Banwell Architects principal, Jules Chatot, attended the 2015 Efficiency Vermont Better Building by Design conference. The keynote speaker was Thorsten Chlupp who is building net zero buildings in Alaska, including a greenhouse North of the Arctic circle; see http://www.reina-llc.com/ for more information.
Jules also learned of new Vermont Commercial Building Energy Standards (CBES): effective 3/1/15, see http://publicservice.vermont.gov/sites/psd/files/Topics/Energy_Efficiency/code_update/2015_VT%20CBES_Clean_Copy_2014-11-24%20Protected.pdf.
Efficiency Vermont is in the process of changing their incentive program based on post occupancy performance. They will also support costs of energy charettes (up to $2,500) and energy modeling (up to 50%) in design phases.
Stay tuned for more information from our President Ingrid Nichols who is attending the second day of the conference.