Sunset hike in the Berkeley hills
All-Team Gathering in Berkeley
The whole team was able to get together in person in late May. The team hiked, had a collaborative day in Berkeley with team planning, idea sharing, and hosted a happy hour with some local partners and friends. Nate Heckman and Kanak Bal also attended the California Green Building Conference with Anna LaRue
Recent Project Work
BayREN Existing Buildings Study
Resource Refocus worked with Arup and Redwood Energy to conduct the BayREN Existing Buildings Study. The study provides local governments with data about the existing buildings in their jurisdictions, their energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, and the impacts of energy efficiency and electrification measures that can be used to decarbonize the buildings.
Interactive dashboard
You can learn more about the project at: https://www.bayren.org/existing-buildings-study. The interactive dashboard is here, and the full report is here (PDF).
Conferences & Virtual Events
ASHRAE
Dr. Carrie Brown attended the ASHRAE Annual Conference in Phoenix with a week full of committee meetings and visiting with colleagues. This society year, her ASHRAE roles include serving as the Vice Chair of the Center of Excellence for Building Decarbonization and continuing to serve on ASHRAE’s Board as a Director-at-Large.
California Green Building Conference
Resource Refocus attended the California Green Building Conference in San Francisco.
At the conference, Anna LaRue presented with Ed Dean on the “Issues and Impediments to the All-Electrification of K-12 Schools (and How to Overcome Them).” Anna provided an overview of how the school funding structure poses challenges for school electrification, and Ed shared two case study projects featured in a forthcoming book titled, Designing for Zero Carbon—Case Studies of All-Electric K-12 School.
Alliance to Save Energy
As a representative of ASHRAE, Carrie joined a panel for the Alliance to Save Energy’s Summer Policy Series, which brings together federal, state, and local decision makers with leading experts across the public and private sectors. “The Role of Energy Efficiency in an All-the-Above Energy Future” panel explored how energy efficiency can serve as the foundational strategy for reducing energy demand and lowering emissions across all fuel sources to ensure reliability, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability during the ongoing energy transition.
Architecture at Zero Webinar
AIA California and Southern California Edison hosted a Free ZNCD Units webinar “Architecture At Zero: Design Solutions for School Decarbonization" that featured the winning projects from last year’s Architecture at Zero 2024 competition. Project team members presented their projects and their approach to decarbonization of a new classroom building for the Griffith Steam Magnet Middle School in East Los Angeles. The webinar is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGzMgegx7G0.
The next Architecture at Zero Competition is in the early planning phases. Updates will be forthcoming in the next couple of months.
And A Goodbye…
Nate Heckman will be joining the Architecture faculty at Rochester Institute of Technology starting fall semester 2025.
It’s been a pleasure having him on the team, and we’ll miss him!
