Stet Sanborn, SmithGroup
Stronger Than the Break: Lessons for Big Impact from the Recovery Room for the Decarbonization Movement
Stet Sanborn shares out a vision for scaling our decarbonization impact in a time of turmoil, federal rollbacks and escalating energy costs. Using the lens of his own recovery from a traumatic injury involving a years-long rehabilitation, Stet will cast the value of ASHRAE and members' decarbonization services as an interconnected set of impact drivers that, when layered with each other, provide a pathway to radically scale our decarbonization impact.
Erin McConahey, ARUP
Design for Carbon: Shifting from Metrics to Mindset/ Converting Insight to Impact
We don’t have a carbon assessment problem. We have a design problem. The built environment continues to drive a significant share of global emissions, yet progress remains far too slow to meet climate targets. The issue is not a lack of data, but how little that data changes what we actually design. This keynote challenges the industry’s focus on ever more detailed carbon accounting, calling for a fundamental shift: to treat carbon as a core design driver—no different from cost, performance, or aesthetics. Drawing on lessons from a global analysis of over 1,000 buildings, we show how embedding whole life carbon assessment into everyday design practice is beginning to shift decisions instead of just producing numbers after the fact. The opportunity and the challenge are clear: to use what we know to design what comes next.
Keynote Panel: Harmonizing Policy, Reducing Burden: State Leadership in Coordinated BPS Development
Supriya Goel, West Monroe
JoAnna Saunders, California Energy Commission
Emily Salzberg, Washington Department of Commerce
Nicole Ballinger, City of Seattle
Coleen Wisniewski City of Chula Vista
As Building Performance Standards (BPS) expand nationwide, states play a critical role in coordinating policy development with municipalities to advance decarbonization goals while reducing administrative burden on building owners. This panel brings together state and local leaders to discuss how statewide frameworks can align with municipal priorities to create consistent, streamlined compliance pathways. Panelists will explore strategies for harmonizing performance metrics, timelines and implementation approaches across jurisdictions to support portfolio owners operating in multiple cities within a state or building owners who need to comply with policies of city and state. The discussion will also highlight collaborative approaches to stakeholder engagement, including partnerships with local governments, community-based organizations, utilities, and workforce programs to ensure equitable implementation. Attendees will gain insight into governance models that balance statewide consistency with local flexibility, lessons learned from early adopters, and practical solutions to simplify compliance while accelerating building decarbonization across diverse communities.