While demand response has been around for decades, allowing utility companies to mitigate peak demand and generate revenue for buildings, we are seeing more opportunities for interactive demand management, resident participation, and electrification-enabling technologies. Battery storage, EV charging, and smart, connected devices are becoming more affordable thanks to growing technology options, consumer demand, incentives, and tax credits, presenting new opportunities for building owners and residents to participate in grid services and reduce loads, saving money and carbon.

The path of net zero carbon must be carefully assessed, especially if we are laying out the roadmap for a college campus with historic buildings and aging infrastructure. In this session, we will explain how we developed a net zero carbon campus master plan through discussions between the owner, architect and energy consultants. We will include a case study of three building typologies from the ideal scenario through the factors driving the integrative process to achieve net zero design.

Some of the most efficient building envelope design strategies for reducing operational carbon involve increasing the enclosure assemblies’ thermal performance and requiring highly airtight systems. However, we are only starting to understand the trade-offs between operational and embodied decarbonization. To evaluate the trade-offs, this session will directly compare wall assemblies in a high-performance new construction building and wall assemblies in common existing building typologies.