Dr. Theresa Weston
President
The Holt Weston Consultancy, LLC
2015 Westover Hills Blvd.
Richmond, VA 23225
United States
804-241-6246
Region: I
Honorarium: $100
Languages Spoken:
Dr. Theresa Weston is a building science research professional specializing in the durability and energyefficiency of buildings.
Dr. Theresa Weston is a building science research professional specializing in the durability and energy efficiency of buildings. Theresa started The Holt Weston Consultancy in November 2020 to foster innovation of building materials, and products to improve the resilience and sustainability of buildings. Prior to starting the Holt Weston Consultancy, Dr Weston was a DuPont Laureate with the Dupont Safety and Construction business, having worked for DuPont for 35 years. DuPont Laureate is the highest technical professional level in the DuPont company.
Theresa received her Batchelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Masters and PhD degrees in Chemical Engineering, both from the California Institute of Technology.
Theresa has demonstrated a track record of anticipating the need for new technology through the strategic analysis of technology trends and driving the deployment of innovation in the marketplace. She is an inventor on four patents, two of which introduced new product categories into the construction market: 1) Development of industry’s first “drainage wrap”, creating a new water-resistive barrier category [US6355333B1 “Construction Membrane” (2002)], and (2) Introduced the category of “formable window flashing” [US7351296B2“Stretchable Flashing Materials and Processes for Making” (2008)].
Dr. Weston has been a member of ASHRAE for over 25 years, having served on the Technical Activities Committee, the Standards Committee and as the Chair of the Residential Buildings Committee, as well as serving on a number of Technical and Standards Project Committees. As chair of ASHRAE 90.2 ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.2-2018, Energy-Efficient Design of Low-Rise Residential Buildings, Theresa led the committee to transform the standard to a leadership standard. She was also a member of the project committee which produced the initial publication of ASHRAE Standard 160 Criteria for Moisture-Control Design Analysis in Buildings. Dr. Weston has received both ASHRAE Distinguished Service and Exceptional Service Awards and the ASHRAE Residential Service Award.
Theresa is active with industry standard and code development activities outside of ASHRAE, including with ICC and ASTM. She chairs ASTM E06.41 the Performance of Buildings Subcommittee on Air Leakage and Ventilation. She is the Chair of the ICC Energy Code Interpretation Committee and a previous member of the ICC Residential Code Interpretation Committee. Dr. Weston also served on the ICC Ad Hoc Committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Dr. Weston is a prolific author and industry speaker. She is the Vice-Chair of the ASHRAE sponsored Buildings Conference Series. She serves on the ASTM Committee on Publications.
Topic
Air Leakage Control and the Building Envelope System: Standards, Codes and How They are Changing.
Air barrier requirements for commercial buildings are underwent big changes in the 2022 ASHRAE 90.1 Standard and the 2024 IECC-C. Although continuous air barriers have been required in most buildings for a number of years, the level of stringency and verification requirements for the building air leakage have not been universally implemented. Recently the model commercial energy codes, ASHRAE 90.1-2022 and the 2024 IECC-Commercial, have been updated to provide more specific and more stringent requirements for buildings. This presentation will provide insight from an individual who has been engaged in the code development process for years, and was specifically involved with the air leakage updates in both the ASHRAE 90.1 Standard and the IECC in both 2021 and 2024. The air barrier updates include clarifications to the whole building performance testing methods and stringency, design phase requirements, material and assembly requirements, and onsite installation verification requirements. It will discuss the appropriateness of applications and the interaction between the building and energy code requirements.
ASHRAE is in The House: Past, Present and Future Initiatives in Residential Building Performance
Residential buildings are responsible for over 20% of total US energy use. For countries worldwide, residential buildings often define the majority building energy use sector. While ASHRAE has a well-known history of success in defining and transforming the commercial building sector – through Standards such as 90.1, 189.1 and 62.1 – our impact on the residential sector is less acknowledged. This presentation focuses on “bringing ASHRAE home” – emphasizing the critically important role that all ASHRAE professionals must play in shaping and improving residential building performance worldwide. The presentation will discuss the impact residential construction has on achieving energy efficiency, and greenhouse gas emission performance goals. We will review how ASHRAE has already impacted the residential building performance landscape and discuss the resources available through ASHRAE addressing energy performance, comfort, IEQ and resilience of residential buildings.
