Clean Energy Financing: Collaboration in New York State
NYSERDA and HCR co-developed and launched a pilot called the Clean Energy Initiative ("CEI") program, which integrates technical assistance and clean energy funding through NYSERDA's support into HCR’s affordable housing finance application process. This panel will cover the collaboration, program design, opportunity for scaling, and lessons learned to date, as well as highlighting a project currently participating in the CEI program.
Equitability: A Guide to Truly Hearing Our Residents
The triple bottom line of sustainability addresses the importance of environmental, social and economic considerations. It's something we all strive to achieve. That being said, the social aspect is often forgotten or overlooked, particularly in affordable housing. Very often, residents are spoken for and not included in the decision making process upfront. This session will highlight typical resident responses and concerns that we hear every day. It will also highlight new strategies that aim to improve interactions with residents, throughout the design process.
CLT Passive House Confidential: The Financial and Logistical Synergy of PH and Mass Timber
Combining Passive House and mass timber construction presents an opportunity to optimize both operational and embodied carbon. The exposed wood CLT structure and building envelope elements offer numerous benefits including interior aesthetics, a healthier indoor environment, reduced use of interior finish materials, and shorter construction duration. However, to date, most CLT multifamily developments have been boutique condominium projects.
A Successful Approach to Achieving Passive House at Scale
Successful Passive House teams throughout North America follow an approach that, if replicated at scale, can reduce the energy load and carbon output of the built environment at the level needed to address climate change, while improving building quality. Effective scaling requires maintaining an integrated team from early design through construction completion. In this session, we will identify challenges in the Passive House process and share the details of a proven approach to integrating teams, which can be easily and repeatably implemented in projects of all sizes and types.
Engineering Design Considerations for Energy and Carbon Reduction Recommendations
To comply with NYC Local Law 97, buildings will need guidance on how to implement capital measures that effectively reduce carbon emissions. However, even detailed energy studies can have unrealistic recommendations if engineering design considerations are neglected. Meanwhile, design engineers tend to focus more on system sufficiency instead of efficiency. Practitioners are tasked with narrowing this knowledge gap and identifying crucial details that could make or break a building’s ability to implement recommendations.
Achieving Resource Efficient Decarbonization in Cold Climates
The session will describe the Empire Building Challenge (EBC) process and Resource Efficient Electrification, expanding on the recent BuildingEnergy Magazine article on the same topic. We will update our learnings based on the work conducted by Cohort 1 of the Empire Building Challenge, and we'll be able to announce Cohort 2, as well as examining the work conducted with that group of real estate owners and MEP engineers. We're excited to continue updating the NESEA community on these efforts.
Fast Track to Equitable Electrification in NYC
In 2021, HPD and NYSERDA launched a joint $24 million pilot giving direct grants to HPD Preservation projects to (holistically) electrify hot water, space heating or both. This was possible by relying on HPD's rigorous oversight paired with dedicated Technical Assistance from Steven Winter Associates and Taitem Engineering. By Fall 2022, we will have our first cohort (nearly 175 housing units) under construction and be in the design stages with a second cohort.
Resilient, Cost-Effective, and Carbon Neutral: The Future of New York’s Multifamily Buildings
As part of the State of New York’s ambitions to achieve a carbon-neutral economy by mid-century, NYSERDA initiated the Buildings of Excellence (BOE) Design Competition for multifamily new construction and deep renovation projects. The results from the first two rounds of BOE awards give insight into achieving higher levels of building performance in terms of energy savings, carbon reductions, and other co-benefits. They provide data on how to manage costs, effectiveness of technology, etc. and offer replicable models for others to follow.
Thermal Bridging '22 What to Know and What to Do
Thermal Bridging can lead to problematic condensation, increased energy usage, reduced occupant comfort, and even noncompliance with energy codes. However, we have the tools to address this challenge. In this session, we will review the three types of structural thermal bridging, briefly cover foundation and slab edge insulation placement and detailing, summarize the conductive thermal requirements of the Energy Codes and, most importantly, identify strategies to calculate the impact on code compliance of structural thermal bridging conditions and mitigated details.
What We Have Learned from Many Built Multifamily Passive Houses
Curtis + Ginsberg Architects has completed five multifamily Passive House buildings, with two more in construction and six more in design. Steven Winter Associates has completed over 20 Passive House buildings, with 15 more in construction and 30+ more in design. We have collaborated on many of these projects.