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VERGE 18 Program

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See the Full VERGE 18 Program

Buildings & Efficiency

Tuesday, October 16th, 2018
8:30am to 12:15pm
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Power Markets and Innovation 101: How They Work and What's Next

Tutorial

This tutorial is now full. Space may become available, so please plan to arrive early on Tuesday, October 16, to join a queue for available seats.

This four-hour course will explain the fundamentals of how power markets work, the changes that have taken place in the past decade, and the revolutionary change that is about to occur. We will cover:


1. The fundamentals of how power is generated and dispatched
2. Who does what in the new world (utilities, regulators, entrepreneurs, and interactive consumers)
3. Factors driving technological change and the critical role of information technology
4. The key technologies - including wind, solar, storage, and other distributed energy resources
5. Emerging winners and losers
6. Business models, and global trends, including carbon, financial trends and national economic development policies
7. Regulatory models and experiences worth examining (including New York, California, Texas, Australia, China, and Germany
8. Implications for the future and potential outcomes
9. The challenge for planners and investors, and options for creating potential no-regrets strategies in an increasingly volatile market 

Tracks

  • Renewables Procurement
  • Buildings & Efficiency
  • Distributed Energy & Storage
  • Grid Resilience
  • All-Access Pass Required
  • Sign-up Required

Speakers

  • Peter Kelly-Detwiler

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Creating a Smart City in the Real World

Tutorial

This tutorial is now full. Space may become available, so please plan to arrive early on Tuesday, October 16, to join a queue for available seats.

How can data contribute to the creation of a resilient, vibrant, safe and equitable community? Our experts will discuss how sensors are instrumenting cities around the world — collecting valuable insights about traffic, air quality and more. And they'll offer lessons learned from recent smart city deployments.

Tracks

  • Buildings & Efficiency
  • Distributed Energy & Storage
  • All-Access Pass Required
  • Sign-up Required

Speakers

  • Bob Bennett
  • HG Chissell
  • Stephan Feilhauer
  • Gary Leatherman
  • Danielle J. Harris
  • Fred Ellermeier
  • Devra Schwartz
  • Warren Logan
  • Jenna Agins
  • Shaun Hoyte
  • Ke Wei
  • Kip Harkness
  • Sienna Rogers
  • Jessica Lau

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Wednesday, October 17th, 2018
8:00am to 12:15pm
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Microgrid Summit

Summit

The Microgrid Summit is a half-day, invitation-only working session convening 100 key stakeholders to focus on how to accelerate the deployment of clean, grid-connected microgrids.

Refer to our Microgrid Summit page  for more information and to request an invitation. 

Tracks

  • Buildings & Efficiency
  • Distributed Energy & Storage
  • Grid Resilience
  • Invitation Only

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9:45am to 10:45am
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Innovation in Practice: Building a Circular Economy in Construction

Breakout

Learn from experts turning ideas into action as they discuss successfully integrating circular strategies to optimize waste stream management, product manufacturing, and industry engagement to reduce the carbon impact of construction. Explore approaches that promise to herald new innovations in the built environment — helping to prevent the "outsourcing of pollution" by reinventing the market for typically carbon-intensive products and processes in the building industry. 

Tracks

  • Buildings & Efficiency

Speakers

  • Katie Bachman
  • Amanda Kaminsky
  • Stephen Bantillo
  • Lorenz Schilling

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11:15am to 12:15pm
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The Path to Holistic Energy Management

Breakout

This session will present the findings of a new GreenBiz Research project examining how companies with a global footprint set energy efficiency and clean power goals, demonstrate the value of those approaches, and use data to implement comprehensive energy management strategies. We will hear from panelists across health care, real estate and technology companies with recommendations on how to approach energy projects holistically across a range of internal and external stakeholders. 

Tracks

  • Renewables Procurement
  • Buildings & Efficiency
  • Distributed Energy & Storage

Speakers

  • Rick Rodriguez
  • Jerry Meek
  • Vince Digneo
  • Maya Henderson
  • Paul Carp

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12:30pm to 1:15pm
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Guru Lunch: How Do We Make Saving Electrons Sexy?

Lunch

You already know that one of the best ways your organization can reduce its impact on the environment is to reduce your energy use — via energy efficiency and renewables. The good news is, consumers, customers, employees and others expect the companies they buy from or work for to do right by the planet — and they expect you to use clean energy as a major piece of that effort. The bad news is, packaging up a sexy, compelling story about energy consumption reduction is hard. So what's the best way to tell that story?  This Guru Lunch will be facilitated by Suzanne Shelton, President and CEO of Shelton Group, the nation's leading marketing and communications focused exclusively in energy and the environment.

About VERGE Guru Lunches: Join like minded attendees for interactive moderated lunch discussions around a particular topic. Each table discussion will be led by an expert or thought leader, held at roundtables of up to 10 participants. These are freeform discussions, so bring your own challenges, questions, and ideas to talk through and get to know your fellow conference participants.

Tracks

  • Renewables Procurement
  • Buildings & Efficiency
  • Distributed Energy & Storage
  • Grid Resilience

Speakers

  • Suzanne Shelton

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Guru Lunch: Now We’re Cooking With(out) Gas

Lunch

Evidence is increasingly pointing to dramatically reducing or eliminating fossil fuel combustion in order to meet carbon targets and improve health outcomes. While the utility-scale shift to decarbonizing electricity is well underway, natural gas use is still predominant for heating and cooking. There are many examples of all-electric buildings, but this shift counters years of consumer outreach to go away from electrical resistance heating (powered by a dirty grid).  Ben Galuza is an expert on high performance building design with Integral Group.  He recently designed a ZNE all-electric medical office building for $1M less than the conventional design budget. This roundtable will discuss decarbonization and all-electric buildings, particularly in the context of high performance building design.

About VERGE Guru Lunches: Join like minded attendees for interactive moderated lunch discussions around a particular topic. Each table discussion will be led by an expert or thought leader, held at roundtables of up to 10 participants. These are freeform discussions, so bring your own challenges, questions, and ideas to talk through and get to know your fellow conference participants.

Tracks

  • Buildings & Efficiency
  • Distributed Energy & Storage

Speakers

  • Ben Galuza

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Guru Lunch: PropTech 2020 — Exploring the Most Promising Commercial Building Technologies

Lunch

Join Billy Grayson, Executive Director, Center for Sustainability and Economic Performance at The Urban Land Institute (ULI) for a discussion of emerging technologies that leading real estate companies are piloting TODAY that will likely be rolled out across portfolios soon. We will discuss some of the most promising near-term technologies in smart buildings, on-site energy production and storage, and advanced building materials.

About VERGE Guru Lunches: Join like minded attendees for interactive moderated lunch discussions around a particular topic. Each table discussion will be led by an expert or thought leader, held at roundtables of up to 10 participants. These are freeform discussions, so bring your own challenges, questions, and ideas to talk through and get to know your fellow conference participants.

Tracks

  • Buildings & Efficiency
  • Distributed Energy & Storage

Speakers

  • Billy Grayson

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Guru Lunch: Can Buildings Solve the 'Duck Curve?'

Lunch

In commercial-scale electricity generation, the 'duck curve' is a graph of power production over the course of a day that shows the timing imbalance between peak demand and renewable energy production. In many energy markets the peak demand occurs after sunset, when solar power is no longer available. As renewable electricity becomes more and more plentiful at midday, what strategies could to be considered next to solve the daily generation/consumption mismatch, and what are the next challenges coming after we solve the duck curve problem? Join David Kaneda, Principal and Thought Leader at Integral Group, in this substantive, solutions-oriented lunch discussion.

About VERGE Guru Lunches: Join like minded attendees for interactive moderated lunch discussions around a particular topic. Each table discussion will be led by an expert or thought leader, held at roundtables of up to 10 participants. These are freeform discussions, so bring your own challenges, questions, and ideas to talk through and get to know your fellow conference participants.

Tracks

  • Buildings & Efficiency
  • Distributed Energy & Storage
  • Grid Resilience

Speakers

  • David Kaneda

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Guru Lunch: Beyond the Low-Hanging Fruit — Maximizing Energy Efficiency in Buildings

Lunch

Corporate energy and sustainability managers are faced with the continued challenge of meeting reduction and optimization targets, but often are limited by the availability of information to identify opportunities or create long-term strategic plans.  While the digital revolution presents significant opportunities for access to more information, infrastructure and resources are not always in place to support this transformation.  Ari Kobb, Director, Energy & Sustainability Solutions at Siemens Building Technologies, will address the different types of energy data that is typically available, and how leaders can leverage this information to make informed decisions.

About VERGE Guru Lunches: Join like minded attendees for interactive moderated lunch discussions around a particular topic. Each table discussion will be led by an expert or thought leader, held at roundtables of up to 10 participants. These are freeform discussions, so bring your own challenges, questions, and ideas to talk through and get to know your fellow conference participants.

Tracks

  • Buildings & Efficiency

Speakers

  • Ari Kobb

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Thursday, October 18th, 2018
8:30am to 9:30am
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Building the Workplace of the Future

Breakout

How do interior design choices, better-informed site selections and automation technologies lead to healthy, happier and more productive workers? Some constructive ideas for constructing a more sustainable work environment — for workers and employers alike.

Tracks

  • Buildings & Efficiency

Speakers

  • Matt Ellis
  • Lindsay Baker
  • Suzanne Shelton
  • Lauren Riggs

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1:30pm to 2:30pm
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Financing the Clean Economy for All

Breakout

Our experts will discuss ways to promote various financing tools across clean energy and transportation initiatives. Specifically, we'll review challenges and opportunities in providing funding to urban, rural and international communities and discuss ways to engage communities directly via market-based, utility-led and government-based options. 

Tracks

  • Renewables Procurement
  • Buildings & Efficiency
  • Distributed Energy & Storage

Speakers

  • Ken Alston
  • Rose McKinney-James
  • Holmes Hummel
  • Donnel Baird
  • Emily Kirsch
  • Anthony Robinson

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The (Building) Revolution Will Be Decarbonized

Breakout

Amidst unprecedented innovations in distributed energy resources, electric vehicles, and battery storage, the buildings industry has become stagnant, and stuck in the realm of one-off net-zero energy buildings, when we should be designing net-zero, resilient communities, and utility resources. If we are to achieve environmentally resilient, socially equitable cities and communities, the building industry needs to be more proactive, disruptive, and truly integrated into the energy revolution in terms of managing loads and load shapes, shifting to electricity, connecting load to regional renewables, and working with utilities to develop rate structures that spur investment. In doing so, buildings become the conduit to capture vehicle energy, facilitate shared resources (EVs and AVs), and prioritize the integration of storage.

This session will be an interactive discussion of the partnerships and collaboration needed between the developers, architects, utilities, DER innovators, technology companies, and community leaders and an exploration of the opportunities and challenges to integrating all of these stakeholders during design and construction, highlighting the tools and information flow that is needed by each party. Participants will gain insight into the challenges and obstacles within the building industry and how to better leverage current innovations and new partnerships so that buildings can truly support a decarbonized society.

Tracks

  • Buildings & Efficiency

Speakers

  • Panama Bartholomy
  • Erica Bowman
  • Jennifer Gress
  • Merrian Borgeson

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