Brad Benke, AIA, is a Research Engineer at the Carbon Leadership Forum focused on developing data-driven resources to help practitioners and policymakers adopt and scale decarbonization strategies in the built environment. With a background in deep-green architecture and consulting, Brad works to synthesize and improve life cycle assessment practices and tools within the AEC industry and deliver practical solutions for low-carbon building design and construction. His recent work includes leading the CLF WBLCA Benchmark Study and developing the background data and methodologies for the CLF Embodied Carbon Policy Reduction Calculator. Brad is a former co-chair of AIA Seattle’s Committee on the Environment, and a former Senior Architect at McLennan Design, where he led diverse teams and stakeholders toward achieving decarbonization goals for buildings and organizations across the country.
Research Theme: Climate & Energy
Scholarship on climate change mitigation and adaptation, as well as energy efficiency
Megan Kalsman
Megan Kalsman is a Policy Researcher with the Carbon Leadership Forum at the University of Washington. She specializes in advancing the procurement of low-carbon materials and informs the development and implementation of cross-sectoral climate policies targeting embodied carbon.
Before joining the CLF, Megan completed her Master of Science degree at Lund University in Sweden in Environmental Management and Policy with the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics. She published her thesis project in 2021, on the intersection of gender equality with different environmental issues like climate change, biodiversity, and chemicals on an international policy scale.
Prior to studying in Sweden, Megan coordinated environmental policies and programs for local government agencies in California with a focus on toxic chemical reduction and pollution prevention. She helped in developing the first in the nation ban on toxic flame retardant chemicals in San Francisco. This served as a model policy for the State of California and other states in the U.S. passing similar policies. Her undergraduate degree was in Environmental Studies at San Francisco State University with a minor in Urban Planning and the Built Environment.
Megan’s work at the CLF combines her environmental research experience and policy design background. She strives to frame her work with an intersectional lens each day – protecting the health of people and the environment in an equitable way. At the CLF, Megan enjoys interacting with a variety of stakeholders around embodied carbon policies and ultimately working together towards a more sustainable and just future.
Evaluation Strategies on the Thermal Environmental Effectiveness of Street Canyon Clusters: A Case Study of Harbin, China
Li, Guanghao; Cheng, Qingqing; Zhan, Changhong; Yocom, Ken P. (2022). Evaluation Strategies on the Thermal Environmental Effectiveness of Street Canyon Clusters: A Case Study of Harbin, China. Sustainability, 14(20).
Abstract
Urban overheating significantly affects people's physical and mental health. The addition of street trees is an essential, economical, and effective means by which to mitigate urban heat and optimize the overall thermal environment. Focusing on typical street canyon clusters in Harbin, China, landscape morphology was quantified by streetscape interface measurements (sky view factor, tree view factor, and building view factor). Through ENVI-met simulations, the correlation mechanism between streetscape interface measurements and thermal environment was evaluated, and optimization methods for assessing the thermal environment of urban streets were proposed. The results revealed: (1) The thermal environment optimization efficiency of general street canyon types was greatest when street tree spacing was 12 m. At present, the smaller spacing has not been simulated and may yield better thermal environment results. The average decrease in temperature (Ta), relative humidity (RH) and mean radiant temperature (MRT) was 0.78%, 2.23%, and 30.20%, respectively. (2) Specific street canyon types should adopt precise control strategies of streetscape interface according to their types to achieve the optimal balance between thermal environment optimization and cost. (3) Streetscape interface measurements and thermal environment indexes show quadratic correlation characteristics, and are critical points for further investigation. The conclusions are more specific than previous research findings, which are of great significance for decreasing the urban heat island effect at the block scale, improving residents' physical and mental health, and improving the urban environment quality.
Keywords
Heat Mitigation Strategies; Urban Green Areas; Sky View Factor; Cold Region; Comfort; Tree; Landscape; Park; Simulation; Density; Street Canyon Clusters; Streetscape Interface Measurement; Envi-met Simulation; Thermal Optimization
On the Tradeoffs between Embodied and Operational Carbon in Building Envelope Design: The Impact of Local Climates and Energy Grids
Echenagucia, Tomas Mendez; Moroseos, Teresa; Meek, Christopher. (2023). On the Tradeoffs between Embodied and Operational Carbon in Building Envelope Design: The Impact of Local Climates and Energy Grids. Energy & Buildings, 278.
Abstract
The building envelope has a substantial influence on a building's life cycle operational and embodied car-bon emissions. Window-to-wall ratios, wall assemblies, shading and glazing types, have been shown to have a significant impact on total emissions. This paper provides building designers, owners, and policy makers with actionable guidance and a prioritization framework for establishing co-optimized lifecycle carbon performance of facade assembly components in a broad spectrum of climate contexts and energy carbon intensities. A large parametric study of building envelopes is conducted using building perfor-mance simulation and cradle-to-gate embodied carbon calculations in 6 US cities. The authors derive the total carbon emissions optimization for commercial office and residential space types using standard code-reference models and open-source lifecycle data. Comparisons between optimal total carbon solu-tions and (i) optimal operational carbon and (ii) minimum required assemblies, show the impact of under and over investing in envelope-related efficiency measures for each climate. Results show how the rela-tionship between embodied and operational carbon is highly localized, that optimal design variables can vary significantly. In low carbon intensity energy grids, over investment in envelope embodied carbon can exceed as 10 kgCO2e/m2, while under investment in high carbon intensity grids can be higher than 150 kgCO2e/m2.Published by Elsevier B.V.
