Webinars on Demand

Incorporating Microgrids into Climate Resilience Strategies

We know climate change is having dramatic impacts on the region, including increased storm events, heat waves, and flooding. What are communities in the Lehigh Valley doing to prepare? There are several approaches we can take to design, build, and modify our built environments to adapt to these climate impacts, making our region, cities, towns, neighborhoods, and communities more resilient.

One of these solutions is the implementation of microgrids - learn more in this timely webinar, coordinated by our Lehigh Valley Community.

Recorded in August 2020

Worth AIA (HSW) and GBCI credit (1 hour)

Water Water Everywhere: Planning for resilience in our region

Many of our daily decisions - from washing the dishes, to buying food, to managing flood plain development - are related to water. As building owners, managers, and occupants, design professionals, and citizens - our energy, materials, location, and operational decisions affect water on many levels. Understanding how these decisions impact the region and what we can do to design and build for resiliency will better prepare us for the risks of climate change.   

In this ever relevant webinar, we look at water from the local to regional scale to better understand the implications of our everyday and long-term water decisions.

Attendees will walk away understanding the interdependency of these water systems and how they impact and are impacted by climate change.

Recorded in May 2020

Worth AIA and GBCI credit (1 hour)

Regenerative Agriculture and Climate Change: Saving the planet with food

Global climate change is accelerating. Extremely aggressive emissions reductions are required to limit the damage from these changes - over and above those negotiated in the 2016 Paris Agreement. Learn the state of the world from a climate scientist and explore solutions through agriculture. Carbon Farming is farming in a way that reduces greenhouse gas emissions or captures and holds carbon in vegetation and soils. It is managing land, water, plants and animals to restore ecosystems, ameliorate climate change, and provide nutrient dense food and educational opportunities. Also described as Regenerative Agriculture, these goals are achieved through a focus on lower-sequestration strategies like no-till organic annual cropping, perennial crops, and managed grazing.

Learning Level 300: Application/Implementation

Recorded during the 2019 Sustainability Symposium

Worth AIA and GBCI credit (1 hour) 

Resilient Communities: Climate Ready Philadelphia

This webinar covers what changes climate scientists are projecting for Philadelphia, the basics of climate adaptation planning, and how government, developers, and transit agencies can prepare for a hotter, wetter future. 

Speakers will describe the process for developing a preparedness strategy for climate impacts and discuss specific strategies for dealing with vulnerable assets in the face of climate change. Additionally, local transportation officials will present how they manage extreme weather events

Learning Level 100: Awareness

Recorded during the 2016 Sustainability Symposium

Worth AIA and GBCI credit (1 hour)  

Zero Energy Modular Homes as an Affordable Housing Solution

Over the course of just two days in 2011, hundreds of Vermont homes were destroyed during Hurricane Irene. The disproportionate effect of the storm on low-income Vermonters and mobile home residents inspired a call to action. As a result of a collaborate effort, the ZEM Program now provides low- and moderate-income homeowners with a comfortable, healthy, affordable, and above all, resilient housing option.

During this webinar program partners from Vermont and Delaware will discuss program design, ZEM technical specs, construction techniques, and case studies of both individual ZEM buyers and community redevelopment projects.

Learning Level 200: Understanding/Comprehension

Recorded during the 2018 Sustainability Symposium

Worth AIA and GBCI credit (1 hour)

Fine Tuning your BAS 

This course will provide prescriptive best practices for maintaining good operations, and an overview of the re-tuning process using building automation system (BAS) trend data.  Attendees will learn how to look for and optimize the control strategy for many of the common energy-saving opportunities such as occupancy scheduling, temperature, and static pressure control, and economizer function.   

This course is ideal for onsite O&M staff responsible for day-to-day building operation; O&M staff management looking to integrate energy efficiency into their O&M procedures; and offsite contractors (retro-commissioning agents or control vendors) hired to improve a building's energy efficiency. 

Recorded May 2021 as part of the Sustainable Building Maintenance Series

Series is worth 4 AIA LU|HSW

Delaware Pathways to Green Schools, Energize Delaware Program, and Philadelphia 2030 District participants can view  the webinar for free by emailing lharvey@greenbuildingunited.org.