Women and STEM: Enhancing Innovation and Sustainability through Diversity
We live in a world facing critical challenges from the effects of climate change. To meet thesechallenges, we need to access the entire innovative potential of our industry. Important to activatingour innovative potential is enhancing the diversity of current and future professionals in the Science,Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). A survey reported in the Harvard Business Reviewfound “that companies with 2-D diversity out innovate and out-perform others. Employees at thesecompanies are 45% likelier to report that their firm’s market share grew over the previous year and 70%likelier to report that the firm captured a new market”.1 One focus of diversity is gender equality. This isrecognized as United Nations Sustainability Goal #5: Gender Equality. In describing this goal, it is stated,“Ending all discrimination against women and girls is not only a basic human right, it’s crucial forsustainable future; it’s proven that empowering women and girls helps economic growth anddevelopment.” 2A review of the statistics reveals that there is work to be done to achieve equity and inclusion in thetechnical world. While women make up half of the total U.S. college-educated workforce, they onlyrepresent 28% of the science and engineering workforce. Data from the US Bureau of Labor Statisticsshow the disparity is particularly stark in the Engineering and Architecture fields, where women make uponly 15.7%.3 While it is easy to focus on the numbers, my successful 35-year career as a womanengineer has shown me that it is not about quotas. Rather it is about establishing a social andintellectual environment that encourages personal growth and performance. This involves recognizingrole models and providing mentorship opportunities. It is about each of us increasing our acquireddiversity – the diversity we develop by working with people who are different from ourselves.This presentation will combine the presenter’s personal experiences as a woman engineer and mentorwith data and findings from business and social science research to present an initial roadmap on howto encourage diversity with the result in increased innovation.
ASHRAE Standard 90.2-2024: Leadership in Energy and Greenhouse Gas Emission Performance
ASHRAE holds a unique position through its standards to define and shape residential building performance. ANSI/ASHRAE/IES 90.2-2024 is a prime example of ASHRAE’s leadership position in this area. This latest edition of Standard 90.2 maintains the standard’s leadership initiated with the development ANSI/ASHRAE/IES 90.2-2018. The 2024 edition includes an expanded scope to address all residential dwelling units (single family and multi-family) and to include greenhouse gas emission criteria. CO2-emissions rating requirements were included in addition to enhanced energy rating requirements. Previously, ANSI/ASHRAE/IES 90.2-2018 replaced the 2007 edition with a leadership standard that presented a new approach to deliver residential building energy performance and could deliver buildings with higher energy efficiency than those built to the IECC-R. The path to creating ANSI/ASHRAE/IES 90.2-2018 as a leadership standard was initiated by a Standards Advisory Panel recommendation to the ASHRAE Technology Council that set goals for a leadership residential energy efficiency standard. Key to meeting the leadership goal is the delivery of an accurate, flexible, performance-based tool to enable user creativity in meeting performance objectives. This presentation reviews the structure and requirements of ANSI/ASHRAE/IES 90.2-2024, which has expanded the leadership of the 2018 version to address all residential buildings and greenhouse gas emissions in addition to energy efficiency.
Defining and Assessing Resilience
The increasing threat to communities from storms, floods, wildfire, and extreme temperatures hasincreased the focus on the resilience of the built environment. Merriam-Webster defines resilience as“an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change”. While resilience is a simpleconcept, incorporating resilience into buildings and communities can be extremely complicated. Toevaluate building and community resilience it can be useful to examine it through a series of lenses,including personal or emotional experience, financial impact and community impact. This presentationuses multiple lenses to discuss aspects of resilience (mitigation, disruptive events, response andrecovery) in order to understand the ecosystem of standards, specifications, and codes used to defineand assess resilience.Government entities, industry organizations, and standards development organizations are developingcriteria with which to assess and improve resilience. Many of these criteria have grown out of past workand existing standards that address energy efficiency, durability and sustainability. These criteria rangein scope from the individual building to the community level. This presentation will review the industryactivities currently underway to assess and improve the resilience of the built environment, including areview of the progress of code, standard practice and guideline development.
