Upcoming Events and News
Industry Advisory Board Meeting, April 23-24
Please mark your calendars CBE’s spring membership meeting, where we will share recent progress and new directions, and seek feedback from our industry partners. This membership event will be coordinated with a public symposium, ‘Circularity in Practice: Case Studies and Strategies for Circular Design and Construction,’ hosted by AIA San Francisco on Earth Day, April 22nd. As part of our community partnership with AIASF, CBE will help cover a portion of ticket fees for current CBE partners. Please see our agenda, registration will be available soon.
Not All Kilowatt-Hours Are Equal: Case Studies and Visualization Tools for Understanding Grid Emissions
Carbon emissions caused by electricity use in buildings are commonly accounted for using average factors. However, decisions around building energy use should be based on marginal carbon impacts, and these are highly variable based on seasonal, daily and geographic factors. Join this free webinar to learn about case studies and online tools that help customers understand their marginal emissions profiles, plus strategies to shift loads and reduce emissions. Read more about the event.
CBE Welcomes Noah Zallen as Partner Vice-Chair
Noah Zallen, Managing Principal for Energy Strategy / Climate & Sustainability at Introba, will take on the role as CBE’s Partner Vice Chair this spring, helping to oversee CBE’s research directions and advising on the center’s operations and strategy. CBE’s team is excited to benefit from Noah’s knowledge gained from leading a multi-disciplinary team that applies analytical tools, deep engineering and design experience to the needs of clients. Noah has attended CBE events regularly for nearly 15 years, and notes, “I care deeply about the impact CBE can make to mitigate the climate crisis for us now and future generations, and am humbled by any trust put me in me to help shape and focus our energy.”
UC Berkeley’s Big Give is March 12
On March 12, 2026, we invite the entire Cal community — alumni, parents, students, faculty, staff, and friends — to help Berkeley shine brighter than ever during Big Give. This annual event celebrates our collective power to inspire innovation, advance life-changing research, and brighten the future for countless students. Support for CBE student researchers can be provided via the Center for Environmental Design Research Fund, which prioritizes support for our extraordinary students whom we guide to become the next generation of change leaders.
New Publications and Directions
Below we feature recent publications by CBE researchers, faculty, graduate students and research affiliates, plus new funding awards.
Acoustical Case Study at the AIA San Francisco
A new report documents the design methods, details and products that were used to enhance the acoustical performance in a lecture hall at AIA San Francisco’s new ground floor location in the historic Hallidie Building. The authors also report the results of acoustical measurements taken in the space, for example, that speech can be clearly understood at the rear of the room without electronic amplification. Charles Salter, a co-author for the study, will present the study at CBE’s Spring Advisory Board meeting. This study builds on a previous research, an acoustical retrofit of a conference room on the UC Berkeley campus.
Clarifying Our Understanding of Occupant Views Through Window Assemblies
CBE has started a two-year study to understand and predict the experience of occupants viewing the outdoors through various shading and glazing materials. The research team will conduct human subject experiments, and based on these findings and related work, they will develop new view clarity metrics and also propose a view rating scheme for fenestration materials. Funding for this work is from ASHRAE, with additional support from the CBE Industry Partners.
Compiling Multiple Studies on Indoor Air Quality Studies
A key goal of CBE’s work is to widely disseminate research results to positively inform and impact building industry practices. We recently published brief summaries of several key studies related to indoor air quality, bringing together numerous recent and past publications in a convenient format. These include recently published research on air quality and thermal comfort in kitchen environments, studies on the dynamics of infectious aerosols and our exposures to them, and also past research around CO2 and health.
Survey of Industry Professionals Seeks Insight on Personal Comfort
Joyce Kim, a former graduate student researcher at CBE, is now a faculty member at the University of Waterloo where she has launched a survey to better understand how building industry stakeholders see the value of personal environmental control devices (for example, desk fans, space heaters, task lights and air purifiers). While occupants frequently use these devices, they are rarely integrated with building HVAC systems. Industry professionals are invited to take an online survey, which is an initiative of the International Energy Agency Annex 87.