This session will discuss the process of transforming an old masonry building in Newton MA into a PHIUS-certified net-zero office space and educational center for high-performance design and construction. The construction process will be discussed and Passive House features of the building will be described as will challenges and lessons learned from the process.

The invention of the blower door was an important step in minimizing thermal losses from buildings. By depressurizing the envelope and using tracer smoke, we can find the air leaks and seal them. A new method has emerged that seals air leaks using an aerosolized acrylic caulking and pressurization, sealing even hidden leaks. Join us in a discussion about the advantages of both methods, best practices, and real world examples.

This is a tale of two companies on a quest to account for the embodied carbon impacts of energy retrofits, and to incorporate these impacts into the project planning process. How do we decide when embodied emissions are worth longer-term emission reductions? What are the pros and cons of choosing lower embodied carbon materials compared to higher emission ones?

The purpose of this session is three-fold: To educate attendees about what embodied carbon is and how it's different from operational carbon. To discuss why reducing it is significant for global warming mitigation. And third, to describe the programs and policies local governments are considering to spur embodied carbon reduction. You will hear from experts about best practices to measure and reduce embodied carbon in common construction materials. You will learn how municipalities like Seattle and others are using these resources to implement internal and city-wide initiatives.

Join the growing community of radically responsible industry stewards using Hempcrete, a bio-composite material created from the woody core of the hemp plant combined with a lime-based binder. Trusted around the world as a robust, high-performance sustainable building system, HempLime entered the US market a decade ago and is poised to take the industry by storm. Delve into design and construction details and review the specifics of costs, source material supply, and obtaining building approval from officials.

As architects, designers, builders, and community advocates, we value the adaptive reuse of buildings, but lack data to verify our design choices. We often operate on intuition to choose what to reuse and what to upgrade, attempting to balance life cycle impacts of new construction materials while lowering operational energy use. Over the last decade, Boston firms Bruner/Cott and Goody Clancy have evolved their practices in high-performance and transformative reuse to think more deeply about the embodied and operational impacts of reuse projects.

This session will provide concrete tools and answers on how to draw down carbon in our buildings starting today. We’ll focus on low-rise buildings, where most new construction and renovations happen and which are currently under-represented in embodied-carbon design and analysis. We will present critical construction details such as band joist insulation selections and sloped ceiling retrofits, as well as whole-building design strategies.

In today's climate crisis, it's imperative to change the way we design and build in order to reduce or eliminate carbon emissions. However, some of these changes to building design can introduce unanticipated side effects. We can minimize these side effects on future projects by learning from each other - we all have insights that we've gleaned from our own projects. This presentation is a collection of lessons learned on the path to better performing buildings. Let’s share! Topics include wood vs.