Synapse: This Week's News for LA’s Best Buildings
Announcing LABBC’s Initial Cohort of Low Carbon Leaders
The work to achieve net zero carbon emissions in the built environment has begun, and Los Angeles is the epicenter. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Energy announced 55 initial participants in a national pilot project launched to demonstrate pathways to achieve low or zero net carbon in buildings and manufacturing plants. Nearly 20% of those participants are based in Los Angeles, and three of them have further committed to work with the L.A. Better Buildings Challenge (LABBC) to set the bar for the commercial real estate industry as Low Carbon Leaders.
California is Changing the Way It Values Energy Efficiency to Look Beyond Resource Savings
California is changing its approach to energy efficiency, and on Thursday the state's Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) passed new rules to address benefits beyond economic energy savings, and adopted a new "total system benefit" (TSB) metric to encourage conservation at high-value times and locations.
Why Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings Feature Prominently in Biden’s Plans
The White House on May 17 announced a slate of new programs aimed at integrating US buildings into the clean energy economy. The initiatives include electrification programs for existing homes, workforce training for next-generation jobs in the buildings sector, and efforts to increase the adoption of efficient electric heat pumps and EV fast chargers.
Alongside the plans for job training and building electrification, the announcement also highlighted the Biden administration’s goals for grid-interactive efficient buildings—a less well-known approach that has significant potential to reduce carbon emissions.
In this blog post, RMI explores what grid-interactive efficient buildings are and why they feature so prominently in plans for a clean energy future.
How a Real Estate Portfolio Achieves Net Zero
When ULI Greenprint set a goal of net zero carbon by 2050 for its collective membership, it was clear that to meet that goal, a real estate portfolio would need to employ a combination of technologies and innovations.
Two ULI Greenprint members have already met the net-zero-carbon goal—Hudson Pacific Properties, a real estate investment trust (REIT) with over 19 million square feet (1.8 million sq m) of office and studio properties, and Kilroy Realty Corporation (KRC), a West Coast REIT with over 14 million square feet (1.3 million sq m) of office and life science space. This is how they did it.
Webinar: Getting to Net Zero Energy Through Strategic Building Operations and Plug Load Management
Plug loads comprise a much greater amount and proportion of total building energy consumption than they have in the past. There is a significant opportunity to reduce this consumption. However, these loads are rarely managed well due to lack of effective technologies and plug load management strategies.
This DOE Better Buildings webinar demonstrates a case study on how Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) was able to transition its headquarters from a LEED Platinum office building first occupied in 2017 to become the first Net Zero Energy certified office building in Texas in early 2020 using plug load management. The technologies used, the different stages of plug load consumption, and the strategies adopted to manage and reduce plug loads and overall building energy consumption were discussed.
LABBC Partner Highlight: Los Angeles Community College District Looks to Future of Sustainability Across Its Campuses
Although the culinary arts program at Los Angeles Trade Technical College is one of the longest-running in the nation, the campus itself is looking to the future. The newly completed LEED Culinary Arts Building is part of the Los Angeles Community College Districts' aggressive plan to meet and surpass waste reduction and energy efficiency goals.
Source: Unsplash