We cannot achieve the Green Building targets for reducing carbon emissions with the current workforce. We need to rapidly increase the number of individuals in green building fields - designers, green building professionals, engineers, general contractors, envelope consultants, as well as qualified electricians, plumbers, and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) tradespeople who can install heat pumps and solar systems.

The year 2020 marked the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, a decade until major carbon emission goals, and the first year of the AIA Framework for Design Excellence. There is no better time to take stock of your firm's sustainable design practice, whether you have been doing this for decades or just starting out. The design community is truly in this together and sharing is critical. This session will provide lessons learned from small, medium, and large size Boston firms on how to integrate sustainable design holistically and successfully into practice.

This session features an in-depth review of an award-winning multi-family low energy (Passive House) building in New York City.  We will review the technical aspects of the building, from the components to the layout and finishes with the architect, discuss motivating factors and financial decisions with the developer, and explore the challenges, solutions and best in class techniques for executing a successful project.

We recognize the need to diversify the sustainability industry, but how do we change the mostly white mostly male status quo? How do we create pathways to include underrepresented populations at the table? This session features women of color who will share strategies and opportunities for advancing racial equity in companies and organizations.

Consider the qualities of startup culture: Continuous improvement, learning from our work. Valuing staff, treating them as our prime asset. Agile development with fast iterations and innovations. Reliance on specifications that are central to workflow. Why don’t typical firms – yours? – have these qualities? And what would happen if they did? Owners are demanding increasingly high performance and firms won’t be competitive if they can’t pivot and transform and adopt the habits and disciplines of startup culture.

High performing buildings consume considerably less energy and water than conventional buildings. Through energy modeling and water use projections, design teams have been able to calculate the amount expected to be saved during the design phase. However, not much has been done to circle back and compare these projections to actual performance. This pilot study compares actual operating results to predicted in 21 public buildings in Massachusetts to learn how accurate these projections are.