"SolarCity" at Davis Monthan Air Force Base, outside of Tucson, AZ, was a partnership with Bank of America Merrill Lynch. (Photo credit: http://www.npr.org/2011/11/30/142935396/big-solar-project-moves-forward-without-uncle-sam)

First up was the Department of Defense (DOD), steely sights set on the edge to be gained through energy security.  Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Installations and Environment Dorothy Robyn demonstrated countless current and planned projects in energy streamlining and renewable supply.  As usual, they go big:  they have committed over $1 billion in the next two years in load reduction for existing buildings, using performance contracting.  They plan to shake their dependence on the grid with 3 GW in renewable supply by 2025, leveraging private partnerships, and plugging into advanced microgrids.  If the DOD is investing, you know there’s a payout.  Following their long tradition of “Dem/Val” (Demonstration/Validation), the DOD is not afraid to act as a test bed for emerging technologies, such as electrochromic self-tint windows, membrane-based dehumidification, and beetle-kill biomass gasification.  Camp Roberts is currently testing its new 1 MW solar array, printed in nano-particle ink, heat-seeking that holiest of grails — grid parity.

Ambassador Oreck in one of the channels of the district heating system under Helsinki. (Photo credit: http://www.usembassy.fi/blog/?p=848)

Next up was Bruce Oreck, bodybuilding river guide and U.S. Ambassador to Finland.  Working on his LEED Platinum house in Boulder, I came to appreciate his direct-drive diplomacy.  Bruce doesn’t mince words – he hammers them into shape.  His talk, appropriately, (but to the surprise of those expecting another talk about energy), was about communication.  Our problem solving the carbon and energy crisis, he says, is not about technology – it is about words.  His tough love for the clean energy crowd addresses their habits of speech:  DO NOT SAY “go green,” he says — “It is poisonous to your objectives” — conjuring hippies and wrinkling the noses of half of the population.  DO NOT SAY “save energy” – it implies scrimping.  Psychologists know that people would rather make $20 than save $20.  In some of our best oil country, only 20% of the wells pay out in 7 years – and they talk about making money.  Energy efficiency, on the other hand, shows higher returns than popular securities.  So why are we still talking about saving?  Bruce makes believers when he crosses those oarsman’s arms and talks money:  energy efficiency has “No dry holes, I guarantee it.”

Seattle's 2030 District (Photo Credit: Architecture 2030)

To wrap, Edward Mazria rolled out the roadmap.  The founder of Architecture 2030 closed his practice to take up the challenge of mapping the steps to carbon neutrality in the building sector by 2030.  The goal is to return to safe levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases by zeroing the use of fossil fuels in buildings.  Mazria is not naïve of the gloom and political menace under the “business-as-usual” curve, but he is an architect, and his business is vision.  When I caught up with him after the plenary, I asked him how his goal compares with the sunsetting Kyoto Protocol, which comes in for criticism as unattainable.  The 2030 Challenge is growing in popularity, not shrinking, he says, and names some of the latest recruits.  He can claim 41% of architecture and engineering firms, 7 states, the National Governor’s Association, the US Conference of Mayors, many cities, and section 433 of the Energy Independence and Security Act, signed by President Bush.

The popularity of the 2030 Challenge is that it deals not in problems but in solutions, through discrete and approachable example.  This attainability – this challenge – inspires hope and attracts talent.  Federal leadership is frozen?  Any state, city, town, or firm can pull up to the drawing board.  Architecture 2030 is about to open the toolbox — the 2030 Palette will launch in a global summit in 7 months.  The toolbox is a free shared library of building and planning resources for decarbonization – evolving as it incorporates solutions and lessons learned come from participants worldwide.  We are already beginning to move in the right direction:  emissions are down from Energy Information Administration projections by the equivalent of 700 coal plants and $3.6 trillion.  This progress is not just an artifact of the economy – it has been due to the adoption of building energy codes as recommended by Architecture 2030.  Mazria reminds us that 75% of buildings will likely be new or renovated by 2035, and ripe for upgrades.  Ever since he called out the building sector as the problem  in It’s the Architecture, Stupid!  Mazria and the movement he founded have been the first to say that projections are not fate, and to supply the inspiration for this wave of change.  To lend your hand to the 2030 Palette, create a profile here.

Though diverse in their perspective, Robyn, Oreck and Mazria all provided interesting solutions  to important issues the world is facing.

