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What are YOUR top 5 things?

Nadav Malin

CEO

Green Commons, LLC

LEEDuser Expert

586 thumbs up

September 27, 2024

Hi MEP Leaders,

We had a great conversation in our last monthly call about the function and purpose of this group, and what we can best do together. You can see detailed notes from that call here. And we'll soon be sending out a reminder about the October call (Tuesday, Oct 8, 2pm eastern).

One of the ideas from that conversation was to share what we're working on in our organizations. This will be the theme on the next call, but it would be great if we could start that conversation here.

So--what are YOUR top 5 things? What are you doing in your sustainability leader role to help improve design process and outcomes in your firm? Or maybe you're thinking about culture? Whatever it is, please take a few minutes and share.

Thanks, Nadav

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Nadav Malin

CEO

Green Commons, LLC

LEEDuser Expert

586 thumbs up

Mon, 10/07/2024 - 09:39

Hi folks, There's still time to get this conversation started ahead of our all-network call tomorrow afternoon. What's at the top of your agenda as your firm's sustainability leader? Nadav

Erica Weeks

Director of Green Building Certifications

Paladin

LEEDuser Premium Member

0 thumbs up

Mon, 10/07/2024 - 11:50

I'm still new at my role on the MEP side. One thing top-of-mind (now and has always been in my previous architectural role) is staff education/professional development. How much time is actually available and allowed as part of a project to guide and mentor (on things like ASHRAE standards, the chain of things that you need to know about LEED v4 to v4.1 to v5, addenda, interpretations, etc.)? How do you make, foster, and grow a "sense of inquiry" that allows staff to have a robust toolbox - where to find information, evaluate based on project type, and offer a solution? (Does that include “on-your-own” learning time – classes, CEUs, etc.?)

Christopher Colasanti

Associate Partner

Jaros Baum & Bolles

LEEDuser Basic Member

0 thumbs up

Mon, 10/07/2024 - 12:29

Unfortunately i can't make it tomorrow, but in the spirit of kick starting conversations, i've been thinking a lot about HVAC loads. We have an energy team at our firm that does energy modeling, and as part of that we also do peak load modeling to help support our HVAC team's loads. The problem with our workflow is that the HVAC team needs loads much sooner than we are ready to develop them with the energy model. Curious how others are integrating load modeling into their HVAC workflows. Given the need for climate change modeling, i think the tools of the past (trace, hap, etc) won't be sufficient, and i can see our practice moving toward more energy modeling for loads.

James Petersen

Founder and Principal

Petersen Engineering

LEEDuser Basic Member

0 thumbs up

Mon, 10/07/2024 - 13:31

1. Not over-sizing systems in buildings. Internally we slip on this for various reasons - things like safety factors that are too big. In plumbing/FP department for example this includes speccing potable booster pumps and fire pumps when the building can get away without them. In HVAC, having heating distribution where it is not needed because we have a high performance enclosure. 2. How to get more HVAC EORs industry wide to retool and adopt a holistic and integrated approach to HVAC design. I'm speaking on this this fall. 3. Training young engineers in my office to view the enclosures and managing other loads to be viewed as part of being an MEP engineer, rather than just designing to the loads we're handed.

Nadav Malin

CEO

Green Commons, LLC

LEEDuser Expert

586 thumbs up

Tue, 10/08/2024 - 19:45

We just got off a great SMEPL monthly call. It kicked off with a quick informal consult on the Enverid Air Scrubber--someone who hasn't used it yet was asking for input. The consensus was that it works well, although the energy savings are variable, depending on climate conditions. But in places where outdoor air is compromised, it seems like a good choice regardless of energy savings. BG's Brent was on top of that way back in 2017, when he picked it as a Top-10 product! We also talked about everyone's "Top 5 things"--and got to an interesting challenge around how to motivate curiousity and looking beyond the easy answers. And we heard about an inspiring MEP 2040 quarterly forum on decarbonization plans. Recording and resources are posted here. We chatted about plans for next Summer's combined Summits, with SDL and SCL. Update on that coming soon. And we discussed a request to move the monthly call to Wednesdays at the same time. Please email me if that's a significant barrier for you; if we don't hear loud objections, we just might make that switch. Detailed notes from today's call are available, as usual. I hope to see you all next month. Nadav