Webinar Archives - Building Decarbonization Learning Accelerator

BDLA Monthly Webinar: Transitioning California and the World to 100% Clean, Renewable Energy and Storage for Everything

September 13, 2024 11am-12pm PT

Global warming, air pollution, and energy insecurity are three of the most significant problems facing the world today. This talk discusses the development of technical and economic roadmaps to solve these problems across 149 countries and all 50 states, including California. The solution is to electrify buildings, transportation, and industry and provide the electricity with 100% clean, renewable wind, water, and solar (WWS) sources and storage. This talk also discusses technologies already available to electrify buildings fully. It further discusses the electricity and heat generation technologies and the electricity, heat, cold, and hydrogen storage technologies needed for a transition, including firebricks to store industrial process heat. It then evaluates methods of keeping the electric grid stable. Results indicate that the grid can remain stable at low cost in each of 29 world regions encompassing 149 countries examined. Aside from mitigating global warming, these roadmaps have the potential to eliminate over seven million air pollution deaths annually, reduce international conflict over energy, stabilize energy prices, reduce catastrophic risk, and create jobs. Finally, the talk discusses why policies that encourage carbon capture and direct air capture are opportunity costs that increase carbon dioxide, air pollution, fossil mining, and fossil infrastructure and should be abandoned. Click here for more information.

Speaker Bio:

Mark Z. Jacobson

Mark Z. Jacobson is Director of the Atmosphere/Energy Program and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Woods Institute for the Environment and of the Precourt Institute for Energy. He received a B.S. in Civil Engineering, an A.B. in Economics, and an M.S. in Environmental Engineering from Stanford in 1988. He received an M.S. and PhD in Atmospheric Sciences in 1991 and 1994, respectively, from UCLA and joined the faculty at Stanford in 1994. His career focuses on better understanding air pollution and global warming problems and developing clean, renewable energy solutions to them. He has published six books, including his latest, “No Miracles Needed,” and over 185 journal articles. He is ranked as the #1 most impactful scientist in the world in Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences and #6 in Energy among those first publishing past 1985. In 2018, he received the Judi Friedman Lifetime Achievement Award “For a distinguished career dedicated to finding solutions to air pollution and climate problems.” In 2023, he was named one of the top 100 globally “who have made an impact on the world this year” by Worth magazine. He has served on a committee to the U.S. Secretary of Energy, appeared in a TED talk and on the David Letterman Show, and co-founded The Solutions Project nonprofit. He served as an expert witness in the first U.S. constitutional climate trial to win, Held v. Montana, and the world’s first constitutional climate trial to reach a settlement, Navahine v. Hawai’i. His work is the scientific basis of the energy portion of the U.S. Green New Deal and laws to go to 100% renewable energy worldwide.

Webinar Recording

BDLA Monthly Webinar: Boosting Energy Autonomy Through Decarbonization with Hip Hop Caucus

June 7, 2024 11am-12pm PT

Bank Black & Green works to flow capital away from systems invested in mass incarceration and the fossil fuel industry. Stephone Coward II will present his work with Black-owned banks funding local community and Black-owned projects, as well as urban greening projects they have successfully completed. He will explain economic “Just Transitions” and the growing importance of energy democratization. In all of this work, it is integral to decarbonize buildings when separating dependence from the fossil fuel industry and also adding value to the communities Bank Black & Green represents. He will explain the reasons how and why decarbonized buildings play an important role in reducing dependence on systems that inhibit social, environmental, and economic justice.

Speaker Bio:

Stephone M Coward II, Economic Justice, Justice Paid in Full Campaigns Director

A graduate of University of Texas at Arlington, Stephone possesses a Bachelors of Arts in History and Master of Science in Sustainability. He is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc. and is a freelance writer for several publications.

Stephone has recently become a Just Economy Institute Fellow. The Just Economy Institute educates and connects a growing movement of financial activists who are shifting the flow of capital and power to support the well-being of all people and the planet. Because of his work and passion, Stephone has been named one of Forbes Next 1000 as a Social Entrepreneur.

Webinar Recording

Presentation Materials

BDLA Monthly Webinar: Cooking Up Clarity – Insights on Gas Stoves and their Influence on Indoor Air Quality

May 2, 2024 12pm-1pm PT

Dive into one of the hottest decarbonization topics in recent years: gas stoves. RMI expert Brady Seals and Dr. Rob Jackson of Stanford team up for a discussion on the burning questions they get about the indoor air quality ramifications of cooking with gas and the health benefits of switching to electric.

