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Green Champion Summit: Making the Financial Case for Net Zero

  • AIA Oregon 403 NW 11th Avenue Portland, OR 97209 (map)
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This year’s Green Champion Summit brings together Design Professionals, Developers, Consultants and Zero Energy Advocates to present on the value (both financial and existential) of Net Zero initiatives by looking at opportunities, incentives and case studies. Presenters will discuss approaches to budgetary hurdles to achieving Net Zero and insights into leveraging available incentives and calculating long-term payoffs versus up-front costs to help clients understand the long term costs. They will also discuss paths to achieving Net Zero at different scales and the long term value that Net Zero projects offer our clients and communities.

Zero Energy Ready Oregon (ZERO) is working to create the market conditions and regulatory framework for every newly constructed or significantly renovated building in Oregon to be built to zero energy or zero energy ready standards.

As a coalition of organizations working with a wide array of constituents and stakeholders, we recognize the benefit of collaboration to create greater impact on building energy performance and affordability. 

We also recognize the benefit of working together with the numerous program certifications, policy champions, businesses, government agencies, community organizations, environmental justice partners and energy service providers who are helping Oregon meet its climate action goals.

Learning objectives:

  • Identify local and statewide incentives and initiatives to help calculate short and long-term costs.

  • Explore cost effective building enclosure strategies that can significantly improve energy performance and occupant comfort.

  • Explore project priorities for affordable housing that align with net-zero ready strategies along with the challenges and tradeoffs.

  • Examine the relationship between cultural values, climate impacts, and approaches to high-efficiency design.

Speakers:

Matt Hyder, LEED GREEN ASSOCIATE, WELL AP, ETO Net Zero Fellow

Energy Consultant, RWDI

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Matthew works with our engineering team to help clients understand, model and enhance their buildings’ energy performance. A versatile professional with a background in engineering management and sustainable design, Matthew delivers ASHRAE-compliant energy studies and ventilation calculations, and uses the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager tool to establish building energy performance baselines. He is proficient with multiple software systems related to energy modeling and performance, including eQuest and IES VE. With these tools, Matthew can help inform our clients’ residential and commercial building design choices and identify cost-optimal efficiency packages for whole-house energy savings, from modest efficiency improvements to zero-net-energy scenarios.

Travis Dang, LEED AP

Associate, SERA Architects

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Travis is a designer in SERA’s multi-family housing studio specializing in urban mixed-use projects. He was the lead designer for Orchards of 82nd, a new transit-oriented project located in the Jade District featuring 48 affordable apartments, a multi-cultural community center, and the home of the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon.

ML Vidas

Vidas Architecture LLC

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ML (Mary Louise) Vidas has focused her career on connecting people and ideas for a sustainable future. Her position as Outreach Manager for the New Buildings Program with Energy Trust of Oregon utilizes her prior consulting work: charrette facilitation, Living Building Challenge support, and Earth Advantage project management. Vidas is an Oregon Registered Architect (MArch and Certificate in Teaching Technical Subjects in Architecture). She is a LEED AP BD+C, an Earth Advantage Project Steward, and a Certified Sustainable Building Advisor. Vidas fosters sustainability from the building scale to the neighborhood scale, integrating technology with how people live, work, and play.

Nicole Holt, AIA, LEED Green Associate

Sr. Job Captain, SERA Architects and representing Zero Energy Ready Oregon

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Nicole Holt is a registered architect and senior job captain at SERA Architects, as well as current vice-chair of SERA's Sustainability Action Committee, which oversees the execution of sustainable business policies, practices and strategies for the firm. She has been a sustainable design advocate throughout her architectural career, co-founding the Emerging Green Builders, a student branch of the USGBC at Ball State University, while an undergraduate. After receiving her Master of Architecture from the University of Oregon, where she focused on sustainable urban design, she served as a co-director of the Portland chapter of the Open Architecture Collaborative (formerly Architecture for Humanity) from 2013 to 2016. Today, Nicole volunteers with Zero Energy Ready Oregon and serves on their Technical and Policy committees to help promote energy efficient building techniques and zero-energy standards within the profession.

Mark Perepelitza, AIA, LEED AP BD+C

Principal, Director of Sustainability, SERA Architects

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As the Director of Sustainability, Mark leads SERA’s Sustainability Resources Group, which provides building performance expertise, research, and sustainability consulting services to SERA’s project teams. Mark also provides internal building enclosure support to project teams and facilitates sustainability training. Mark brings over 25 years of experience in architecture, building performance research, and education. His building projects have varied in scale and construction type, but show consistent attention to natural light, structural expression, regional materials, building enclosure design, sustainable design, and building performance. Mark has taught university courses on building enclosure design and performance and has presented at a number of recent conferences on sustainability and performance.

Kevin Bates

Sharp Development

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Kevin owns Sharp Development Company, and has 5 years of experience in commercial real estate finance and 31 years of experience as a developer.

He has more recently concentrated on retrofitting older generation buildings to carbon neutrality and a net zero energy bill, while having a strong emphasis on the health and wellness of the interior environment for the occupants. He has completed 6 ZNE buildings of this nature. The driver for Kevin is to demonstrate that this way of repurposing existing building stock can be done in a manner that is quantifiably more profitable for the ownership than the less expensive way of building to meet minimum code.