REHAU hosted the live webinar, “Scaling to Zero: How are building mechanical teams moving toward a zero-energy future?” A panel of sustainable building experts spoke about major cities in the U.S. and Canada paving the way to zero-energy, the role building mechanical teams can play in this transformation and stories of success and overcoming challenges. For those who were not among the more than 350 construction industry registrants, the archived webinar can be accessed here.
The following quotes are a few highlights from the educational and fact-filled discussion:
Cathy Higgins, research director at New Buildings Institute
“Energy is different every minute that your meter is running. You may or may not be zero at any given time. You may never even actually get to zero, which is a measurement of an annual basis. Please be proud of really good design and low energy use. That’s why we call it getting to zero. It’s a journey. Let’s just try to get buildings to have the lowest possible environmental impact through reduced energy use while being really effective and beautiful designs.”
Cindy Cogil, principal and director of engineering at SmithGroup
“The most underutilized tool in our collective toolbox is to think beyond the individual building and to scale up. In my mind, this means designing building systems that enable energy to be more easily repurposed, within a building, between buildings and between buildings and the earth. And this often relies on technologies that heat at lower temperatures and cool at higher temperatures.”
Adrienne Johnson, associate engineer at Point Energy Innovations
“Electrification of our buildings is actually becoming a much more critical and in many ways attainable standard over zero-net energy on site. Pretty much 100 percent of our projects are all electric. We’re finding that the mechanical contractors we work with are a lot more familiar with the systems, which leads to lower risk for them. And in turn, owners get better pricing for these options, which is really going to be a requirement for this trend to continue.”
Mike Dietrich, vice president of building solutions at REHAU, weighs in on the importance of the conversation that took place in the hour-long webinar.
“With a zero-energy future on the horizon for many cities across the U.S. and Canada, it is imperative that we take part in discussions relating to what our industry can do to facilitate getting to zero,” says Dietrich. “We are happy to contribute to these discussions and further educate ourselves on what we can do to achieve energy-efficient building systems that support the well-being of the environment.”
“Zero-energy, zero-carbon or any other type of high-performance building requires the whole building design team to be on the same page,” Dietrich adds. “REHAU is here to help, sharing insights from a variety of projects that our incredible partners have built over the years.”
Find energy-efficient projects that REHAU customers have contributed to.