Summit Report from 2020 Sustainable MEP Leaders Summit

Thanks for sharing. Lots of great idea in there,  I think most intriguing is the idea of early low-peak load estimates and low-peak load consideration in AIA awards. How will grid battery storage impact TOU rates? Will on-site battery storage be used to lower peak loads from the grid? and would that building still be considered low-peak if it was using energy stored on-site?  Maybe it is really low-grid-peak that we're after? Changing topics, something that frustrates me (an maybe others) is every time a survey is done about challenges to sustainability, blaming people not in the room seems to jump to the forefront.  I'm not picking on just MEP, this happens in every group including my own (construction). Unfortunately, it is not unique.  1) Lack of client interest/commitment, 2) Inertia, and 3) First costs always jump to the front of the list. This week while reading a kid's story with my 7 year old son, an author writes "If you think that every problem you have is someone else's, then how can you ever get them fixed?" It's been bouncing around in my head, paraphrased as, "You can't solve your problems if you think that they are other people's problems." In the survey, almost last on the list of challenges is (presumablly internal) "leadership not sufficiently committed." Oh, good! We've nailed that, right? "We're committed, but the clients don't want it!" sounds like the BS coming from legacy car makers for the last 5-10 years. In reality, their inabilty to make a compelling product was the hindrance. As soon as a fully committed company was capable of making a compelling product, they disrupted the whole industry. If the clients don't want it, or don't think it's worth it, it's probably not good enough yet...and I would catagorize that as our problem, not theirs...