Speaker Bios:

Stanford University

Rob Jackson is a professor of Earth System Sciences at Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and Fellow at Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. He and his lab examine the many ways people affect the Earth. They seek basic scientific knowledge and use it to help shape policies and reduce the environmental footprint of global warming, energy extraction, and other issues. They are also working to measure and reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the Global Carbon Project, which Jackson chairs.

RMI

Brady Seals works on RMI’s Carbon-Free Buildings Team. She works to build the narrative on the health and air quality benefits of building decarbonization, build a network of health experts and advocates across the country, and advance health and climate policy.

Webinar Recording

BDLA Monthly Webinar: Building Decarbonization Goes Mainstream – How a Quarter of the US Adopted Electrification Policies

April 12, 2024 11am-12pm PT

Spurred by local governments in California, the building electrification movement has spread across the nation and influenced regulatory proceedings, legislation, and building codes. Whether deployed as a means of improving public health or meeting emission reduction goals, building electrification is the most efficient way to decarbonize this sector, which is responsible for 30% of total US GHG emissions annually. This presentation will give a historical overview of the movement, discuss policy triggers, market wins, and various statewide strategies that characterize this revolutionary moment for the built environment.

Note: When you register, we would love to know more about your profession and what you would like to learn and any questions you have about state and local building decarbonization policy so they may be addressed during the webinar. Although, you also may bring your questions to the webinar!

Speaker Bios:

Claire deVroede

Claire is a CivicSpark Fellow with the Building Decarbonization Coalition. She manages the Zero Emissions Building Tracker and researches pathways to accelerate decarbonization at neighborhood scale through local planning laws. Prior to BDC, she developed hands-on STEM classes for children in the Portland Public Schools, organized bus riders for a fareless transit campaign with Sunrise Movement PDX, and learned biological farming methods in The Netherlands. In 2022, she graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in religion and political science from Reed College, where served as an adjudicator on the school’s judicial board. She currently lives in the Bay Area, where she likes to go on hikes and listen to unsettling podcasts about AI.

Lawrence Garber

Lawrence is a Senior Policy Associate with the Building Decarbonization Coalition (BDC). He works with local government staff around California to create a safer and healthier energy future by moving buildings off of fossil fuels. Prior to joining BDC, he served as an environmental science educator in Yosemite National Park, a high school teacher in Austin, Texas, and a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sierra Leone and Namibia. He has a Masters in International Environmental Policy from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan. He currently lives in Irvine, CA, where you can find him cooking for family and friends on his induction hob.

Webinar Recording

BDLA Monthly Webinar: Build Beyond Zero

February 16, 2024

40% of global emissions come from the built environment, yet we now see a path beyond zero to buildings absorbing gigatons of carbon every year. Bruce King gave a talk about building technologies both new and ancient that can provide all of our needs as well as help heal the climate.

Speaker Bio:

Bruce King

Bruce King is the author of The New Carbon Architecture and Build Beyond Zero with Chris Magwood, and has been a structural engineer for 45 years, designing buildings of every size and type all over the world. He is also author of the ASTM standard for earthen construction, the Marin County Low-Carbon Concrete code, Design of Straw Bale Buildings, and other books. He is also Founder and Director of the Ecological Building Network (EBNet), a non-profit information resource that is launching the BuildWell Project to develop and disseminate free online video and teaching resources on climate-friendly building.

Webinar Recording

BDLA Monthly Webinar: Accelerating Decarbonization with Equity and the Risks of Not

January 26, 2024

The acceleration of decarbonization is critical to address the climate crisis. However, decarbonization has the opportunity to exacerbate existing inequalities in health and income or start to address these inequities. This webinar reviewed the risks of continuing as the industry has over the last decade and how equitable solutions can accelerate decarbonization in residential and commercial properties.

Speaker Bio:

Anthony Kinslow, II

Anthony Kinslow II, PhD, CEM is the founder and CEO of Gemini Energy Solutions which democratize the energy efficiency sector. Additionally, he lectures two classes at Stanford University at the intersection of Clean Energy and Equity.