A stable climate demands that buildings radically reduce their carbon footprint and move toward carbon neutrality by 2050. Electrification, advancements in efficient decarbonized building systems and acceleration towards a clean grid put zero operational carbon within sight. This session described legitimate pathways toward radical embodied carbon reduction available now, and explored sources of carbon emissions that must be tackled to bring us to a fully zero-emission built environment.

This session explored cutting-edge approaches to improving energy efficiency and grid reliability as well as other sustainability measures under development by UC Berkeley researchers. Our panel of experts presented case studies illustrating strategies for retrofitting urban environments with resource-efficient technologies, leveraging residential demand flexibility, and new prototypes that enable affordable mixed-use buildings to meet ambitious energy goals.

CBE’s Paul Raftery and former CBE researcher Fred Bauman will lead this two-part course that is provided to assist architects and HVAC design engineers in understanding radiant systems with a focus on cooling thermally massive slab systems. The instructors will present the latest research results, and findings on these types of building designs.

Building electrification through the use of heat pumps is gaining traction as an effective means to reducing emissions from building operations. However, barriers remain to 100% adoption of this technology, especially in existing buildings where cost, space or other constraints exist, requiring creative approaches to maximize emission reductions per dollar spent. In this webinar, experts from both professional practice and research demonstrated how they are creating deep emission reductions through right-sizing heat pumps, better HVAC design, integration of thermal storage and hybrid solutions. They covered diverse project types including existing buildings, new construction and district plants.

Researchers and faculty at UC Berkeley’s Center for the Built Environment are pursuing wide-ranging research in collaboration with leaders from industry and academia to study technologies and design approaches for decarbonizing buildings while improving indoor environments. This course will feature insights and research findings that hold valuable lessons for commercial building stakeholders, with a focus on benefits and strategies for integrating ceiling fans with HVAC systems, while also sharing newly completed design resources.

This Greenbuild 2023 session featured leaders from industry and academia who are deeply engaged in the design, construction and/or study of low-carbon affordable housing. They presented emerging design strategies, insights from recent research and case studies, with completed projects and work ‘on-the-boards’ that represent the leading edge in this rapidly evolving area, including projects targeting LEED-Platinum certification and/or net-zero energy performance.

Numerous tools and resources have been created for decarbonizing buildings, including life-cycle assessment (LCA). However, these have varying built-in assumptions, and combined with a lack of reliable information are leading to calls for more guidance. This session featured building decarbonization experts from practice and academia who provide an overview of LCA methods and other tools, and explain best practices, various use cases and examples.

Dr. Carlos Duarte led a seminar, Overview of High Thermal Mass Radiant Systems as part of a seminar on’ Thermally Active Buildings: A Resilient Future.’ He also hosted a poster presentation on the Field Demonstration of the Brick Ontology to Scale up the Deployment of ASHRAE Guideline 36 Control Sequences. Dr. Aki Nomoto presented on a Field Study of Thermal Infrared Sensing for Office Temperature Control, research completed in collaboration with CBE partner Daikin and LBNL.

Modular and industrial construction methods offer many advantages compared to traditional construction, and are being rapidly adopted and driving innovation, including ways to rapidly reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. This symposium includes expert industry practitioners who are involved in developing and implementing industrialized buildings, and researchers who are leading advanced studies to better understand the potential of these innovations for decarbonizing the built environment.

Paul Raftery presented new findings on distribution losses in heating hot water systems in large commercial buildings; Patrick Wendler presented temperature stratification, performance and myths surrounding heating hot water systems; and Akihisa Nomoto presented research on CO2 occupant emission rates in an office setting.