Delivering sustainable and resilient communities will require a holistic shift in our approach to energy from policy all the way down to utilization. Policy makers and industry have focused on moving building design toward "net-zero" or "net-zero-ready" structures that utilize only the energy resources available immediately to the building in order to satisfy the needs of occupants. This focus manifests itself in the changing energy codes, expanding utility incentive programs, and various building rating systems that drive the market for building design. With a first wave of early adopters implementing these structures, researchers can now assess the performance of these buildings and identify the proper way to move forward. Using case studies which include the energy modeling assumptions and operational expectations for early net-zero buildings, the session will review three key considerations to the future implementation of the strategy: first, the improvements to modeling tools and design assumptions necessary to deliver high performing buildings that meet expectations, second, an analysis of whether occupant behaviors and expectations must change in order to deliver high performing buildings, and third, whether implementing "net-zero" on a building level offers the cost optimal path to delivering sustainable communities.
On the topic of modeling tools and design decisions, the authors will review the performance of net-zero buildings as it evolved over the course of the design process through completion and operation. The session will examine the validity of assumptions inherent in design and modeling tools affected the expected performance, and identify the shortcomings in the tools. Finally, this section of the session will examine the improvements that the industry currently plans to make in these tools to identify whether the improvements will fully address the issues.
Advocates for sustainable buildings and communities point to occupant behavior change as not just a desirable strategy for resiliency, but an absolutely necessary one. The session will review the case studies to determine how actual building performance varied from expectations, and the role that occupant behavior (both from the end user of the space and the building operator) played in any variance. In addition, the authors will review the expected path of building performance over the coming decades with an eye toward how the information gathered on the role of occupant behavior suggests that the impact of occupants may change in the coming decades.
Finally, the authors will examine what the data collected to date suggests about the application of net-zero design at the building level as a tool for delivering sustainable communities. With current energy policy trending toward net-zero ready new buildings as a code requirement, and the economics of small-scale renewable energy improving rapidly, these factors will tempt owners, planners, designers, and policy makers to throw capital and momentum behind net-zero buildings as a standard. The session will identify what the data tells us about the long-term economic viability of net-zero at the building scale and whether the building scale provides the best opportunity in all cases, or whether other alternatives address the issue more effectively.
• Complexity, resilience and sustainability , • Infrastructure systems, the built environment, and smart and connected infrastructure , • Business and industry practices / case studies