Building Science of Commercial Buildings

The purpose of this course is to introduce building staff and management to the primary systems in commercial buildings that use energy.  This course will explain how the HVAC, lighting, and building envelope operates, interact, and use energy.  The attendees will learn examples of and good practices for energy efficiency opportunities, overview, and tools for making sound economic decisions related to energy efficiency upgrades, and understand when to use nationally recognized energy efficiency tools and their expected level of effort and cost. 

This course is ideal for onsite O&M staff responsible for day-to-day building operation; O&M staff management looking to integrate energy efficiency into their O&M procedures; and offsite contractors (retro-commissioning agents or control vendors) hired to improve a building's energy efficiency.

Recorded April 2021 as part of the Sustainable Building Maintenance Series

Series is worth 4 AIA LU|HSW

Delaware Pathways to Green Schools, Energize Delaware Program, and Philadelphia 2030 District participants can view  the webinar for free by emailing lharvey@greenbuildingunited.org.

C-PACE Update: Case studies from our region

Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) provides financing for energy efficiency, renewable energy, and water conservation in new construction, gut rehab, and renovation projects.

This new-to-Pennsylvania and -Delaware financing mechanism benefits projects by overcoming several common barriers to reducing the carbon footprint of buildings: 100 percent upfront financing, up to 30-year terms, and the special assessment stays with the property if a sale occurs. Representatives from Delaware C-PACE, Pennsylvania C-PACE, and Philadelphia C-PACE will discuss how the program works and review some early success stories.

Learn how C-PACE can be used to help push one of your projects over the finish line or invest more deeply in energy and water efficiency.

Recorded in April 2021

Worth AIA credit (1 hour)

Below Slab Vapor Barriers: Nuisance or necessity?

This webinar provides an in-depth look at below-slab moisture protection. It examine show below-slab water vapor migration has become the leading cause of floor failures and a very real contributor to mold/mildew growth in the United States. Moreover, the webinar is designed to update viewers on current standards and recommendations from ASTM, ACI, and PCA, as well as flooring and concrete experts from the industry.

Questions about vapor retarders vs. vapor barriers, the use of poly/visqueen, the location of the vapor barrier, radon gas, concrete moisture testing, concrete drying, installation, and product sustainability are addressed as well.

Learning Level: 200: Understanding/Comprehension

Recorded during the 2020 New Gravity Housing Conference

Worth AIA, GBCI, PHIUS, and PHI credit (1 hour)

LIHTC: The gateway to multi-family Passive House projects

Meriden Commons is a multi-phase, transit-oriented mixed-use, mixed-income community bringing renewed energy and excitement to downtown Meriden, CT. Phase 1, a four-story building with 75 high-quality units, was completed in 2018. Phase 2 includes a four-story mixed-use building with 49 units and 1,500-square-feet of commercial space, as well as two three-story stacked town house buildings of 15 and 12 units, all designed to meet Passive House standards.

In this webinar, the Master Developer discusses the strategies for funding this high-quality redevelopment including the project’s transformative impact on Meriden. The General Contractor discusses challenges and lessons learned in their first Passive House construction project. The Passive House Rater presents the verification process of the two building types. The discussion is moderated by WRT, who served as grant writer, planning coordinator, master planner, architect and Passive House Consultant to the developer and their partners.

Learning Level: 100: Awareness

Recorded during the 2020 New Gravity Housing Conference

Worth AIA, GBCI, PHIUS, and PHI credit (1 hour)

How Not to Fail at Passive House: Harrowing tales of survival and critical strategies for success

This presentation is a distillation of pitfalls, lessons learned, and proactive risk management strategies for conceptual design through construction and close out from our collective 15 years and 1.5 million sf of Passive House (PH) projects. Through the lens of large scale residential and non-residential projects, lessons relevant for all PH project types will be shared, illustrating how cut corners and seemingly innocuous decisions can have a substantial ripple effect through the rest of the project.

