Striving for Net Zero Carbon for Builders

Water scarcity is a headline that we see daily, however water conservation continues to be left out of the discussion for home builders describing themselves as Net Zero.  As we wait for mandates of water conservation in the housing sector to be implemented throughout North America, there are a few states that are going a step further and offering incentives to builders when they implement water-saving technologies. Decentralized greywater recycling offers a 25-45% reduction in potable water use and in turn a reduction in wastewater production. By building homes and multi-residential buildings with greywater recycling, potable water use can be reduced by 10,000 gallons per home every year.Two states are leading the way in North America in offering incentives to builders and developers when they implement greywater recycling. Florida and Hawaii have implemented rebates and/or density credits to builders and developers statewide to be proactive during this time of water crisis.Learning Objectives:Learn how decentralized greywater recycling is one of the most efficient ways to reduce potable water use.Understand that the sustainable home should always include water conservation technologies.Discover how states with incentives and rebates for the implementation of greywater recycling are leading the way when it comes to saving water.Learn how water conservation approached proactively as a reactive response will lead to the disruption of the issue of building permits.

In the push for sustainable construction, optimizing water and energy usage within buildings is becoming increasingly crucial. This webinar will delve into the innovative solutions offered by RainStick's recirculating shower systems, exploring their integration into both single-family and multifamily residential projects. With a focus on drastically reducing water and energy consumption inside the home without sacrificing performance, our experts will share their experiences with installation, real-world performance, and the benefits these systems bring to modern sustainable architecture. Attendees will gain valuable insights into how RainStick technology not only meets but exceeds industry standards for water and energy efficiency. Through case studies and firsthand accounts, this session will offer a comprehensive overview of the impact of these systems on building sustainability and market appeal. Learning Objectives: Understanding Recirculating Shower Technology: Explore the design and functionality of recirculating shower systems, emphasizing its role in reducing water and energy consumption in residential buildings.Understand Installation and Performance: Learn from case studies about the installation process and field performance of RainStick systems in various building environments, highlighting their adaptability and efficiency.Compare Conventional Systems: Analyze how RainStick's technology compares to traditional shower systems in terms of sustainability, cost-effectiveness, and ease of installation, providing a clear understanding of its market potential.Analyze Real-World Applications: Examine case studies and customer testimonials that demonstrate the effectiveness of RainStick in various building environments, and learn how to pitch this innovative solution to clients focused on sustainability. This webinar is ideal for builders, architects, designers, and sustainability consultants who are  looking to enhance their projects with cutting-edge water and energy-saving technologies.

A home today must not only be high performing, resilient and built using sustainable methods, the home must provide the individuals living within it a healthy environment. There are many factors that contribute to the overall healthy environment we provide our homeowners, but one of the most critical is the quality of the air they breathe. This webinar will briefly cover some ventilation basics before delving into the pros and cons of the various system types. Particular focus will be placed on the efficiency and indoor air quality advantages of balanced ventilation systems with recovery (HRVs/ERVs) and how indoor air quality automation will shape the future. Learning Objectives:1. Understand why tighter homes without good ventilation can be problematic for indoor air quality 2. Understand the basics of quality ventilation including product certification and airflow optimization and verification 3. Understand the options for whole home ventilation along with the pros and cons of each 4. Understand in particular the health and efficiency be

Retrofit electrification of existing buildings is critical for reaching energy and climate goals, yet there are many substantial challenges with replacement of heating, cooling, ventilation, and water heating systems. In particular, the extensive rework required to switch to heat pumps is complex, laborious, disruptive, bespoke, and expensive. In this webinar, researchers and practitioners will share about innovations and experience with emerging system design strategies that advance efficient electrification of single family and multifamily buildings. In part through grants funded by the US Department of Energy (DOE) and the California Energy Commission (CEC), the presenters have explored, installed, and monitored a variety of all-in-one, combi-, integrated-, and modular mechanical systems that combine most or all of the heating, cooling, ventilation, and water heating functions into pods or packages to simplify design, streamline installation, and enhance performance. This session will overview various technologies investigated, consider their tradeoffs, present an evaluation of their field performance and installation experience, and examine their applicability in different residential applications. Learning Objectives: Introduce and discuss combined mechanical equipment both in development for and available in the US residential building market today. Understand installation experience, system performance, and serviceability from case studies of equipment installations in occupied apartments. Compare and contrast with conventional mechanical equipment retrofits, and evaluate market applicability for these products. Share lessons learned from field demonstration research on product design for manufacturers, system design for building owners and design teams, and installation procedures for contractors.

Three RESNET standards combined: 1 - operations (HERS Index), 2 - the grid (CO2 Index) and 3 - embodied carbon (currently being written) provide capacity to analyze Carbon Usage Intensity. We'll explore time-of-use, load reduction and carbon sequestration in buildings at both the single-family and multi-family scale (500 units) to show cumulative impact. And discuss policy benefits of energy labeling and decarbonization for advancing energy equity, so that vulnerable populations can make informed housing opportunity decisions. While the content is technical in nature, the presenters will draw a direct relationship to equity in the context of who has access to low carbon housing and how carbon reductions strategies in both operational and embodied phases can be scaled to the housing industry at large through the standards and programs being developed through RESNET. While the early adoption of low carbon strategies have been pioneered in large part by well-funded custom single family construction, the approaches being discussed in this presentation are designed to bring much broader access to the industry at large and in so doing, increase resiliency. Further, we will explore equity from a climate justice lens to understand which communities are most directly impacted by the climate crisis that the residential housing sector is currently contributing to and provide the context and motivation for why building resilience through these initiatives is so critical. Learning Objectives: 1) Understand how the RESENT Carbon "Trifecta" allows calculation and analysis of blended metrics like Carbon Use Intensity. 2) Understand how such a blended metric facilitates a Whole Lifecycle Analysis at the residential scale and how close we are to being able to do this. 3) Understand the role that HERS Raters play in resiliency, especially in EJ neighborhoods, though the evolution of dynamic grid electrification, load management/reduction and carbon sequestration in buildings. 4) Understand the cumulative impact of simple materials substitutions at the scale of a residential development of 500 units.