Keywords
Facades; Building-integrated Photovoltaic Systems; Carbon Emissions; Carbon; Building Performance; Building Designers; Building Envelopes; Refuse Containers; Building Performance Simulation; Embodied Carbon; Operational Carbon; Parametric Modeling; Environmental-impact; Search
Qing Shen awarded funding for commute research survey
The Mobility Innovation Center announced that Qing Shen, professor of Urban Design & Planning and an expert in transportation planning and policy, has received a $100,000 award to study commuting patterns and develop a model to understand the effect of telework and flexible scheduling. The project will build off the existing Commute Trip Reduction (CTR) survey for employers who are in the CTR program as required by state law in the central city portion of Seattle. In addition, a complementary…
Celina Balderas Guzmán
Celina Balderas Guzmán, PhD, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture. Dr. Balderas’ research spans environmental planning, design, and science and focuses on climate adaptation to sea level rise on the coast and urban stormwater inland. On the coast, her work demonstrates specific ways that the climate adaptation actions of humans and adaptation of ecosystems are interdependent. Her work explores how these interdependencies can be maladaptive by shifting vulnerabilities to other humans or non-humans, or synergistic. Using ecological modeling, she has explored these interdependencies focusing on coastal wetlands as nature-based solutions. Her work informs cross-sectoral adaptation planning at a regional scale.
Inland, Dr. Balderas studies urban stormwater through a social-ecological lens. Using data science and case studies, her work investigates the relationship between stormwater pollution and the social, urban form, and land cover characteristics of watersheds. In past research, she developed new typologies of stormwater wetlands based on lab testing in collaboration with environmental engineers. The designs closely integrated hydraulic performance, ecological potential, and recreational opportunities into one form.
Her research has been funded by major institutions such as the National Science Foundation, National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, UC Berkeley, and the MIT Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab. She has a PhD in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning from the University of California, Berkeley. Previously, she obtained masters degrees in urban planning and urban design, as well as an undergraduate degree in architecture all from MIT.
Narjes Abbasabadi
Narjes Abbasabadi, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Washington. Dr. Abbasabadi also leads the Sustainable Intelligence Lab. Abbasabadi’s research centers on sustainability and computation in the built environment. Much of her work focuses on advancing design research efforts through developing data-driven methods, workflows, and tools that leverage the advances in digital technologies to enable augmented intelligence in performance-based and human-centered design. With an emphasis on multi-scale exploration, her research investigates urban building energy flows, human systems, and environmental and health impacts across scales—from the scale of building to the scale of neighborhood and city.
Abbasabadi’s research has been published in premier journals, including Applied Energy, Building and Environment, Energy and Buildings, Environmental Research, and Sustainable Cities and Society. She received honors and awards, including “ARCC Dissertation Award Honorable Mention” (Architectural Research Centers Consortium (ARCC), 2020), “Best Ph.D. Program Dissertation Award” (IIT CoA, 2019), and 2nd place in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Race to Zero Design Competition (DOE, 2018). In 2018, she organized the 3rd IIT International Symposium on Buildings, Cities, and Performance. She served as editor of the third issue of Prometheus Journal, which received the 2020 Haskell Award from AIA New York, Center for Architecture.
Prior to joining the University of Washington, she taught at the University of Texas at Arlington and the Illinois Institute of Technology. She also has practiced with several firms and institutions and led design research projects such as developing design codes and prototypes for low-carbon buildings. Most recently, she practiced as an architect with Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG), where she has been involved in major projects, including the 2020 World Expo. Abbasabadi holds a Ph.D. in Architecture from the Illinois Institute of Technology and Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Architecture from Tehran Azad University.
Evaluating Direct Energy Savings and Market Transformation Effects: A Decade of Technical Design Assistance in the Northwestern USA
Van Den Wymelenberg, Kevin; Brown, G. Z.; Burpee, Heather; Djunaedy, Ery; Gladics, Gunnar; Kline, Jeff; Loveland, Joel; Meek, Christopher; Thimmanna, Harshana. (2013). Evaluating Direct Energy Savings and Market Transformation Effects: A Decade of Technical Design Assistance in the Northwestern USA. Energy Policy, 52, 342 – 353.