Covered design topics include PHIUS prerequisites, a critical path approach for PH design, specifications, procurement, coordination between trades to ensure material continuity and sequencing at the thermal and airtight boundaries, and shop drawings oversight. All lessons presented are based on actual projects and are intended to flag common pitfalls so you don't get caught in them!

Learning Level: 300: Application/Implementation

Recorded during the 2020 New Gravity Housing Conference

Worth AIA, GBCI, PHIUS, and PHI credit (1 hour)

The High-Performance Affordable Housing Design MANUAL

One of the most significant challenges the design and construction industries face in the next 11 years is normalizing the design of net-zero energy (NZE) housing for everyday developers, architects, engineers, and builders. Simplified, demystified, and comprehensive straightforward strategies for approaching any-sized NZE multifamily building will be necessary in order to effectively and quickly train industry professionals. While there is an ever-increasing array of products and systems currently flooding the sustainable building market, how does one begin to ask the right questions?

Informed by 20 years of designing multi-family high-performance buildings and more recently, five years of working on multifamily Affordable Passive House projects, this lecture is designed to provide design, development, and building professionals with a step-by-step guide to cost-effective strategies for approaching multi-family, Affordable Passive House buildings. 

Learning Level 300: Application/Implementation

Recorded during the 2019 New Gravity Housing Conference

Worth AIA, GBCI, and PHIUS credit (1 hour)

Lessons from a Certified EnerPHit Industrial Building in Sri Lanka

Jordan Parnass Digital Architecture and Steven Winter Associates have been working remotely with a project team across the world to retrofit an outdated factory in Katunayake, Sri Lanka and turn it into an EnerPHit certified garment manufacturing facility. Construction began on the facility in Fall 2016, preliminary testing and verification took place in fall 2017, and final testing was conducted in the spring of 2018. The project was certified to as EnerPHit Pilot project in summer of 2018 and over a year’s worth of utility data is showing up to 60 percent in energy savings when compared to the pre-retrofit factory. This webinar focuses on the challenges of: 1) Certifying projects in hot humid regions of the world, and 2) Remotely performing QA/QC to ensure the Passive House standard is being met, and 3) Performing air leakage testing in remote areas.

Learning Level 300: Application/Implementation

Recorded during the 2019 Sustainability Symposium

Worth AIA and GBCI credit (1 hour)

How Do We Get from Passive House to Truly Low-Carbon Net-Zero Buildings? 

The PHIUS Passive House Primary Energy (PE) criteria is currently set at 6200 kWh/occupant/year, but is slated to change to 3840 KWhr/occupant/year under the proposed PHIUS+ 2018 standard. In the presenters’ experience with recent affordable multifamily passive house projects, passive measures alone have often not been
sufficient to meet the PHIUS+2015 PE criteria, resulting in on-site renewable energy generation being added. With the more rigorous PHIUS+ 2018 target, is active renewable energy effectively a requirement of Passive House under PHIUS? Using Weinberg Commons, the 2017 PHIUS Affordable Project of the year, and Gilford Village Knolls III, the first affordable multifamily Passive House project in New Hampshire as examples, the presenters evaluate Primary Energy reduction strategies through both passive and active measures and discuss the benefi ts of energy storage for resiliency and operational carbon emission reductions. 

Learning Level 300: Application/Implementation

Recorded during the 2018 New Gravity Housing Conference

Worth AIA, GBCI, and PHIUS credit (1 hour)

Aiming Beyond Zero Energy: A look at the Millersville University net positive energy building

The Lombardo Welcome Center at Millersville University is aiming to be Positive Energy. Located at the heart of campus, the building makes a statement about Millersville’s commitment to sustainability. The owner and project team wanted a building that went beyond just positive energy and also included a focus on feng shui, responsible stormwater management, and an educational experience for occupants on how the building saves energy and how it generates energy from three different PV strategies.

Learn how the project team, owner, and occupants worked together to design, construct, and monitor the building as it completes its performance period. In this webinar,
attendees will gain an understanding of the factors that need to be considered when designing for positive energy from the perspectives of the architect, engineer, owner, and occupants. 

Learning Level 200: Understanding/Comprehension

Recorded during the 2018 Sustainability Symposium

Worth AIA and GBCI credit (1 hour)

From Existing Building to High-Performance Workplace

In 2016, CR Magazine published a list of the most sustainable corporate headquarters. On the list were leading companies including Saint-Gobain CertainTeed. This webinar will take a deep dive into how Saint-Gobain Corporation transformed a 275,000 SF existing office building into a state-of-art headquarters incorporating innovative solutions for energy use and a premier environment for employees.

This innovative and vibrant building is a living laboratory, showcasing many of Saint-Gobain CertainTeed's own energy conserving products. The project notable received LEED v2009 for Core & Shell Development Platinum certification and LEED v2009 for Commercial Interiors Platinum certification.

Learning Level 200: Understanding/Comprehension

Recorded during the 2017 Sustainability Symposium

Worth AIA and GBCI (LEED AP BD+C, Green Associate) credit (1 hour)

Spaghetti Carbon-Era: Disentangling operational and embodied carbon

Passive House is fundamentally a tool for combating global climate change by reducing carbon emissions; however, as a system, Passive House focuses on reducing operational energy which is only responsible for part of a larger carbon footprint. Without a full accounting we are left asking the question: Have we built a Passive House or a Massive House?  In order to determine whether a Passive House makes a positive, negative, or neutral contribution to carbon emissions, we must account for the embodied carbon of the building's materials. This includes the creation, transport, and life-cycle in addition to the operational energy/carbon that Passive House focuses on so well.  

This webinar (which will be featured as a live session at our 2020 Sustainability Symposium) discusses  embodied and operational carbon accounting, and the comparison results of operational and embodied carbon for each building will be analyzed.  The webinar concludes with solutions for making low carbon buildings more accessible for diverse project types.

Recorded in March 2020 by PHIUS

Worth AIA, GBCI, and PHIUS credit (1 hour)

Net Positive Impacts and Sustainable Materials

The Living Product Challenge, a complement to the Living Building Challenge, aims to reimagine the design and construction of products to function as elegantly and efficiently as anything found in the natural world. The challenge addresses regenerative design, material transparency, and biomimicry. One of its early adopters was Humanscale, the first manufacturer to achieve full certification for their Float Table and Smart Chair, and their robust Corporate Social Responsibility program uses the Living Product Challenge to measure success. In this webinar you will learn how these advancements in sustainable materials can be applied to documenting the Living Building Challenge and LEED BD+C v4.

Learning Level 300: Application/Implementation

Recorded during the 2017 Sustainability Symposium

Worth AIA and GBCI credit (1.5 hours)

Balancing Health and Energy Efficiency

This course will discuss the COVID-19 related adaptations commercial buildings have implemented. From changing schedules from full-space to partial-space operations, to increased ventilation, to new technologies, participants will explore the benefits, challenges, and energy impacts of each strategy.   

This course is ideal for onsite O&M staff responsible for day-to-day building operation; O&M staff management looking to integrate energy efficiency into their O&M procedures; and offsite contractors (retro-commissioning agents or control vendors) hired to improve a building's energy efficiency. 

Recorded in June 2021 as part of the Sustainable Building Maintenance Series

Series is worth 4 AIA LU|HSW

Delaware Pathways to Green Schools, Energize Delaware Program, and Philadelphia 2030 District participants can view  the webinar for free by emailing lharvey@greenbuildingunited.org.

Indoor Air Quality: Health and Passive House design explored

Passive House design environments are tailored around the metrics of comfort and health. For example its psychometric constraints, its elimination of condensation and continuous filtered fresh air speak to dependable indoor temperature and humidity, lack of mold growth and the elimination of pollen and pollution. This should produce not only comfortable but also healthy environments with potential to remediate many health problems that are related to the built environment.

This webinar features studies and pilot projects that have been done that allow us to better understand the relationships between Passive House Design and resident health and will include presentations by specialists.

Learning Level: 200: Understanding/Comprehension

Recorded during the 2020 New Gravity Housing Conference

Worth AIA, GBCI, PHIUS, and PHI credit (1 hour)