I’m just back from San Francisco where I spent five days to meet with stakeholders and contributors to discuss plans for the conference coming up on September 10-14, 2014.
The talks were amazing and super encouraging! PHIUS+ projects in the Bay Area are exceptional – they all are also zero energy or positive energy buildings highlighting that passive building is the ideal starting point for going zero or positive. This growing trend – passive to positive energy — will be one of the major themes for conference sessions!
Combining passive design in buildings plus renewables is one of the strategies identified by carbon reduction groups to help mitigate and adapt to climate change. The latter because passive buildings are especially resilient in weather extremes and power outages.
San Francisco has long been aiming at carbon zero goals by 2020, looking to identify a clear set of tools on how to practically and cost effectively implement them. That’s why we chose San Francisco for this 9th Annual North American Passive House Conference. We think it can be the catalyst for a tipping point, a special moment in time when the concept is catapulted forward thanks to favorable factors in the Bay Area. With plenty of high quality high-performance projects designed and built by the pioneers in the passive community, we have an excellent opportunity to make the case to make to the city and its residents that passive design is the best path to their goals.
On my trip I have spoken with various stakeholders and thought leaders and have seen nothing but honest excitement about the possibilities of the conferencce. And better yet, if San Francisco get’s it, you know that the rest of the state and then the country will eventually follow, hence it is critical to make this a big success that radiates beyond the borders of California setting a definite sign: we are in the transition toward a new energy economy and buildings, passive and renewables will play an important role in it.
We’re excited that William Rose, a building science pioneer, will deliver our keynote and that Achilles Karagiozis, Director of Building Science for Owens Corning and WUFI developer will speak at the closing plenary. Also: Joe Lstiburek will present a daylong workshop on building science fundamentals during pre-conference sessions.
Of course, success of the conference – as always –will depend on the dedicated members of our community. We’ve collected dozens and dozens of terrific presentation proposals (and we’re a week or two behind in our review, please accept our apologies; we’ll be in touch soon), and the content of our breakouts will be terrific, as always. We also have a great range of pre-conference sessions (which als earn CPHC CEUs), including a daylong session with five CPHCs who are leading the way in multifamily builldings. Visit the conference website often for updates.
And if you’re available to volunteer to help, email conference@passivehouse.us with your availability and any special expertise. We could use help with everything from registration desk staffing to videography.
Full schedule — and more announcements on some great presenters – are on the way, stay tuned!
Katrin