In the 2006 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), the primary residential provisions of the code (Chapter 4) consisted of four pages. That same chapter in the 2021 IECC is 21 pages long! Mandatory, prescriptive, performance, energy rating index, additional efficiency packages and UA trade-offs all combine to make IECC compliance complicated. Prescriptive compliance is increasingly more expensive and complicated to use, and the performance compliance option doesn’t allow consideration for high efficiency equipment. The energy rating index path provides a whole-house performance approach but has aggressive targets that are complicated with amendments for ventilation requirements and no requirements for quality assurance oversight of third parties. If the energy code’s primary purpose is to reduce energy consumption, why can’t we set performance goals and let builders figure out how to achieve it? One recent example of this approach is in Texas. Texas House Bill 3215 updated the state’s universal energy code compliance pathway to allow builders to use the energy rating index for energy code compliance across the state, in lieu of the state energy code or any stretch code adopted by municipalities. The legislation ratchets down target ERI scores to improve efficiency through 2028, allowing builders to plan for future efficiency requirements. Attend this webinar to learn how a simpler approach to energy code compliance can work, how it can be used to set a path to net-zero energy and how to implement it in your state. Learning Objectives: Learn about the changes and complexities of the IECC over time. Understand how the energy code can be simplified. Be able to describe how a simplified performance-based approach has worked in other states. Learn how a performance-based energy code approach can be used to get builders to net-zero homes more quickly.

In this session, we will build on our 2023 EEBA Summit session “Are You Leaving Money on the Table?...” and dive deeper to guide builders of single family and multifamily homes in your pursuit of the 45L Tax Credits via ENERGY STAR or Zero Energy Ready Homes (ZERH) certification, as well as 179D Tax Credits and HUD 221(d)(4) Loans for builders of multifamily homes. We will highlight the requirements that need to be met for your homes to earn ENERGY STAR v3.1 and v3.2, as well as ZERH. We will explain many cost-effective strategies to transition to earning ENERGY STAR, and then to earning ZERH. We will discuss what your trades may have to do differently, who is responsible, and when to address. And we will highlight how RESNET HERS Raters can be your resource for you as homebuilders to earn the 45L and 179D Tax Credits, and to be eligible for HUD 221(d)(4) Loans. Your RESNET HERS Rater can help you realize how close you may already be to earning these benefits, and what else you can do to get there cost-effectively. Learning Objectives: 1. Learn about the 45L Tax Credits for builders of single family and multifamily homes, and the 179D Tax Credits and HUD 221(d)(4) Loans for builders of multifamily homes. 2. Identify what your trades may have to do differently to help your homes earn ENERGY STAR and ZERH certifications. Learn which trades are responsible for which items, and when to address each of these items. 3. Understand the many cost-effective strategies to earn ENERGY STAR and ZERH certification. 4. Learn how HERS Raters can be your resource to earn the 45L and 179D Tax Credits and to be eligible for HUD 221(d)(4) Loans.

Hempitecture CEO, Matthew Mead, provides an overview of the natural fiber insulation market that is rapidly developing to support low embodied carbon construction. Reviewing different products and strategies, this session will discuss how to achieve the lowest total carbon footprint for a project after accounting for both embodied carbon and operational carbon in the building. Learning Objectives:      Discover low embodied carbon insulations. Learn about natural fiber insulation product forms (batt, loose-fill, board). Understand how to measure in-wall performance (R-value + thermal mass + air penetration + vapor permeability). Demonstrate installing to maximize reported performance.

More energy efficient homes represent a huge, and growing, opportunity for builders and remodelers to address homeowner demands. Driven by a growing social consciousness, new rebate programs and rising energy costs, homeowners want to explore options and will be more likely to commit. Plus, new technologies are making the process more efficient and effective. In this session, building performance experts share best practices to capitalize on the growing business opportunity, and help you feel good about your contribution to the planet. Learning Objectives: 1. Quantify the business opportunity for both retrofit and new construction residential projects. 2. Discuss how to enable technology to do the hard work of finding the right building performance solutions for a variety of climates that can achieve a number of results, from carbon neutral to zero net energy. 3. Understand consumer demand and how to leverage it through marketing and sales activities. 4. Learn about all the incentives available to make this opportunity as fruitful as possible. Speakers: Jennifer Castenson, Travis Brungardt, Casey Murphy

The carbon emissions and embodied carbon in single and multifamily homes are a growing area of interest and concern in the housing industry and can be used as an advantage in marketing and sales. Air leaks in the building envelope account for the most significant portion of wasted energy in the heating and cooling of homes, thereby creating a major source of carbon emissions throughout the life of the home. This session will explore the reductions in carbon emissions that can be achieved through a more airtight building envelope. Analysis will be presented that reveals carbon emissions reductions for different levels of air tightness across the different climate zones in North America. The embodied carbon impact of air sealing materials will also be presented and discussed. Learning Objectives:1. Understand the impact of heat loss and gain due to air leaks in homes.2. Understand the impact that air sealing a home’s exterior envelope can have on reducing the operational carbon emissions throughout the life of a home and in different climate zones.3. Understand the embodied carbon impact of air sealing materials.4. Understand how an air tight envelope can contribute to a net zero carbon home. Speakers: Bill Shadid & Gord Cooke