Beth Eckenrode
Username
Beth Eckenrode
Proposer First Name
Beth
Proposer Email
beth.eckenrode@aurosgroup.com
Proposer Last Name
Eckenrode
Boston 2021 Areas of Focus
Proposer Company/Organization
AUROS Group
Proposer Phone
(412) 506-6777
Proposer Job Title
Co-founder
Proposed Session Description
We will not get ourselves out of the climate crisis by only building new. We must address our existing building stock, in addition to new buildings to reach 2030 or UN Sustainable Development goals. Unfortunately, most owners can't see the power inherent in existing buildings to positively contribute to those goals because there is no evidence or proof of performance until now. Using building science AND data science, we are able to show trended building performance against goals set in design. We will show examples (new and renovated) of sports complex, university, and commercial & municipal buildings that are able to demonstrate the achievement of energy and indoor air quality goals using the context of what was promised during design. Using strategies that integrate building science with data science, building owners can save money, improve occupant health and reduce environmental impacts by deeply renovating existing buildings. It is possible to make old buildings perform like new without paying a sizable premium over traditional construction and the proof of performance is the key to unlock broad acceptance of zero-energy and healthy air quality goals.
Diversity and Inclusiveness
The obvious answer is that our panel is 66% female and 100% owners of their own companies. The less obvious answers are:
Laura Nettleton-- very few women in the building performance industry with the experience, grit and respect that Laura has garnered during her career. She shoots straight and instills a feeling of confidence in participants in her sessions.
Beth Eckenrode & Craig Stevenson, through their book, the Power of Existing Buildings, make social and environmental equity table stakes for the built environment. Their firm, the AUROS Group, is gaining regional notoriety in their ability to prove through evidence-based performance that building a high quality building that supports the health of building occupants doesn't have to cost one dollar more that building a traditional, code-based building. The alignment of interests such that every constituent wins is the only way to scale solutions in the built environment that will eliminate fuel poverty, while simultaneously attacking equitable indoor air quality.
Learning Objectives
Participants will see proof, in the form of operating data, that verifies which building science strategies optimize building performance in terms of Energy Efficiency and Healthy IAQ: Passive House, RESET Air. This LO provides participants confidence through data that highly aspirational building performance projects do not have to cost more to achieve results.
Participants will be shown the best tools to utilize existing data science tools to provide measurement & verification of results: modeling and simulations; monitors and sensors; open-integrated data networks and performance-based dashboard. This LO provides attendees simple ways to incorporate tools (data science) to prove performance in operations for energy and indoor air quality.
Participants will hear from project team members how to align every team around a metrics-based Owner's Project Requirements to increase the likelihood of delivering expected results in operations. For example, this LO provides participants a way to use a metrics-based Owner's Project Requirements to attack the metrics and policies required in a post-COVID19 environment to satisfy building owners and occupants of the health and safety of a building.
Participants will be given credentials to access, in real-time, data for the Pennsylvania and West Virginia projects in order to see operating results against targets. This is "evidence-based performance" as opposed to comparing a building's current performance against it's historical performance. The benefit of evidence-based performance is that trended data is shown using design goals and/or proforma as context. Only with that context will a building owner know if they got what they paid for in building performance.
Has this session been presented before?
No
Target Audiences Level of Expertise
Level 3 - Prior knowledge strongly recommended.
Session Format Details
Because a great deal of this session presents and references the real-time data on existing buildings (new and renovated), a discussion with the audience is ideal. The presenters will review a project and explain the goals, challenges and results of each project (5-7 mins). The facilitator will then create points of discussion between the presenters and the audience (15 mins). That cycle will repeat until the time of the session is completed. Three projects reviewed in 60 min session and five reviewed in 90 min session.
Recommended Length
60-minute session
90-minute session
Comments about your speaker roster
Beth Eckenrode-- trained facilitator. Recent engagements: Facilitated the first Owner's Roundtable Series for North American Passive House Conference (NAPHN) in June, 2020 with over 400 participants from around the world. Facilitated a Virtual Town Hall Meeting for Urban Land Institute (ULI) on Building Performance Post COVID--19, how to use building science and data science to optimize results, May, 2020.
Laura Nettleton-- expert in the field of building science. Laura is the recipient of the 2019 Michelle Madoff Award For Environmental Excellence from The Breathe Project for her contribution to air quality in the Pittsburgh Region. Her recent affordable multi-family project was given a PHFA Innovation in Design Award. Laura is a globally recognized expert in high performance buildings and is a frequent contributor to Passive House Accelerator.
Craig Stevenson-- expert in the fields of building science and data science. Last three speaking engagements: Build Pittsburgh, Nov 2020; REALComm/IBCon--October 2020; Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, AASHE, October 2020.
Beth Eckenrode & Craig Stevenson published authors: "The Power of Existing Buildings-- Save Money, Improve Health and Reduce Environmental Impacts" Island Press 2019.
Anything else you'd like to tell us about your session proposal?
https://www.amazon.com/Power-Existing-Buildings-Improve-Environmental/dp/164283050X
Our presenters are unique. Their real-world experience, proclivity for data to prove results and literary acclaim make them a formidable team for any building owner or industry practitioner looking for practical and cost-effective solution to ultra-low energy and equitable indoor air quality.
Reviewer 1
Nielson, Christopher
Reviewer 2
Lo, Richard
Proposal #
103
Committee Decision
Being Considered
Presenters
Full Description
The global community of practitioners in the built environment are committed to goals of reducing fuel poverty and creating healthy indoor air quality, but what remains illusive is "how". The only way to achieve broad acceptance that these goals are achievable within a budget is to show performance data in operations that is achieving the goals set in design without spending premiums in the cost of construction. Using 3-5 projects in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, the audience will get a chance to scrutinize dynamic performance data (in real time) and draw their own conclusions of the achievability of aspirational building performance goals.