Recent events highlight the need to have a frank conversation about Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in the workplace. As a minimum standard in civil society, all people should be able to come to work without being harassed, belittled or pre-judged. This session is about how to grow beyond that minimum standard towards an inclusion mindset that actively seeks the breadth of thought that comes when organizations incorporate diversity within their midst as a better reflection of the real world. The speaker will weave together story, research from the US, and personal insight to discuss the topic of diversity and inclusion in the workplace, with the goal of empowering audience members to own their voice, authority, and influence.

This session will discuss the key principles involved in managing the needs of the patrons with the long-term preservation of precious artifacts when designing museum environments. The speaker will begin with a brief overview of the mechanisms of artifact damage and follow with a collection of short case studies demonstrating the HVAC solutions typically used to create stable conservation environments.

This session will describe process of early phase analysis that a design team can to test whether natural ventilation is a feasible comfort-conditioning system for a given climate and building configuration. The speaker will build on her “Natural Ventilation Top 10 Feasibility Questions” from an ASHRAE Journal article to cover compliance with ASHRAE Standards 55 and 62.1 and a discussion of the impact of climate change.

Designers of building HVAC systems do not act in a void but rather in a community of design and construction professionals who are all dedicated to the success of a given project. We can better contribute to this success when we understand the perspectives of our partners and can articulate our own technical parameters in a way that looks for synergy without strife. This session will draw on the speaker’s two decades of experience as a design leader of teams with up to a dozen different analytical disciplines. The talk starts by introducing the idea of unconscious bias built into our professional world view by our academic and specialist training and then turns to tips for transcending that bias to develop design empathy and proactive working relationships. By exploring a series of short case studies involving interface and coordination between architectural, structural, civil, MEP, façade, acoustics, fire and sustainability disciplines working in the building design context, the audience will be able to better recognize the needs and design sensibilities of our partners outside of the HVAC field.

This session is an introduction to the areas in which HVAC engineers have influence on reducing the absolute carbon footprint in buildings. Topics areas include operational carbon, embodied carbon, and carbon equivalents found in the HVAC manufacturing, design and construction process, expanding on the speaker’s May 2020 ASHRAE Journal article on these topics.

This session is an introduction to the areas in which HVAC equipment manufacturers and design engineers have influence on increasing the use of healthy materials in equipment. Topics areas include an introduction to the principles around the use of healthier materials, the key product or components where materials of concern are found in HVAC equipment, and the steps the industry can take to begin to convert the supply chain. This session expands on the speaker’s October 2020 ASHRAE Journal article on these topics.

This session is an introduction to the UN Sustainable Development goals as a paradigm in growing use by government agencies, international businesses, and non-profit organizations to align their development activities. With ratification by 193 countries, this global initiative attempts to ensure that future climate action has parallel attention to improvement in standard of living throughout the world. The speaker will discuss the areas in which HVAC design may play a part. This session expands on the speaker’s April 2021 ASHRAE Journal article on these topics.

This session is an introduction to the big picture trends associated with the growing momentum around building decarbonization. It includes a review of market-related concerns arising from ESG reporting (Environmental, Social, Governance), the trends towards lowered carbon intensity of electricity at the grid level, the emerging local regulatory influence, and technology considerations. This session expands on the speaker’s September 2021 ASHRAE Journal article on these topics.

This session is an introduction to whole life carbon assessment as a new design paradigm and metric to be considered alongside other performance indicators. The article includes an overview of the key organization that address this topic with requirements in their rating systems and/or have developed code overlay language for adoption by municipalities. This session reflects the speaker’s February 2022 ASHRAE Journal article on these topics.

Born from the same awareness of climate change, building decarbonization and climate-related resilience are often framed within organizations and our own thought processes as two independent exercises – one as risk management, the other as environmental social responsibility. This session explores both the potential synergies and the maladaptive risks associated with balancing the equally important (but occasionally competing) needs of carbon mitigation and climate adaptation during a building design or retrofit process. This session was previously presented at the ASHRAE 2022 Annual Conference.