Sustaining Healthy and Energy Efficient Buildings through Technician Education
January 6 – 7, 2021
Co-hosted by BEST and LBNL, the 2021 Annual Institute is the premier event for faculty, students, and technical professionals aspiring to improve the knowledge and practice of high-performance building operations. This year’s theme is Sustaining Healthy and Energy Efficient Buildings through Technician Education.
As the U.S. pivots to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord and efforts begin to implement broader short and long term strategies to reduce the U.S. carbon footprint, the impetus for energy efficiency in buildings will gain increased emphasis. For a relatively smaller investment—for example, compared to transforming our transportation sector infrastructure–improved building efficiency will offer near term solutions to meet longer term climate change mitigation goals. At the same time, safety concerns related to COVID-19, the rising Healthy Buildings movement, and growing awareness of the relationship between commercial indoor environmental quality and worker productivity are leading to much greater focus on building operational health and safety. In addition, ongoing technical innovations in Building Automation Systems (BAS) applications, building de-carbonization strategies, on-site energy generation and storage, grid interactive energy management–the list goes on—are also impacting building operations. As the buildings sector builds back greener and healthier, the role and importance of technicians and engineers operating these buildings will become steadily greater. Similarly, the scope and importance of the education and training of building technicians and engineers will also be magnified. As BEST Center tracks these changes, it does so in recognition of its core mission: to support the education and training of the next generation of building technicians.
Speakers selected for this year’s 2021 National Institute will highlight the important themes identified above: (1) the value of Healthy Buildings; (2) ASHRAE guidelines on building ventilation; (3) the Global Carbon Cycle; (4) a new software tool for energy retrofits; (5) a new BAS simulation tool; (6) Grid Interactive Efficient Buildings; and (7) Energy Management Information Systems. In addition to these presentations, the Institute will also feature faculty from the BEST College Network leading sessions on Virtual Problem-based Learning strategies, Establishing a Tool Lending Library for Remote Lab Instruction, STEM Recruitment Strategies for Youth and Women, and Curriculum Guidance for BEST’s High Performance Building Operations Professional certification.
Welcome and Institute Overview
Keynote: Putting the Building to Work – The Business Case for Healthy Buildings
The Future of Ventilation Standards Post-COVID
What’s New in Ventilation (2021 Edition)
Buildings and Wildfires
Certification for High-Performance Building Operations Professionals
Getting Noticed: Recruiting Traditional Learners for High-tech STEM Programs
Recruiting and Retaining Women in Building Automation: Outreach Activities to Promote Diversity and Inclusion
Net-Zero America: Potential Pathways, Infrastructure, and Impacts
Three Perspectives on the Global Carbon Cycle: Soil, Atmosphere, and Energy
BETTER Project: Building Energy Targeting Tool for Energy Retrofits
Control Description Language for Simulating Building Controls
Problem Based Learning in a Virtual Environment: Troubleshooting an Air Terminal Unit
Grid Interactive Efficient Buildings and Automated Demand Response
Energy Management Information Systems (EMIS)
Open Educational Resources Discussion
Healthy Buildings: Post-COVID Building Operations
Remote Learning Strategies for Building Science and HVAC
Special thanks to our 2021 Annual Institute Sponsors:
