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Research Theme: Climate & Energy

Scholarship on climate change mitigation and adaptation, as well as energy efficiency

Pranjali Rai

Integration of climate change adaptation in hazard mitigation, planning process, disaster risk reduction, community resilience, and risk assessment and communication

Siman Ning

Climate change, smart cities, urban economics and the interaction between human behavior and built environment

Chin-Wei Chen

Climate change (adaptation & mitigation), climate governance, community-based adaptation actions, disaster risk reduction

Abdulaziz Alqadhib

Research interests: Infrastructure Economics and Planning, Energy Infrastructure, and Urban Economics

Energy & Sustainability in Construction (ESC) Lab

The Energy and Sustainability in Construction (ESC) Lab promotes energy efficiency and sustainability (EES) in the built environment through the development of sustainable design, innovative project delivery practices, and risk-based financial models for EES investments. Our work focuses on integrating advanced financial analysis, project development, and management strategies to enhance the delivery of energy-efficient buildings and sustainable infrastructure.
Through innovative solutions, the ESC Lab addresses complex challenges in current project development practices that slow the transition toward a more sustainable society. Our research spans a wide range of critical areas, including commercial energy retrofits, community solar projects, green datacenters, healthy commercial buildings, and electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure. By tackling these pressing issues, the ESC Lab is at the forefront of driving transformative changes in the built environment.

Financial and Management Questions that Lead to Sustainable Solutions

The ESC Lab targets to help project stakeholders evaluate the risks and rewards of energy efficiency and sustainability (EES) investments by addressing some of the industry’s most pressing financial and management challenges, including:

  • What policies, financing mechanisms, and project delivery systems best support the advancement of EES?
  • How can we categorize and accurately model the unique risks associated with EES investments?
  • What analytical modeling methods can be applied to ensure the effective implementation of EES measures in projects?
  • How can we optimize investment strategies to balance environmental benefits with financial returns?
  • What best practices can enhance stakeholder engagement and collaboration to drive successful EES project outcomes?

Pursuing Innovative Solutions to Energy Efficiency and Sustainability

The ESC Lab has developed a series of analytical models and evaluation practices that facilitate the effective delivery of energy-efficient commercial buildings and sustainable infrastructure, including:

  • Cost and power demand model for electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure
  • Conceptual cost and carbon estimating model for mass timber structure
  • Energy-Related Risk Management in Integrated Project Delivery
  • Phased Investment for Energy Retrofit (PIER)
  • Energy Retrofit Loan Analysis Model (ERLAM)
  • An optimized portfolio analysis for community-based photovoltaic investment

ESC Research Funders and Selected Projects:

  • UW Clean Energy Institute: “Equitable Public Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Expansion—From the Tribal Community Perspective”
  • King County Metro–Sound Transit–Seattle City Light: “Electrified Mobility Hubs: A Blueprint for the Future of Transit Infrastructure”
  • UW Global Innovation Fund: “Mitigating Effects of Future Pandemics with the Use of Risk-Responsive Building Codes: A Developing Country Framework”
  • King County Metro: “Evaluation of a Public/Private Partnership (P3) Model for Bus Base Electrification”
  • UW CBE INSPIRE Fund: “Investigating the Health Requirements and Risk-Responsiveness Criteria in Office Building Codes for Mitigating COVID-19 and Future Airborne Diseases”
  • UW CBE INSPIRE Fund: “Investigating Energy Justice in Washington State in Terms of Photovoltaic (PV) Systems and Electric Vehicle (EV) Chargers”
  • Google: “A Proposal to Grow a Greener Data Center with Google”
  • UW Population Health: “Economic Impact of Office Workplace Transformation due to COVID-19: How Can Buildings and Surrounding Areas Recover?”
  • UW Transportation: “UW Transportation Electrification and Solar Study”
  • RERI–LBNL–DOE: “Effect of Energy Benchmarking and Disclosure on Office Building Marketability”
  • Pankow–Skanska–Oregon DEQ: “Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for Low Carbon Construction Commercial Office Building MEP & Interiors Data”
  • BE Innovation: “Impact of Energy Benchmarking and Disclosure on the Performance of Office Buildings”

Selected Journal Publications:

  • Min, Y. and Lee, H.W. (2024). “Adoption Inequalities and Causal Relationship between Residential Electric Vehicle Chargers and Heat Pumps.” ASCE Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 04024025.
  • Min, Y. and Lee, H.W. (2024). “Quantifying Clean Energy Justice: Impact of Solarize Programs on Rooftop Solar Disparities in the Pacific Northwest.” Sustainable Cities and Society, 105287.
  • Shang, L., Dermisi, S., Choe, Y., Lee, H.W., and Min, Y. (2023). “Assessing the Office Building Marketability Before and After the Implementation of Energy Benchmarking and Disclosure Policies – Lessons Learned from Major US Cities.” Sustainability, 15(11), 8883.
  • Min, Y. and Lee, H.W. (2023). “Characterization of Vulnerable Communities in Terms of the Benefits and Burdens of the Energy Transition in Pacific Northwest Cities.” Journal of Cleaner Production, 135949.
  • Min, Y., Lee, H.W., and Hurvitz, P.M.  (2023). “Clean Energy Justice: Different Adoption Characteristics of Underserved Communities in Rooftop Solar and Electric Vehicle Chargers in Seattle.” Energy Research and Social Science, 96(1), 102931.
  • Su, S., Li, X., Zhu, C., Lu, Y., and Lee, H.W. (2021). “Dynamic Life Cycle Assessment: A Review of Research for Temporal Variations in Life Cycle Assessment Studies.” Environmental Engineering Science, 38(11).
  • Droguett, B. X. R., Huang, M., Lee, H.W., Simonen, K., and Ditto, J. (2020). “Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing and Tenant Improvements Over the Building Lifetime: Estimating Material Quantities and Embodied Carbon for Climate Change Mitigation.” Energy and Buildings, 226, 110324.
  • Ho, C., Lee, H.W., and Gambatese, J. (2020). “Application of Prevention through Design (PtD) to Improve the Safety of Solar Installations on Small Buildings.” Safety Science, 125, 104633.
  • Gomez Cunya, L.A., Fardhosseini, M.S., Lee, H.W., and Choi, K. (2020). “Analyzing Investments in Flood Protection Structures: A Real Options Approach.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 43(2), 101377.
  • Shang, L., Lee H.W., Dermisi, S., and Choe, Y., (2020). “Impact of Energy Benchmarking and Disclosure Policy on Office Buildings.” Journal of Cleaner Production, 250, 119500.
  • Shakouri, M., Lee, H.W., and Kim, Y.-W. (2017). “A Probabilistic Portfolio-based Model for Financial Valuation of Community Solar.” Applied Energy, 191(1), 709-726.
  • Shakouri, M. and Lee, H.W. (2016). “Mean-Variance Portfolio Analysis Data for Optimizing Community-based Photovoltaic Investment.” Data in Brief, 6(1), 840-842.\

Current and Former Lab Members:

  • Abdul-Razak Alidu
  • Byungju Jeon
  • Chitika Vasudeva
  • Yohan Min
  • Matt Wiggins
  • Novi T.I. Bramono
  • Yong-Hyuk Oh
  • Chuou Zhang
  • Jonghyeob Kim
  • Wenqi Zhu
  • Julie Knorr
  • Zhila Mohammady

 

Jen Davison

Jen Davison (she/her) is the Project Director of Community Engagement for University Initiatives, leading efforts to increase and improve institutional capacity for community engagement across the UW. Until last fall, for 8 years Jen was director of Urban@UW, a UW-wide initiative that fosters cross-disciplinary and community engaged research to address urban challenges. She continues to serve as the Co-Director of Urban@UW’s Research to Action Collaboratory, an accelerator program for community-engaged research partnerships.

Davison has been building boundary-spanning infrastructure within higher education for over a decade. She joined University of Washington’s College of the Environment in 2010 and founded its science communication program, which provides opportunities, training, and support for college researchers to connect their research to non-science communities through communication, outreach and engagement. Davison joined Urban@UW in 2015, and co-led strategies and programs to address complex challenges such as housing and homelessness; urban environmental justice; and equitable smart cities. She was the founding program manager for Livable City Year in 2016, which connects faculty and students with municipal governments for collaborative projects. From 2017-2019 she co-chaired UW-Seattle’s Carnegie Classification Working Group, charged to assess the campus’ support for community engagement at all levels, from curricular programs to faculty incentive structures to fundraising processes and beyond. In 2020 Davison served as the foundational program manager for the College of Built Environments’ Applied Research Consortium, connecting faculty and students with industrial partners for collaborative research. From 2021-2022 she was the College of Built Environments’ Director of Research, charged to foster a culture of research productivity, collaboration, and engagement throughout the college.

