Happy New Year!
In 2022 the Resource Refocus team welcomed several new staff and continued to grow our footprint in California and New York.
Natalie Low joined the team as an Associate Technical Consultant in California, with a background in civil and structural engineering, and experience as a stress analyst in the aerospace industry.
Nicholas Rajkovich, PhD, AIA, joined the team as a Senior Technical Consultant in New York. His background spans the fields of architecture, urban planning, and climate change adaptation and resilience.
Nate Heckman, AIA, joined the team as an Associate Technical Consultant in New York following six years of professional architectural practice.
Kanak Bal recently joined Resource Refocus as a Business Operations Manager. Her background includes improving and scaling business operations and processes for growth.
Professional Leadership
Carrie continues to serve as the IBPSA-USA President and has also been elected as the Secretary and an At-Large Director for IBPSA-World.
Now in her second year working with the ASHRAE Task Force for Building Decarbonization, Carrie chairs the Knowledge Hub and Website Working Group.
Anna is serving as a mentor with the New Buildings Institute Next Gen Mentorship Program for college students, "designed to foster the next generation of diverse buildings industry leaders, and in doing so, bolster inclusivity in the buildings industry at large."
The team serves on various ASHRAE Technical Committees including:
2.8 Building Environmental Impacts and Sustainability
4.2 Climatic Information
7.2 HVAC&R Construction & Design Build Technologies
7.6 Building Energy Performance, the Resilience Multidisciplinary Task Group
The team at lunch in April 2022 - Lizzy (now at EHDD), Jessica, Carrie, Natalie, Anna, and Rhys.
A few project highlights:
Carrie and Nick are co-chairing the Buildings Sector Technical Workgroup for NYSERDA’s New York State Climate Impacts Assessment, a scientific investigation into how climate change is affecting communities, ecosystems, infrastructure, and industries to understand and prepare for our changing climate.
Buildings of Excellence (BOE) is NYSERDA’s $40M design competition that recognizes and rewards the design, construction, and operation of carbon neutral multifamily buildings that are healthier, more comfortable, and more resilient than conventional construction. The program funds projects that reduce their energy consumption and per capita carbon emissions while improving occupant safety, health, and comfort, and result in positive investments for building owners. In an ongoing effort, RR and NBI have teamed to study the BOE awardees and to develop robust studies of solution packages, performance validation, and project economic analysis.
We developed four courses on climate change adaptation and resilience in partnership with the Urban Land Institute and the University at Buffalo.
We helped develop the The Architecture at Zero 2023 competition. This year's challenge is to design a teaching and innovation farm lab, connecting the history of California’s first Black town of Allensworth to its present aspiration to become a destination for sustainable agriculture, while addressing building decarbonization, climate resilience, and equity.
The team met in person at ACEEE Summer Study in Monterey.
Rhys presented his Masters Thesis research at the conference titled, “A Case Study Modeling Barriers and Opportunities for Multifamily Electrification Retrofits” that examines the challenge of electrifying gas end uses in multifamily buildings in the Sacramento region where 60% of units have gas space heating and 88% have gas water heating. The study found that nearly all electrification retrofits are covered by existing utility incentives and that 92% of customers that electrify will see a decrease in total utility bills. The biggest barrier to multifamily electrification retrofits is the time and expertise required to perform electrification projects.
We spent an afternoon exploring Point Lobos State Park and watching sea otters and the pelicans on their stopover heading to Baja.
Conferences and Presentations
Carrie and Jessica both presented at the Building Performance Analysis Conference and SimBuild in September.
Rhys presented his work at the UC Davis Energy and Efficiency Institute in December.
Carrie was also a Panelist at the USGBC Summit on Bridging Occupant & Community Health in December.
Rhys at UC Davis with Kristen Bush from EPRI (left) and Dr. Alissa Kendall, Chair of the Energy Graduate Group (center).
Carrie on stage at BPAC and SimBuild.