Edward Mazria, (Photo Credit: USGBC Colorado)

Sure, this sounds grandiose, but architects rarely shrink from big ideas – least of all Edward Mazria, who will deliver a plenary at WREF2012 on Tuesday morning, May 15^th.  He is the founding father of Architecture 2030, a truly big idea that beats a path to carbon neutrality in the building sector by 2030.  In his lectures, Mazria traces the history of architects as utopian dreamers, driving and driven by their times; leading us into the carbon trap, and leading us out of it.   While he condemns architectural contributions to climate change (almost half of US emissions,) he also praises the purity of purpose that drives architects to the front of the fray in finding solutions.  Carbon-neutral building is a complex game of give and take – of deep energy use reduction followed up by renewable energy supply.  Almost three-quarters of the 30 largest US architecture and engineering firms have taken up the 2030 Challenge, and many are already sending in data to support their 2030 commitments.  Deployed on the community scale, the solution quickly takes on utopian proportions:  Cities and states have taken the Challenge, and whole downtown districts are engaging property owners and tenants in the process of reaching carbon neutrality in the existing urban fabric.  Architects are ambidextrous problem-solvers — cracking technical problems with the one hand while artfully weaving environments where we can live happily with ourselves in an increasingly crowded world.

Lincoln Hall school renovation, Portland 2030 Challenge Design Awards (Photo Credit: Boora Architects)

Mazria keeps his ear to the tracks; reads the clouds like a weatherman.  When I heard him speak a couple of weeks ago, he was brimming with the tacit recognition political powers are already giving to climate change by massing their military interests in the loosening arctic trade routes, and he was forecasting the shifting fortunes of nations relative to their exposed coastlines.  He cited cause for hope:  that our now 392 ppm CO₂ can return to a safe 350 if we stop the extraction and burning of fossil fuels, and learn to run ourselves and our buildings on the ambient energy that has been sufficient for millennia to run all other life.

Architects, says Mazria, are “predisposed to do the right thing.”  In a profession usually entered for idealistic reasons (certainly not for the money!), and now seeing one of the highest rates of unemployment, the drive towards clean energy in the building sector is an issue of survival as much as of purpose.  When he takes the podium at WREF, Mazria will make the case that carbon-neutrality is an issue of survival for all of us – but he will unveil new strategies, and new places, where architects are leading the way.

Ed Mazria. Photo ©2008 Jamey Stillings. All Rights Reserved.

Ed Mazria, founder of Architecture 2030, will deliver a plenary address on Tuesday morning, May 15, at the World Renewable Energy Forum in Denver, Colo.

In 2003, Mazria, a pioneer in passive solar architecture, calculated that buildings are the source of half of all carbon dioxide emissions. He publicized that discovery with the ground-breaking article “It’s the Architecture, Stupid,” in the May/June 2003 issue of SOLAR TODAY, the magazine of the American Solar Energy Society. An explosion of laboratory activity in energy-efficient design followed.  In January, 2006, Mazria issued the Architecture 2030 Challenge (architecture2030.org), working with climate scientists to establish incremental efficiency goals for buildings. It was adopted by the American Institute of Architects.

Mazria’s summary of Architecture 2030 goals and progress, addressed to a plenary session of SOLAR 2011 in Raleigh, N.C. last May, brought a standing ovation.

Edward Mazria is an internationally recognized architect, author, researcher, and educator with a long and distinguished career. His award-winning architecture and planning projects span over a forty-five year period, each employing a cutting-edge environmental approach to design. His comprehensive knowledge of design, planning, climate change and alternative energy sources are focused on a dramatic reduction of fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions generated by the Building Sector, as well as building and regional adaptation strategies for projected climactic and environmental changes.

Mr. Mazria has reshaped national and international dialogue on energy and climate change to incorporate building design and the ‘Building Sector’. He is the founder of Architecture 2030, an innovative and flexible research organization focused on this issue. He developed and issued The 2030 Challenge, a measured and achievable strategy to dramatically reduce global energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2030. He speaks nationally and internationally and has taught architecture at several universities including the University of New Mexico, University of Oregon, University of Colorado-Denver, and UCLA.

His awards include:  AIA Design Awards, Commercial Building Awards from the Department of Energy, “Pioneer Award” from the American Solar Energy Society, Outstanding Planning Award from the American Planning Association, Equinox Award from Earth Alert, National Conservation Achievement Award from the National Wildlife Federation, the inaugural Hanley Award from the Hanley Foundation, Mumford Award from Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility, and the 2011 Purpose Prize from Civic Ventures. He is a senior fellow of the Design Futures Council and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada.

Register today for WREF 2012, and earn continuing educations credits with AIA and GBCI!  Early-bird discount ends April 13.