Katrin Klingenberg, co-founder and executive director of Phius (Passive House Institute U.S.), will give the keynote address at the 2024 Appalachian Energy Summit on Monday, June 3, at 7:30 p.m. in the Grandview Ballroom of Kidd Brewer Stadium’s north end zone facility.
The 12th annual Appalachian Energy Summit is hosted by Appalachian State University’s Office of Sustainability. The keynote address is free and open to the public, with limited seating available.
Klingenberg has driven the adoption and development of passive building and zero energy standards for the past 20 years. Passive building, according to Phius, utilizes core building principles to create safe, resilient, comfortable and energy-efficient structures. While passive building methodology originated in the U.S. and Canada in the 1970s, it was reinvigorated in 2003 when Klingenberg designed and completed the first home to meet passive house standards in the U.S.
Klingenberg’s home sparked considerable interest, which encouraged her to create Phius — a nonprofit organization dedicated to making passive building a best practice. As part of this work, Klingenberg has developed building science-based training for designing and constructing energy-efficient, net zero-energy buildings — structures that utilize clean, renewable energy sources to generate as much or more energy than they consume annually. To achieve stringent efficiency and carbon neutrality goals, the organization believes that buildings must be the foundation of the 21st century electrical grid: resilient, digitized, distributed and interactive.
“Katrin is arguably the most influential person affecting energy efficiency of the built environment in North America. We are incredibly honored to host her at the Appalachian Energy Summit,” said Mike Kapp, interim director of App State’s Office of Sustainability.
Since 2012, the Appalachian Energy Summit has gathered faculty, staff and students from colleges and universities, as well as energy managers, visionaries and government and industry leaders to share ideas and put into action ecological, financial and social processes designed to improve energy efficiency across the University of North Carolina System, the state and beyond. The effort has resulted in $1.75 billion in avoided energy costs by the UNC System, North Carolina community colleges and other state agencies since 2002–03, and the expectation is that the System and state partners will realize $2 billion in avoided costs by 2025.
Sessions for App State’s 12th annual Appalachian Energy Summit will cover a variety of energy topics, such as transportation-oriented opportunities, pathways toward zero waste and high-performance campus design. Registration for the summit is free for governmental, educational and nonprofit employees, as well as for students from the UNC System and other area colleges and universities.
You must be logged in to post a comment.