We learn much of what we know about how buildings really perform from doing measurements and monitoring. This session presents five case studies in which targeted data monitoring led to understanding and resolutions of apparently vexing issues.

Affordable housing is key to bringing equity to disadvantaged communities. In Boston, the Department of Neighborhood Development (DND) design guidelines are pushing affordable housing with strict requirements that are equal to Passive House performance standards.

Bowdoin College is currently constructing a pair of connected campus buildings, both with mass timber structures. Located in the Pine Tree State, the project is ironically using timber sourced overseas.

Windows and glazing play a disproportionate role in a building's performance compared to other parts of the assembly.  As we strive to meet our 2030 and 2050 climate goals the design strategies for both our new and existing buildings must be closely evaluated.

While Massachusetts  and many communities have made commitments to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, Boston and Cambridge specifically are on the leading edge of implementing requirements around existing building emission reductions. Emissions tracking has started to move building owners toward benchmarking their carbon impact and developing long-term plans for compliance, with an eye toward minimizing costs.

Transform your practice by taking responsibility for the carbon footprint of your work. This session reviews existing tools and frameworks, from planning scale to site and garden design, integrating metrics from both architecture and landscape design, including Sasaki's new Carbon Conscience: Embodied Carbon Planning Tool incorporating both architecture and landscape at the site planning level. Panelists will share their findings from translating primary research into accessible tools and best practices, with examples from planning, architecture and landscape projects.

Wood-insulated panels (WIPs) combine CLT with rigid exterior wood fiber insulation (WFI) to create a consistent, uniform panel with continuous exterior insulation. These panels can be used to fabricate shell systems, delivering a structural/thermal/moisture enclosure solution for use in new construction and retrofits, and the wood cut-outs from these panels go into the WFI "hopper" in a cradle-to-cradle cycle. This session will present the results from OPAL Build's pilot project, a 1000sf schoolhouse in Belfast, Maine.

A large number of effective multifamily energy programs have supported retrofits at thousands of properties in the last decade. The next generation of multifamily programs, however, must catalyze the decarbonization of almost all existing buildings over the next 2-3 decades. With the increasing urgency of the climate crisis, and new Building Performance Standard policies creating strong local imperatives, how will energy programs go both deeper and broader than those of the past?

While project teams typically establish quantifiable performance targets for their projects, there is no magic bullet for defining the right energy consumption goal for each project. This panel of high-performance experts and architects will discuss strategies for quantitative goal setting: when, who, and how aggressive.