Course Catalog The Retrofit Challenge

Part 1: Defining the Retrofit Challenge


Energy retrofits present a confusing array of issues, including changing code requirements and new terminology, occupant concerns about overheating and poor indoor air quality, and challenging disruptions caused by more frequent climate-related disasters.

In this session, you’ll gain insight into the changing climate in which our existing buildings are now required to function and how these changes will continue to impact our buildings and their occupants in the decades to come. You’ll see what climate disruption looks like and how buildings contribute to that disruption, discover how buildings can adapt to perform in a more hostile climate and even mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, and learn why new government requirements will drive mitigation efforts.

These realities will be contextualized within a policy and investment landscape that is rapidly shifting toward zero carbon emissions.

What you’ll learn

  1. Understand the changing climate and how these changes impact our buildings and their occupants.
  2. Differentiate between buzzwords like zero emissions, net zero, deep retrofit, and climate resilience.
  3. Understand the role that deep-energy retrofits have in responding to the current climate crisis and the urgency to reduce emissions by 2030.
  4. Develop a high-level understanding of the policy and investment pressures that owners and managers of existing build stock will experience.

Tightening energy and emissions regulations, aging building stock, and increasingly extreme weather are converging to make retrofit planning more urgent and more complex than ever. RDH’s retrofit course series helps building owners, managers, and design professionals define the challenge, develop a tailored retrofit roadmap, and prepare for successful implementation that aligns carbon and energy goals with long-term asset management.

  • Role Architect/Designer Building Owner/Manager Contractor/Builder
  • Level Introductory
  • Duration 1 hour

Technical Expertise. Real-World Impact.

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