Sustainability Education: Towards Carbon+ Architecture

With the dire news, recently reported by the IPCC, regarding human implications, and responsibilities, for climate change, never before has there been such a focus on the role that buildings play, relative to GHG emissions. This session will review lessons learned from the past decade in net-zero energy design, construction, and operations, looking closely at the mainstreaming of this once “theoretical” objective; it is here! We will explore larger changes across society, which helped bring this shift about, as well as look in depth at two very different net-zero energy projects, which bookend the decade: 1) a mission-driven institutional project in a rather forgiving climate, and 2) a developer driven project in a rather aggressive climate, to illustrate how NZE shifted, over the last decade, from “niche” to “mass market”. This session will also address new practices/technology, as well identify the “DNA” of NZE, which has stayed the same over that duration.