchased the former UPM paper mill in 2019. With renovations now underway, O’Malia and Henry continue to work on building the TimberHP team and brand and telling the company’s story, ahead of its 2023 entry into the marketplace in the Northeastern U.S.
Proposed Session Description
Getting to net-zero emissions, as called for in the AIA 2030 climate challenge, requires more highly insulated new buildings and retrofits of existing ones. But the operational energy savings achieved from better insulated building envelopes can be negatively offset by the use of insulations derived from fossil fuels. Carbon-storing insulation can lower the levels of embodied carbon in buildings, which the AIA projects will take up almost half of all emissions from new construction by 2050. In this session, wood fiber insulation maker TimberHP shows the carbon savings that be achieved by renovating 10% of residential housing in the U.S. yearly to Passive House standard—with the use of 100% wood fiber insulation in above grade applications.
Why is this session important?
Driving down the operational energy needs of buildings can be fairly easy. By tightening the building envelope and increasing the amount of insulation used, the ability to create and maintain conditioned space requires very little energy. But the key for realizing an immediate, more lasting reduction in atmospheric carbon also relies on using insulating materials that do not rely heavily on fossil fuels for their composition and production. We are in unprecedented times in the U.S. when it comes to sustainable construction born from American-made products that can help answer the climate crisis. The Biden Administration is committed to energy upgrades of 4 million buildings and improving energy efficiency through renovation of 2 million homes over the next 4 years to drive down operational energy consumption. The Administration has set a goal to spur the construction of 1.5 million sustainable homes and housing units and focus on clean energy solutions born from American factories. The U.S. currently has no manufacturer producing a complete line of environmentally sustainable insulation solutions at scale with the ability to answer the demands of the construction industry.
Learning Objectives
Understand why transitioning to carbon-storing insulation is critical to the broader, long-term efforts to lower embodied carbon in the built environment.
Understand the carbon savings that can be achieved through passive house retrofits and new builds that utilize carbon storing insulation in the building envelope.
Understand the linkage between tighter building codes and opportunities for new construction and retrofits that utilize carbon-storing building products.
Further explain the relationship between operational and embodied carbon in the built environment.
Has this session been presented before?
No
Session Format
Interview or structured conversation among panelists

Strongest Content Connection - NYC 2022

Reviewer 1
Bayer, Sara
Reviewer 2
Engoren, Elizabeth
Proposal #
127
Committee Decision
Being Considered