BCT Lecture Series

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  • Publication
    UMass Amherst Energy Procurement Strategies
    (2018-01-01) Bloom, Zac
    Lecture for Building & Construction Technology at UMass Amherst, given by Zac Bloom, Vice President & Director of Sustainability & Renewables for Competitive Energy Systems. Interweaving the complexities of budgeting and sustainability for the energy procurement strategies of universities and large institutions requires a combination of expertise and prognostication that must respond to continually changing technical environment and the volatility of local, national and global politics. Mr. Bloom originally joined Competitive Energy Systems (CES) in 2012 as a BusinessDevelopment and Account Manager and was soon promoted to Director of Sustainability & Renewables. Now CES's Vice President, Head of Renewables & Sustainability, Mr. Bloom primarily consults with universities and large commercial customers on energy procurement strategies, budgeting, sustainability, energy benchmarking and CES’s proprietary Utility Tracker. Prior to joining CES, at UMass Amherst, Mr. Bloom focused his studies on energy benchmarking and data visualizations for large data sets associated with building’s resource consumption profiles. Learning Objectives 1. Understanding of the components of retail electricity for both supply & local distribution companies 2. Modeling the economics of behind the meter distributed generation projects for solar and storage 3. Calculating key performance indicators such as Greenhouse gas emissions or energy use intensity for a campus or facility 4. Decarbonization strategies to meet institutional goals both onsite and offsite.
  • Publication
    Sustainable Forest Initiatives
    (2020-01-01) Chapman, Russel
    Lecture for Building & Construction Technology at UMass Amherst, given by Russel Chapman, Architectural Consultant for Sierra Pacific Windows. Russell is a graduate of Champlain College in Burlington Vermont who grew up in northeastern Vermont. His career in the window business spans fifteen years and he’s held several different positions over that time. Currently he is an architectural consultant for Sierra Pacific Windows where he works directly with the architectural and design community to help guide their decisions to best meet client expectations. Russ is married with two boys and lives in Putney Vermont. When not geeking out over windows and doors he enjoys skiing, working his wood-land or just relaxing around the house. Learning objectives: 1. Understand “who is SFI”, as well as the history of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. 2. Understand the purpose of SFI principles, objectives, performance measures and indicators. 3. Know how to answer the question of “what is forest certification?” 4. Understand how growing our forests in a sustainable manner contributes toward green building and sequesters carbon, reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
  • Publication
    Women in Construction
    (2019-01-01) Clauson, Lisa
    Lecture for Building & Construction Technology at UMass Amherst, given by Lisa Clauson, Director of Strategic Partnerships for the New England Carpenters Labor Management Program (NECLMP) in Central and Western MA & Stephanie Stevens, a 3rd year carpenters apprentice in Local 336. NECLMP is a joint partnership of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters (28,000 union carpenters) and the over 1,500 Contractors who are signed to use union carpenters in New England. Through her work with the Carpenters, Ms. Clausen is a part of the Northeast Center of Tradeswomen Equity, a non-profit organization helping women find work in the construction trades. More info on NCTE can be found at www.buildalifema.org. Lisa has worked for NECLMP for several years recruiting women and people of color to the field and working with owners of construction work to require diversity of their construction crews. She has also worked extensively on policy campaigns at the municipal levels that support the use of responsible contracting, diversity in construction, and protect against wage theft Stephanie Stephens is a 3rd year carpenters apprentice in Local 336. Ms. Stephens grew up in the Springfield area, joined the army at seventeen and served for three years, including two combat deployments to the Middle East. Ms. Stephens is currently working here at UMass Amherst on the Student Union Renovations. Learning Objectives 1. Participants will examine how diversity goals and requirements can impact owners, why owners are starting to prioritize diversity, which owners are starting to do so, and how knowledge of the issue, industry best practices, and measurement tools, can help them put together stronger construction management bids. 2. Participants will be able to assess diversity workforce goals and requirements on future projects and compare them to similar projects in the state, including the most recent successful projects that have met or exceeded their diversity workforce goals and requirements. 3. Participants will acquire and breakdown industry best practices for meeting diversity goals and requirements. They will discuss and compare the different stakeholders who can impact the project’s success and will explore how these stakeholders have helped projects meet their numbers. 4. Participants will acquire and discuss specific tools that can be used to track and measure progress on projects meeting diversity goals and requirements. The will examine best practices in the industry and learn how to adequately measure and track success.
  • Publication
    The Role of Solar in the Residential Energy Sector
    (2019-01-01) Garrison, Gregory
    Lecture for Building & Construction Technology at UMass Amherst, given by Gregory Garrison, President of Northeast Solar. The presentation covers the benefits and challenges of integrating solar power into the residential energy sector. Solar is an entry level technology that can be integrated with several emerging technologies including storage, energy management, the internet of things and transportation. The discussion will also focus on the obstacles in making the solar energy fully integrated into the residential marketplace. These include price, demographics, urban planning and the current grid construct. The discussion will conclude with a discussion of how to remove barriers to broader adoption and changing the utility business model. Gregory Garrison is a successful entrepreneur and reformed capitalist. Most recently, after years of high consumption and recognizing its direct impact on our environment, he has committed himself to policy discussions designed to advance clean energy initiatives. He is the owner of Northeast Solar Design in Hatfield MA and serves on a variety of boards whose objectives are to stimulate job growth and the emerging green economy. He resides in Montague MA. Learning Objectivities: 1. Understanding the benefits of solar and distributed generation into the residential energy sector 2. Identify emerging energy technologies and the benefits of integrating them with solar energy 3. Understanding the barriers to broad scale adoption of residential solar. The importance of urban planning on future energy policy. 4. Be able to explain the current grid construct and its need to be remodeled for the new distributed energy sector.