PLAYING: I love spring — especially this spring, which has finally arrived, seemingly overnight, after a long, wet, cold winter. I was lucky enough to celebrate it this past weekend with my favorite 6-year-old, teaching him to dye eggs.

WORKING: My favorite climate work is developing education and teaching about energy, emissions, and electrification. I have two of those projects coming to fruition this spring.

1. The Tri-County Regional Energy Network (3C-REN — a collaboration of California’s San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura Counties) is offering a certificate series comprising six classes on “High-performance Fundamentals.” My fellow class developers and instructors are high-performance rock stars Peter Yost, Judy Rachel, Dan Perunko, and Gary Klein. The series launched last week with “High Performance Buildings and Careers.” Peter is up next, on April 20, from 1 to 3pm Pacific Time, teaching “Using Building Science to Design and Build High Performance Homes.”The rest of the classes are on May 4, May 18, June 1, and June 15. All are virtual and FREE to residents of the Tri-County region. Please spread the word to folks you know in the area.

   For series info and registration, visit 3C-REN.org/events.
   

2. Also on April 20, from 8am to 3pm Pacific Time, I’ve assembled another all-star cast — Ted Tiffany, Jack Rusk, and Vaclav Hasik — to teach an AIA-approved virtual workshop, “The Architect’s Roadmap to Net Zero,” offered by America Training Solutions. This event will satisfy the State of California’s new requirement for architects to complete five units of continuing education on NZE design to qualify for license renewal.Registration is a reasonable $150-200, and here’s a code for a $50 discount: NetZero-50. Sign up HERE.

120 green building leaders and innovators in the built environment gathered last weekend at BuildWell 2014 in Sausalito, CA. Kudos to Ecological Building Network‘s Bruce King, co-producer Sarah King, and their dedicated band of volunteers for producing a brilliant event. The speaker line-up included keynotes from Architecture 2030‘s Ed Mazria, science wiz John Warner from the Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry, and ecological footprint creator Mathis Wackernagel of the Global Footprint Network — visionaries all.

Highlights — besides the keynotes — included talks by at least two dozen inspiring individuals. Organizations represented included the USGBC, International Living Future Institute, Healthy Building Network, Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute, the US EPA, University of San Francisco, University of Santa Clara, BuildingGreen Inc., Gensler, Arup, Webcor Builders, Pankow Blue, and a host of other leading AEC firms.

Hosted at the gorgeous Cavallo Point resort (a star in its own right), this intimate meeting of the minds was the antithesis of the Greenbuild crush, where you’re lucky to spend 90 seconds with your favorite gurus. With most of the participants staying on premises, there were countless impromptu meetings and gabfests on porches, in hallways, and by the firepits.

Invite yourself to BW16 — sign up for the mailing list at http://www.ecobuildnetwork.org/contact.

Better yet, join the organizing team or become a sponsor for this exclusive event!

BuildWell 2014 Attendees at Cavallo Point, March 22, 2014

Gas & Electric will be hosting our 4-part class series on retrofitting existing homes to achieve deep energy reductions while targeting zero net energy. Here’s the schedule:

• May 9: Overview – yours truly (Ann Edminster)
• May 23: Mechanical Systems – Rick Chitwood
• May 30: Enclosure – Rick Chitwood + Gavin Healy
• June 6: People & Plug Loads – Chris Calwell + Chris Hunt

Register here.

Come Join us at Habitat X

Tuesday, July 30, through Friday, August 2, 2013