Heating and powering our homes and businesses generates a lot of our climate-changing pollution; our built environment is a major contributor to global warming. If our homes and buildings were carbon-free and energy efficient, we would significantly reduce our climate pollution, drastically cut energy costs for owners and renters, and improve air quality where we live and work.
For example, in both Oregon and Washington State, climate-worsening pollution from buildings are growing at a faster rate than any other source, with this increase largely attributable to the use of fossil gas in homes and buildings. Burning fossil gas in homes and buildings is not only a significant contributor to climate change, but also poses significant health risks for our communities, children, and other vulnerable populations.
Indoor air quality issues are particularly concentrated for low-income residents in smaller units with poor ventilation. Communities of color are already disproportionately impacted by outdoor air pollution, and should not continue to be disproportionately harmed by poor indoor air quality as well. Gas appliances also worsen our outdoor air quality. For example, California’s residential appliances releasing more than two times as many NOx emissions as all of their gas power plants combined, and commercial gas appliances releasing just as much NOx pollution as all of California’s cars.
States and many cities in the region and around the country are increasingly looking at ensuring all new buildings are electric as a key cost-effective pathway for achieving their local or state greenhouse emissions goals. Electrifying buildings is critical to addressing climate change, but it is also achievable, affordable, safe, and creates a more resilient energy system.
We are working with lawmakers and community partners to move rapidly toward electrifying our buildings for heating, cooling and cooking. We can also construct homes and buildings that get all their energy from sustainable sources, and even produce as much energy as they use — net zero energy buildings.
On August 1, the City of Portland graciously hosted the Northwest Biocarbon Initiative (NBI) along with our partners at Ecotrust and the
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SEIU votes to make climate action a priority, California tests zero-net-energy homes, Australian coal CEOs defect to solar and energy efficiency, and more news of the week in climate and clean energy.
CleanTech Showcase is the Pacific Northwest’s premier cleantech business event. This one-day event gathers the industry’s best and brightest to learn about the latest clean technology innovations, research and investment opportunities.
Engage the industry’s best and brightest while seeing the latest cleantech innovations from across the region.
Network with 350+ industry leaders, investors, media and policymakers.
Hear and learn from renowned speakers across research, investing and industry.
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Can energy leverage the sharing economy? Two projects are finding out how cooperative district energy technologies are reshaping facility energy management and community design: Eco District and Cyrene. |
The GridWise® Architecture Council and Smart Grid Northwest are pleased to announce that the Third International Conference and Workshop on Transactive Energy will be held May 17 through May 19th, 2016, in Portland, Oregon, at the World Trade Center.
The conference and workshops will bring together representatives of government, industry, utilities, vendor organizations and academia who have an interest in advancing transactive energy—an approach that combines economic and control techniques to improve power grid reliability and efficiency.
As a part of an international climate and energy actionable knowledge exchange, i-SUSTAIN is gathering together experts from Denmark, Sweden and Washington state in Olympia and Seattle from April 11-12, 2016. The April convening focuses on district energy and combined heat and power, with this bi-directional knowledge exchange on climate and energy continuing in 2016 with other key action areas.
An open-to-the-public meeting with the delegates is being offered in Olympia (April 11th) and Seattle (April 12th):
On April 19, 2016 the Western Washington University Institute for Energy Studies will be holding its first Energy Symposium. Students, faculty, and invited experts in the field of energy will be joining together on Western's campus for presentations, lively panel discussions, student poster sessions, and networking. Space is limited. Register now.
On March 10 Seattle took a key step on its path to be carbon neutral by 2050, when Mayor Ed Murray signed
It's time for Oregon to reclaim a leadership position on building codes and to join the vanguard of states leading the way in pursuit of net zero energy homes and businesses.
American cities are reducing climate pollution by investing in energy efficiency, renewables, grid innovations, and clean transportation.
The Seattle Chamber of Commerce and the Clean Tech Alliance invite you to hear Dr. Paul Brooks of Tata Steel give a European energy-intensive industry perspective on climate change policy, carbon pricing, and industrial competitiveness.
