Date/Time: October 31, 2025 | 2:15 – 3:15 pm

Room: 164-165

Audience: Architects

Call to Action:
Leave with actionable insights on how to decode energy reports, leverage regional opportunities for carbon reductions, and design schools that deliver measurable benefits to both communities and the planet.

Abstract: As the push for carbon and energy regulations intensifies, schools stand at the crossroads of climate action and design innovation. Navigating the differences in regional climates, local codes, and certification pathways can feel like comparing apples to oranges—or, in this case, kilowatt-hours to carbon offsets. This session dives into the sustainability metrics shaping Elementary and Middle School design in California and British Columbia. We’ll unpack how Energy Use Intensity (EUI) benchmarks, percent-improvement targets, and carbon regulations differ—and where they converge—across these two regions. With a lens on both operational and embodied carbon, we’ll clarify what makes a design genuinely sustainable, and what metrics might mislead. Attendees will leave with actionable insights on how to decode energy reports, leverage regional opportunities for carbon reductions, and design schools that deliver measurable benefits to both communities and the planet.

Learning Objectives:

1. Interpret basic energy efficiency metrics with an understanding of what is historically common in a given climate, what code minimum standards look like, and what superior performance looks like when reviewing an energy report.
2. Identify key opportunities for sustainable design improvements based on local climate conditions, local published risk assessments, locally available energy sources, and relate them back to the requirements of local codes and available certification pathways.
3. Explain how the public benefits of sustainably-designed school buildings are most often quantified, whether new construction or modernization/renovation/adaptive re-use.
4. Apply knowledge of various standards when setting design criteria for a project, such as for Owner’s Project Requirements (OPRs), or when targeting credits for a certification.