Abstract
This paper documents the direct energy savings and energy efficiency market transformation impacts of a multi-state design assistance program in the northwestern US. The paper addresses four specific aims. (1) It provides a conservative and justified estimate of the direct energy savings associated with design assistance activities of a market transformation program from 2001 to 2010. (2) It provides a rigorous methodology to evaluate direct energy savings associated with design assistance market transformation programs. (3) It provides a low-cost replicable method to predict energy savings in new buildings by evaluating the integrated design process. (4) It provides quantitative indicators useful for estimating indirect energy savings from market transformation. Applying the recommended analysis method and assuming a 12-year measure life, the direct energy savings of the population (626 buildings; 51,262,000 ft(2)) is estimated as 453 aMW (average megawatts) (electric), and 265,738.089 therms (non-electric). If the entire program budget were divided into the electric savings only, the Lab Network cost per kWh saved ranged from $0.0016 to $0.003 using the recommended method and $0.0092/kWh using the most conservative method. These figures do not isolate contextual influences or represent total resource cost. Statistically significant correlations (r(2)=0.1-0.3) between integrated design scores and energy savings are reported. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords
Programs; Sweden; Energy Efficiency; Market Transformation; Evaluation
A Probabilistic Portfolio-based Model For Financial Valuation Of Community Solar.
Shakouri, Mahmoud; Lee, Hyun Woo; Kim, Yong-woo. (2017). A Probabilistic Portfolio-Based Model for Financial Valuation of Community Solar. Applied Energy, 191, 709 – 726.
Abstract
Community solar has emerged in recent years as an alternative to overcome the limitations of individual rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems. However, there is no existing model available to support probabilistic valuation and design of community solar based on the uncertain nature of system performance over time. In response, the present study applies the Mean-Variance Portfolio Theory to develop a probabilistic model that can be used to increase electricity generation or reduce volatility in community solar. The study objectives include identifying the sources of uncertainties in PV valuation, developing a probabilistic model that incorporates the identified uncertainties into portfolios, and providing potential investors in community solar with realistic financial indicators. This study focuses on physical, environmental, and financial uncertainties to construct a set of optimized portfolios. Monte Carlo simulation is then performed to calculate the return on investment (ROI) and the payback period of each portfolio. Lastly, inclusion vs. exclusion of generation and export tariffs are compared for each financial indicator. The results show that the portfolio with the maximum output offers the highest ROI and shortest payback period while the portfolio with the minimum risk indicates the lowest ROI and longest payback period. This study also reveals that inclusion of tariffs can significantly influence the financial indicators, even more than the other identified uncertainties. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords
Solar Energy; Photovoltaic Power Systems; Monte Carlo Method; Market Volatility; Energy Economics; Community Solar; Monte Carlo Simulation; Photovoltaic Systems; Portfolio Theory; Uncertainty; Environmental Uncertainties; Financial Indicator; Financial Uncertainties; Physical Uncertainties; Identified Uncertainties; Probabilistic Model; Mean-variance Portfolio Theory; Probabilistic Valuation; Individual Rooftop Photovoltaic Systems; Financial Valuation; Probabilistic Portfolio-based Model; Investment; Monte Carlo Methods; Photovoltaic Cells; Risk Analysis; Tariffs; Resolution Lidar Data; Electricity Consumption; Pv Systems; Autoregressive Models; Potential Assessment; Generation Systems; Neural-networks; Energy; Buildings; Economic Theory; Electricity; Exports; Probabilistic Models; Risk
Life-Cycle Cost and Carbon Footprint Analysis for Light-framed Residential Buildings Subjected to Tornado Hazard
Adhikari, Pramodit; Mahmoud, Hussam; Xie, Aiwen; Simonen, Kathrina; Ellingwood, Bruce. (2020). Life-Cycle Cost and Carbon Footprint Analysis for Light-framed Residential Buildings Subjected to Tornado Hazard. Journal Of Building Engineering, 32.
Abstract
Light-frame wood building construction dominates the single-family residential home market in the United States. Such buildings are susceptible to damage from extreme winds due to hurricanes in coastal areas and tornados in the Midwest. The consequences of extreme winds on the built environment and on social and economic institutions within the community can be severe and are likely to increase in the coming decades as a result of increases in urbanization and economic development and the potential impacts of changing climate in hazard prone areas. Current building practices provide minimum standards for occupant safety and health, including structural integrity, water and sanitation, lighting, ventilation, means of egress and fire protection. However, they generally do not consider building resilience, which includes robustness and an ability to recover following extreme natural hazard events. Nor do they address sustainability, the notion that building design, construction and rehabilitation should not adversely impact the environment. In this paper, we establish a generalized cost and carbon footprint life-cycle analysis methodology for examining the benefits of different building practices for residential light-frame wood construction subjected to tornado hazards. A multiobjective approach is used to reveal tradeoffs between resilient and sustainable practices for typical residential construction. We show that when the life cycle of a typical residence is considered, a balance between resilience, sustainability and cost might be achieved in design and rehabilitation of residential building construction for tornado hazards.
Keywords
Performance; Risk; Fragility; Residential Buildings; Life-cycle Analysis; Resilience; Optimal Decisions; Sustainable Construction; Tornadoes