Amanda Bogner is passionate about architecture and sustainability; she lives and breathes energy savings and provides clients with meaningful energy modeling analysis. She has significant knowledge of building systems, and how those systems affect a facility’s overall performance. Her company’s tagline reflects her deep passion: “become more powerless.” Sometimes, Amanda whispers that she’s trying to “convert the heathens.”
Amanda, president of ENERGY STUDIO, is a registered mechanical engineer and is a certified ASHRAE building energy modeling professional (BEMP) with 20-years of project experience. She has dedicated her career to providing meaningful energy modeling analysis to owners and design teams.
Amanda received her undergraduate degree in Architectural Engineering from the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. She began her career at Leo A Daly Company in Omaha, Nebraska as a mechanical designer. While at Leo A Daly, she designed HVAC systems for a variety of projects and led the LEED documentation effort for Nebraska’s first LEED certified project – National Park Service Regional Headquarters. In 2006, Amanda joined BVM Engineering (now IES) in Atlanta, Georgia where she led the energy modeling department. In this role, her project portfolio included several skyline-changing projects like 300 North LaSalle in Chicago, IL, and Atlantic Station in Atlanta, GA, and Eighth Avenue Place, Calgary, Alberta.In 2010, Amanda founded Energy Studio to provide energy modeling and management services to architects, engineers, developers, and building owners. The firm is a Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) certified women’s business enterprise (WBE) and women-owned small business (WOSB). Since inception, ENERGY STUDIO has provided energy analysis services for over 400 projects in 38 states, including over 100 LEED projects. Their energy analysis services have affected over 60 million gross square feet of built space, which results in healthier, more energy-efficient, and cost-effective spaces for facility managers and occupants.Amanda’s ENERGY STUDIO team serves clients across the country, and she is a registered professional engineer in California, District of Columbia, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, and Wisconsin.
From April 2011 to April 2016, Amanda served on the USGBC’s Energy & Atmosphere Technical Advisor Group (TAG) where she made recommendations on the direction of the LEEDv4 Rating System as it relates to the energy and atmosphere category. She currently is an elected official on the Omaha Public Power District board of directors where she is responsible for developing policies that are leading to a net-zero carbon future for the Omaha community.
Selected Speaking and Publishing
• A’22, The AIA Conference on Architecture, “Getting to Net-Zero Energy Before the RFP,” June 2022.
• SCUP 2019 North Central Regional Conference, “Go Fast, Go Slow: Planning Early for Zero Net Energy,” October 2019.
• National Net Zero Energy Forum, “Getting to ZNE Before the RFP.” Plenary speaker, April 2018.
• University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Architectural Engineering Departmento “AE 8150 Building Energy Simulation and Performance Contracting\" Course Instructor, Spring 2009
o “AE 8050 Sustainable Building Design” Course Instructor, Fall 2009, Fall 2010
• University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Engineering Professional Development, \"Energy Modeling for High Performance Buildings\" Course Instructor, Fall 2009
• International Facilities Management Association Journal, \"Sustainable Indoor Air Quality Strategies,\" September/October 2004
Notable Career Achievements:
• Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) Impact Award – Entrepreneurial Spirit Award (2018)
• Leadership Omaha (2016-17)• President’s Volunteer Service Award – Points of Light (2015-Silver and 2016-Gold)
• 40 Under 40 – Midlands Business Journal (2015)
Getting to Net-Zero Energy Before the RFP
Session Description:
The profession needs to advance high-performance in challenging markets and climate regions. The speaker describes the top five considerations that should be evaluated for every zero-net energy project during the pre-RFP process. Then, the speaker explains how to set a meaningful energy target on a proposed project - which is critical to achieving zero-net energy. Finally, the speaker identifies the crucial design decisions that make (or break) the potential for zero-net energy. The truth is that every energy model is WRONG to some degree - and yet they are essential to an integrative design process for high-performance project outcomes. In the spirit of the integrative process, at key points during the session, the audience will be prompted to participate in real-time performance modeling decision-making using cloud-based building energy modeling tools. In one specific example, a seemingly \"good\" decision when considered in isolation will be shown to be detrimental to overall energy performance when considered in the context of the whole building using dynamic real-time tools. The audience will also be introduced to \"next generation\" energy modeling using genetic algorithms to achieve design optimization solutions and total carbon modeling, which incorporates emerging processes and databases for assessing and optimizing embodied carbon intensity as part of a project lifecycle carbon assessment.
Learning Outcomes:
1. Explain the top five design considerations of ZNE that need to be considered before responding to a request for proposal (RFP).
2. Identify specific design questions that a project team needs the building energy modeling effort to answer as early as pre-design.
3. Determine the appropriate tools to ensure that energy performance and lifecycle carbon goals will be achieved on any project.
4. Prepare a framework to effectively integrate early-stage building energy modeling within any firm’s culture and design practice.
Fully Leveraging Your Energy Model: A Field Guide
Session Description:
An energy model is neither a Revit button nor a “one-and-done” design activity. Rather, energy models allow designers to go beyond aesthetics and see options through the lens of energy performance. The speaker identifies four phases where models improve energy performance and provide compelling evidence that energy models quantify performance of ideas that designers are interested in exploring. The speaker presents a scalable energy model workflow, and even share insights where models pay for themselves, including changes to the 179D energy efficiency tax deduction enabled by the Inflation Reduction Act. Leveraging valuable energy models throughout design helps architects achieve both aesthetic design goals AND ambitious energy performance targets.
Learning Outcomes:
1. Appraise their firm’s approach and process to include an energy model as part of the design process.
2. Assess proven data that demonstrates that an early-phase energy model improves outcomes throughout the design process, leading to enhanced energy performance.
3. Apply concepts and analytical insights so their firm leverages energy models throughout design to improve both aesthetics and energy performance.
4. Use the Early Phase Energy Model Checklist as part of their early-phase project discussions, charrettes, and design studies.
5. Produce designs that are eligible for the generous 179D energy efficiency tax deduction.