EcoBlock: an Urban Block-Scale Decarbonization Retrofit
June 26, 2025 11am-12pm PT
Decarbonizing one house at a time does not match the urgent pace needed to rapidly reduce emissions and may bypass priority populations. EcoBlock is a pilot research project that explores decarbonizing buildings at the neighborhood block level with the aim to lift up all neighbors. Funded primarily by the California Energy Commission as part of the Advanced Energy Community program, the Oakland EcoBlock delivers needed home performance, electrification, and shared rooftop solar to 24 residents and a commercial unit in an older diverse neighborhood. This talk will describe the technical details, potential economies of scale, outreach and education, development of a governance vehicle for neighbors to co-own the solar, and lessons learned along the way. EcoBlock highlights using the “neighbor effect” in accelerating adoption of clean energy technologies, especially to historically hard-to-reach people.
Therese Peffer, PhD, is a project manager and researcher at UC Berkeley’s California Institute for Energy and Environment (CIEE) and CITRIS. She manages and conducts research on smart building technologies, building-to-grid interactions, demand response, and decarbonization projects, aiming to create comfortable, energy-efficient spaces. Dr. Peffer serves as Associate Director for CIEE and the CITRIS Climate initiative and co-chairs the annual Behavior, Energy and Climate Change (BECC) conference. She holds a PhD in Architecture with a building science emphasis from UC Berkeley and a Master’s in Architecture from the University of Oregon.
Teaching Carbon Neutral Design: Twenty Unique Perspectives
May 22, 2025 11am-12pm PT
There are hundreds of architecture programs across higher education institutions in North America; however, only a small percentage of them place an emphasis on pedagogy related to educating future graduates to combat the climate crisis through carbon neutral design. In an effort to increase the adoption of building decarbonization content into curricula across the continent, Robin Puttock crafted this book to highlight the many existing diverse and innovative methodologies, each detailed in a chapter written by an international award-winning professor in this field. She will speak about the process and the outcomes of this effort to date.
Robin Z. Puttock, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, WELL AP, is an Assistant Professor at Kennesaw State University and a practicing architect with over twenty years of professional, national award-winning, sustainable design experience. She is the editor and contributing author of Teaching Carbon Neutral Design in North America: Twenty Award-Winning Architectural Design Studio Methodologies (Routledge 2025) and is the project architect of many LEED certified buildings as well as the first US Department of Education Green Ribbon School recognized by President Barack Obama. Robin serves as the 2025 Chair of the National AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE) Leadership Group.
Architectural Epidemiology: Exploring Health Impacts of Building Decarbonization Through Experimental Exposure Pathways
April 24, 2025 11am-12pm PT
The built and natural environment create the physical context within which we live our daily lives. It can be designed to protect society from environmental toxins (such as traffic-related air pollution or high concentrations of airborne viruses like SARS-CoV-2) and to make health-promoting behaviors the obvious choice (such as safely walking to school). On the other hand, design decisions can also result in increased exposure to environmental hazards (such as buildings located in flood zones) and barriers to a health-promoting lifestyle (such as neighborhoods lacking access to fresh and healthy food).
This webinar will use a novel framework called Architectural Epidemiology to reveal the environmental and social determinants of health that are influenced by changes to the built environment – particularly at the intersection of climate change, communicable and non-communicable disease, and social equity. Students will apply the framework to a site in New York City to demonstrate how a built environment intervention could be leveraged to bring outsized co-benefits around climate, health, and equity both on the property and in the surrounding neighborhood.
Adele Houghton, FAIA, DrPH, LEED AP, is President of Biositu, LLC where she works at the intersection of buildings, public health, and climate change. She is a member of the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows and received a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) degree from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where she also teaches. Her book Architectural Epidemiology (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2025), co-authored with Professor Carlos Castillo-Salgado of Johns Hopkins University, proposes a novel method for architectural design: combining neighborhood-scale environmental health data with participatory community engagement to maximize a building’s positive ripple effect on community and planetary health.
Suggested Readings:
Houghton A, Castillo-Salgado C. Architectural Epidemiology: Introducing a Transdisciplinary Field of Study and Practice Using Real Estate as a Mechanism for Epidemiological Interventions on Climate Change and Chronic Disease. Proceedings of the ARCC-EAAE 2022 International Conference, Resilient City: Physical, Social, and Economic Perspectives. 2022; pp. 41-48. Available from: http://www.arcc-arch.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/ARCC-EAAE-2022_Proceedings_Digital-Version.pdf
Houghton A. “Co-Benefits” as a Lens Through Which COVID-19 Building Upgrades Can Advance Environmental Sustainability, Climate Mitigation and Adaptation, and Social Equity. Harvard Public Health Review. 2020; 27. Available from: https://bcphr.org/29-article-houghton/
Frieden TR, A Framework for Public Health Action: The Health Impact Pyramid. American Journal of Public Health. 2010; 100(4): 590-595. https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.2105/AJPH.2009.185652
Optional: Houghton A, Li X. The Alignment Process: Generating Value for All Through Community Benefit Design. 2023; pp 1-59. Available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aTWUF0I8sC3Z4IbvVihzCamk4AGL_ehm/view?usp=sharing
Alignment Process website: https://www.alignmentprocess.org
Webinar Recording
Local Law 97: Implementing New York City’s Groundbreaking Emissions Reduction Law
March 6, 2025 11am-12pm PT
Join the Stanford BDLA and Impact Hub New York Metropolitan Area to take a close look at building decarbonization in action with New York City’s Local Law 97. This landmark building performance standard mandates aggressive emissions reductions in large buildings. The presentation covers how the law originated, the implementation policies, and discuss the looming question of how older, municipal buildings specifically are meeting their interim goals while planning for a decarbonized future.
Bryan Simpson has over 10 years of experience in the field of building decarbonization and energy efficiency in New York City’s private and public sectors. As the Agency Chief Decarbonization Officer at the New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS), Bryan directs the agency’s efforts to decarbonize its building portfolio through energy efficiency, beneficial electrification, transitioning to low-embodied carbon construction practices, and complying with all relevant decarbonization-focused Local Laws and Executive Orders. Also at DCAS, he was a capital project division manager and deputy director of the division of energy management. He has a background in energy auditing and as a licensed mechanical engineer providing building systems consulting services to multifamily and commercial building owners in the tri-state area.
Webinar Recording
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.
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.
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.
RMI
Webinar Recording
BDLA Monthly Webinar: Building Decarbonization Goes Mainstream – How a Quarter of the US Adopted Electrification Policies
April 12, 2024 11am-12pm PT
Lawrence Garber
Webinar Recording
BDLA Monthly Webinar: Build Beyond Zero
February 16, 2024
Webinar Recording
BDLA Monthly Webinar: Accelerating Decarbonization with Equity and the Risks of Not
January 26, 2024
Webinar Recording