 In 2017 Davison participated in the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Community Engagement Fellowship; participated in UW’s Leadership Excellence Project in 2018; and was a Leadership Tomorrow Fellow in 2019. From 2018-2023 she served on the Board of Directors for the UW Professional Staff Organization, including as the Vice President and as the chair of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee. Previous to her role at University of Washington, as a published scientist Davison worked with community partners to understand how wildlife and landscapes are responding to land use and climate change, and to co-develop tools for managing ecosystems threatened by these drivers.

CBE Office of Research Updates

On September 5, Dean Renée Cheng shared exciting updates about the College of Built Environments’ Office of Research. Read below for more from Dean Cheng:  The College of Built Environments’ newly revamped Office of Research aims to elevate CBE research expertise in community engagement, climate action, housing, humanities, and  technology and to increase capacity for meeting urgent needs for this research to be accessible and have impact. While there is much work to be done, I believe the steps outlined…

Urban@UW

Urban@UW extends the understanding of cities—from people, buildings, infrastructure, and energy to economics, policy, culture, art, and nature—beyond individual topics to dynamically interdependent systems so that we can holistically design and steward vibrant and welcoming cities in which future generations will thrive.

A partnership between the Office of Research and the College of Built Environments, and engaging colleges, schools, and departments across all three of University of Washington’s campuses, Urban@UW amplifies UW as a leading university in urban issues. Together, we catalyze the evolution of Seattle as a model city—a boundary-pushing laboratory and knowledge hub that leverages innovation to create a place of opportunity and health for all—and build new ideas that can be used in metropolitan regions around the globe. Urban@UW leverages deep understanding, leading-edge analysis, and an ethos of partnership to create the pathway for Seattle as the city of the future.

Urban@UW works with scholars, policymakers, and community stakeholders to develop cross-disciplinary and cross-sector collaborative research. We aim to strengthen connections between research and solutions to today’s urban challenges. We do this through intellectual partnership, drawing upon the many scholars and centers on campus to cultivate new, path-breaking ideas, projects, and research-practice collaborations.

Urban@UW is a large network of scholars and practitioners with leaders and supporters engaging in different projects and initiatives across all three campuses. Supported by the Office of Research and the College of Built Environments as well as external grants and partnerships, the Urban@UW institution-wide community includes our Executive Committee, Urban@UW Fellows, and Urban@UW Affiliates.

Stephanie Carlisle

Stephanie’s work investigates the interaction between the natural and constructed environment, including embodied carbon, life cycle assessment (LCA), urban ecology, landscape performance and supply chains and toxicity of building materials. Combining a background in environmental science and architectural design, she builds bridges between research and practice, bringing data-driven analysis and topical research to complex design problems. This experience will be applied towards improving the EC3 tool as well as other carbon data initiatives at the Carbon Leadership Forum.

She most recently was a Principal at KieranTimberlake Architects where she was an environmental researcher in the firm’s interdisciplinary research group. She is also a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design and a Co-Editor-In-Chief of Scenario Journal.

Meghan Lewis

Meghan uses her background in architecture, supply chain sustainability, and life cycle assessment to pursue broad, system-wide policies and initiatives that support the vision of carbon neutral, circular building material supply chains. Meghan has been an active contributor at the Carbon Leadership Forum, and played a crucial role as a contributing editor to the Practice Guide for the Life Cycle Assessment of Buildings. She also chairs the Building Focus Group in the CLF Online Community. As a staff member she’ll be responsible for leading policy research to support Buy Clean initiatives.

She was recently the Head of Global Energy and Sustainability at WeWork, where she also launched the supply chain sustainability program in 2018 to drive efforts to source sustainable materials across their global portfolio. Before joining WeWork, Meghan was an architect at Mithun, where she worked on a range of project types and developed office-wide sustainability guidelines as part of the firm’s sustainability team. She also led internal efforts to integrate whole building life cycle assessment and low carbon material selection into the design process, through R+D and implementation on active projects.