Cool Building Solutions for a Warming World: Working Group Workshop

Berkeley Lab workshop summer 2019

Berkeley Lab hosted the Collaborative’s first workshop in Berkeley, California on 22 - 23 July 2019. Over the course of the two-day workshop, members shared their research and implementation activities; finalized the Collaborative’s mission, goals, and scope; identified its activities and structure; and discussed barriers and opportunities for advancing its goals.

Outcomes

The workshop featured breakout groups and several discussion sessions to hear ideas from participants on how to advance the Collaborative's goals and finalize the Collaborative's scope. Online here is the workshop summary describing the workshop outcomes. 

Participants conveyed the urgency and importance of passive and low-energy cooling measures. To that end, participants discussed the need to share what we know now by consolidating best practices by climate, building type, building vintage, and building occupancy. We recognize that the regional variability of best practices is driven by the aforementioned factors as well as market availability and costs. Participants agreed to assess and document co-benefits to further strengthen the case for these cooling measures. Participants also agreed to clearly communicate the limitations of cooling measures to assure they are used appropriately. 

Participants will develop common metrics, methods, and databases to facilitate international collaboration. Participants shared the desire to better understand the relationship between indoor heat exposure and human health. Also, participants identified the need to expand our alliances to other sectors, such as real estate, industry, insurance, and utilities, and to continue to engage with other disciplines, such as anthropology and biometeorology (study of relationship between weather and living organisms).

Participants plan to carry out research to learn how to make building cooling measures attractive to consumers. That is, how can we market health and comfort? Participants also agreed there is a need to better understand how passive cooling measures can be combined with heat metrics, such as daily maximum temperature or number of annual heat health events, to inform guidance, standards, and practices for building design and city planning.

Presentations

The workshop agenda can be found online here and all workshop presentations are posted below. 

Welcome Remarks	Tom Kirchstetter Director, Energy Analysis & Environmental Impacts Division Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Berkeley, California, U.S.A.
Logistics, History, & Big Picture	Ronnen Levinson, Ellen Thomas, Haley Gilbert Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Berkeley, California, U.S.A.
How do Energy Efficiency Measures Influence Resilience? A Case Study from a Nursing Home in Florida	Kaiyu Sun Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Berkeley, California, U.S.A.
Emerging Technologies in High Performance Facades	Charlie Ćurčija Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Berkeley, California, U.S.A.
Outdoor Curtains and Awnings as Solutions to Improve Thermal Comfort and Mitigate the Urban Heat Island	Andrea Nicolini University of Perugia Perugia, Italy
Development and Assessment of Advanced Material Components of the Building Envelope to Improve the Energy Performances of Buildings and Thermal Comfort for Users	Chiara Ferrari Rome, Italy (on behalf of Michele Zinzi of the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, ENEA)
Move Air, Then Cool It - Integrating Air Movement for Energy Efficient Comfort	Dana Miller Center for Built Environment, University of California at Berkeley Berkeley, California, U.S.A.
Implementation Strategies of Adaptation Measures for Extreme High Temperature	Hideki Takebayashi Kobe University Kobe, Japan
Responsive Control of Urban Thermal Environments – ResCUE	Yogendra Joshi Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, Georgia
Cal-Thrives: A California Toolkit for Heat Resiliency In Vulnerable Environments	Max Wei Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Berkeley, California, U.S.A.
Engaging Residents in Fresno, California to Optimize Building Cooling Solutions	Haley Gilbert (on behalf of Susan Mazur-Stommen of Indicia Consulting) Consultant to Indicia & Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Whitefish, Montana, U.S.A.
U.S. participation in International Energy Administration Annex 80 (Resilient Cooling)	Ronnen Levinson Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Berkeley, California, U.S.A.
Local Cooling Strategies in the U.S.	Victoria Ludwig U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Washington, D.C., U.S.A.
Making Telangana a Cool State: State-Wide Cool Roof Program	Rajkiran Bilolikar Administrative Staff College of India Hyderabad, India
Spinning Our Wheel: Strategies for Community Outreach On Experienced Heat & Neighborhood Priorities	Shelley Jiang Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District Sacramento, California, U.S.A.
Passive Cooling Policy, Technology and Strategy	Marc LaFrance Building Technologies Office, U.S. Department of Energy Washington, D.C., U.S.A.
Urban Climatic Mitigation/Adaptation Activities in the High Performance  Architecture Research Cluster Group at UNSW Sydney	Gloria Pignatta University of New South Wales, Sydney Sydney, Australia
Cool Roof Activities at IIIT Hyderabad	Vishal Garg International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad Hyderabad, India
EELab Activities: Focus on Indoor Comfort	Chiara Ferrari University of Modena and Reggio Emilia Modena, Italy
California Strategic Growth Council: Climate Research Priorities	Leah Fisher California Strategic Growth Council Sacramento, California, U.S.A.
The Social Dimensions of Urban Heat	Jason Vargo California Department of Public Health Richmond, California, U.S.A.
Heat and Health in a Changing Climate—Building Decision Support Tools for Public Health Officials	Nikolas Steinberg Four Twenty Seven Berkeley, California, U.S.A.
A Public Health Approach to Healthier Homes: Energy Efficiency and Weatherization	Brandon Kitagawa Regional Asthma Management & Prevention, Oakland, California, U.S.A.
Assessing the Impact of Urban Environment on Comfort in Buildings	Marjorie Musy Cerema Bron, France
Retro-Reflective Facade for Inside/Outside Built Environment	Masayuki Ichinose Tokyo Metropolitan University Tokyo, Japan
Effect of Heat Mitigation Strategy Adoption on Outdoor and Indoor Thermal Comfort	George Ban-Weiss University of Southern California Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
Finalize Collaborative Mission, Goals, Structure, and Activities; Identify Next Steps	Haley Gilbert & Ronnen Levinson Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Berkeley, California, U.S.A.