Single Family Retrofit to Passive House EnerPHit Standards

When an experienced builder does a whole-house upgrade of their own home, you know it’s going to be done right. When that builder is Jesper Kruse, owner of Maine Passive House, you know remarkable energy efficiency will be the outcome. And when that house is the one Kruse himself built 20 years ago - the first house he ever built - well, you know it’s going to be an especially interesting adventure in single family retrofits. Kruse will explain why he decided to undertake this project.

The Glue That Binds PrePHab: How Designers & Builders SIMMplify Passive House

The typical picture of prefabrication – a panel being positioned by crane – belies the tremendous amount of required planning and interdisciplinary coordination. Single Integrated Manufacturing Modeling (SIMM) and off-site prefabrication work together as the glue that binds this collaboration.
 
Where many educational programs focus on the rapid installation and production benefits of prefabrication, this session emphasizes the coordinated up-front approach.

Historic Buildings & Climate Change Mitigation: Case Study of a Low-Carbon Renovation

Retrofitting vacant and underutilized historic buildings to PHIUS standards leverages an existing building’s embodied carbon, which combined with low carbon and carbon storing materials, can transform our historic buildings into carbon sinks. With careful consideration, the Federal Historic Tax Credit program can provide an additional source of funding for these ambitious Passive House projects. Currently under construction, Moran Square is one of the first PHIUS Historic Tax Credit projects in the US. The site includes a historic firehouse, a vacant lot, and historic three-story building.

Modular vs. Stick-built: A Side-by-Side Comparison with Habitat for Humanity

Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity, Simple City Studio, and VEIC present PV Habitat’s award-winning experiment in affordable net-zero housing. Using data from a recent build, PV Habitat compares build time, cost, and energy efficiency between modular and stick-built construction, focusing on the trade-offs between affordability and energy efficiency, and examining where design can simplify or complicate a build.

Leaving the Mesozoic Behind: From Fossil Fuels to the Future via Carbon-Neutral Buildings

New York State’s carbon-neutral policies and on-the-ground programs are the leading edge in the Northeast and provide a model for all communities. Come be informed and inspired by NYSERDA’s upcoming Carbon Neutral Buildings Roadmap. As part of Governor Cuomo’s Green New Deal for New York, NYSERDA has been spearheading the development of an overarching framework for decarbonizing New York’s buildings by 2050. This presentation will outline the policies and programmatic areas that will achieve radical reduction in the carbon emissions of buildings.

Low-Carbon Concrete & Steel Structures

The carbon emissions associated with the production of concrete and steel are significant contributors to the climate crisis, but these materials will remain over the next decade when much of the greatest reductions in greenhouse gas emissions must be made to avoid the worst effects of climate change. Structural engineers can directly influence the emissions related to these materials on their projects through design and procurement optimization and best-practices.

Sheridan Small Homes: Affordable Passive Houses for In-Fill Development

Sheridan Small Homes is a project that originated in the classroom at the Rhode Island School of Design. The two passive house prototype student designs were created as a solution to increase affordable housing and make use of 200 undersized vacant lots in Providence, RI. The homes were funded through a combination of energy grants and incentive programs and were built by an apprentice training program that provides valuable work experience and career opportunities for low-income diverse community members.

Piloting, Scaling & Committing to Healthier Materials

When it comes to toxic chemicals, there is an urgent need for market transformation. Occupants, tradespeople, and fence line communities are being contaminated by the chemical manufacturing industry, which raises concerns about environmental racism and injustice. We can support these communities by reducing and eliminating classes of chemicals from our buildings. 
 
This session presents four entities who have stepped up to the challenge: MIT, Colby College, Shepley Bulfinch, and Thornton Tomasetti.

Schools of Thought

At Bristol County Agricultural High School, the campus is the classroom. The site is an arboretum; buildings are structured with timber, encouraging conversations of carbon and land use. Composting toilets manage human waste using no potable water and promote conversations about soil health. Rainwater is harvested for irrigation and becomes part of an ongoing conversation about water use. These strategies prompt questions about resources and waste, energy, and water use and quality.
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