Building Carbon Zero California: Friday, November 13 in Palo Alto

Building Carbon Zero Palo Alto
  • Friday, November 13, 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
  • Lucie Stern Community Center, Palo Alto, California

Beyond Efficiency will be presenting Case Study: 412 Olive Avenue Office, One Year Later. Come learn about the project's challenges, successes and performance results!


Nobel Prize-Winning IPPC Report Contributing Author, Dr. Diana Ürge-Vorsatz, to Keynote ‘BUILDING CARBON ZERO’ IN PALO ALTO

Palo Alto Conference to feature leading experts on Passive House + Renewables

Passive House California recently announced that Dr. Diana Ürge-Vorstatz of the Center for Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Policy will keynote their upcoming ‘Building Carbon Zero California’ conference in Palo Alto on Friday, November 13th.  Dr. Ürge-Vorsatz recently delivered the keynote address at the North American Passive House Network conference in Vancouver, B.C., where she stated,

The building sector offers the largest low-cost potential in all world regions to lower emissions.  If we target very high efficiency systems, we can have our cake and be paid to eat it too!”

She cited data collected from the 5th Assessment report issued by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, showing economic feasibility studies confirming deep energy reductions in buildings will have far greater economic benefits than shallower reduction targets. She cautioned policy makers on inadvertently supporting the ‘Lock-In Effect’ with shallow retrofits that make cosmetic upgrades to buildings but don’t substantially reduce carbon emissions. These retrofits ‘lock-in’ the energy consumption for many years before additional funding can be justified for further renovation.

Additional presenters will cover topics ranging from natural materials use, to new technologies such as heat pumps, to reports from local occupants of high performance buildings. The afternoon sessions will dig deeper into economics, mechanics and measured data collected on a number of local project examples. Our previously announced keynote presenter for this event is unable to attend.

A PedalHaus Bicycle Tour of five completed buildings in Palo Alto will follow building Carbon Zero California on Saturday, November 14th.  Palo Alto’s former Mayor, Peter Drekmeier, will join the cyclists on this leisurely cruise.

For tickets and info, visit http://www.co2zeroca.org.

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