As we reach the final weeks of 2020 — a year we are all happy to put behind us — we take a moment to reflect on the many challenges of the year, and also some successes made possible through the support and resilience of our industry partners and collaborators who navigated with us through truly unprecedented times.
Already a core part of CBE’s research team, Carlos Duarte completed his PhD dissertation earlier this year and has joined CBE as a post-doctoral researcher. We caught up with him via Zoom while the campus is still closed due to the ongoing concerns of Covid-19.
We are saddened by the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and countless other innocent Black lives at the hands of police and vigilantes. We share the outrage that has been erupting in demonstrations in all 50 states and around the world, and we recognize that systemic racism leads to unequal access to economic opportunity, health outcomes and environmental justice. As sustainability professionals, we can catalyze change by leveraging our skills as designers, builders and planners, and by striving to diversify our profession.
Founded in St. Paul, Minnesota, Harris is a leading national mechanical contractor specializing in design and engineering, construction, controls, service, manufacturing, conveyors and end-to-end building systems with over 70 years of experience. From power plants to hospitals, stadiums to concert halls, Harris brings a spirit of creative problem solving and a commitment to excellence in delivery to every project, no matter the size, complexity or location.
Joining CBE this spring, McKinstry is a national leader in designing, constructing, operating and maintaining high-performing buildings. With offices throughout the U.S., their mission is to make every building they touch more efficient.
As we count down the days until the start of a new decade, it’s a good time to reflect on this year’s events, including ones that have increased our sense of urgency for environmental concerns. Here at CBE, our research team is celebrating number of important milestones along our path to improve the way buildings are designed, operated and occupied. In this blog post we highlight some of our accomplishments from 2019.
CBE’s newest industry partner, CallisonRTKL, understands that buildings have significant impacts on human health, natural resource use, environmental quality and climate change. They have partnered with CBE, as they believe that without forward-thinking research, today’s high-performance buildings would not be designed, and tomorrow’s regenerative buildings would never be conceived.
The diversity of CBE’s industry consortium is unique and beneficial to our work, as these perspectives inform the center’s directions and research portfolio. This fall CBE welcomes new leadership who will help to guide the research team and represent the interests of CBE industry consortium members. In this post we talk with the new Partner Chair Andy Reilman and our new Partner Vice-Chair Isabelle Lavedrine.
Joining CBE’s industry consortium this spring, Red Car Analytics specializes in building systems advising, performance diagnostics, policy and research, commissioning, and energy modeling. Their mission is to help create an industry feedback loop of effective solutions to decarbonize today’s buildings.
This spring CBE’s research team received funding to support two new projects that will create new ways to gather, analyze and monetize data from commercial buildings, yielding energy cost savings and more comfort for building users.