From August 2-7th, Building Energy Exchange’s (BE-Ex) Richard Yancey and Hailey Moll will attend the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) 2026 Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings. Hosted biennially in Monterey, CA, ACEEE Summer Study brings together energy nerds from around the globe to present research, collaborate, and network with each other to generate innovative ideas and solutions to help improve the efficiency, affordability, and resiliency of the building sector.
Building Energy Exchange is thrilled to be participating in the following panels and informal sessions at this year’s Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings:
Strategic Decarbonization Planning–a roundtable discussion across policies, standards, and programs
August 3rd, 2-3pm PST, Triton Room
Cost-effective and equitable decarbonization of large existing buildings requires long-term planning that aligns with major capital equipment replacements and other building life cycle events. Increased industry alignment around Strategic Decarbonization Planning (SDP) represents a game-changer for engineering, financial analysis, and complex decision-making around low-carbon retrofits. Policy-makers are using Building Performance Standards (BPS) to accelerate long-term decarbonization, with SDP as a compliance path. With many converging initiatives, including IMT’s new BPS alternative compliance framework, USGBC’s LEED v5, ASHRAE standards, numerous relevant planning guides and processes, join this cross-sector discussion on the roles of industry standards, building performance policies, and utility programs.
Panel 13b Session 1: Make it Make Cents: Business Models that Work
August 7th, 8:30-10am PST, Toyon Room
Director of Engineering at New Ecology, John Beaumont, lead author of “Decarbonization Planning for Affordable Multifamily Housing: Frameworks, Compliance Pathways, and Implementation Barriers,” will present how zero-over-time planning approaches are being applied through affordable housing case studies, green certification criteria, public-sector technical assistance programs, and regulatory compliance pathways. The paper, co-authored by Hailey Moll of BE-Ex, shows that long-term planning can help owners move beyond isolated energy audit measures toward coordinated retrofit strategies that reduce stranded asset risk, support funding alignment, and create more realistic pathways to emissions reductions.
August 4th, 8:30-10am PST, Kiln Room
Chief Executive Officer of BE-Ex, Richard Yancey, lead author of “Growing a Community of Practice to Support Ambitious Building Performance Standards: How Building Resource Hubs Can Drive the Transformation of Our Built Environment,” will present a framework for developing local, high-performance building resource ‘hubs,’ based on experiences deploying and scaling hubs in a variety of U.S. markets, identifying process elements and assets critical to the success of a new hub within its local context. This framework promises to support and accelerate the development of local hubs that can benefit from tested best practices in policy implementation and market engagement, enabling them to conserve limited resources without sacrificing programmatic excellence.
What the Hub? Increasing Capacity and Accelerating Performance through a Community of Practice
August 4th, 2-3pm PST, Chapel Room
Following the “sold out” 2022 Informal Session, BE-Ex and IMT will share progress on the Building Performance Partnership (BPP) and host a discussion on how the network of building innovation hubs can accelerate local action, advance building performance strategies, and expand opportunities for collaboration. Now in six cities and two states, these BPP hubs help build capacity in their real estate sector, supporting building decision-makers to navigate and comply with increasingly complex energy codes, performance standards, climate policies, and emerging technologies being implemented across the country.
Panel 4 Session 2: The Large Buildings are Alive with the Sound of Savings
August 6th, 10:30am-12pm PST, Evergreen Room
Managing Director of Sustainable Energy Partnerships and Senior Advisor to BE-Ex, Adam Hinge, lead author of “Tall Building Deep Retrofits: Are We Making the Progress Needed, Or That We Think We Are?,” will present findings and common decarbonization strategies through a survey of 32 high-rise office and multifamily buildings in northern climate cities from 6 countries that have metered pre- and post-retrofit whole building energy consumption data. The paper, co-authored by Richard Yancey of BE-Ex and Byron Stigge, Director of Level Infrastructure, provides an interesting summary of the various motivations, approaches, and triggers of what drives these decarbonization retrofits.
Written by Hailey Moll, Manager, Educational Resources
