Dr. Theresa Weston
The Holt Weston Consultancy, LLC
2015 Westover Hills Blvd.
Richmond, VA 23225
United States
(804) 241-6246
Region: I
Honorarium: $100
Dr. Theresa Weston is a building science research professional specializing in the durability and energyefficiency of buildings.
Theresa started The Holt Weston Consultancy in November 2020 to foster innovation of buildingmaterials, and products to improve the resilience and sustainability of buildings. Prior to starting theHolt Weston Consultancy, Dr Weston was a DuPont Laureate with the Dupont Safety and Constructionbusiness, having worked for DuPont for 35 years. DuPont Laureate is the highest technical professionallevel in the DuPont company.
Theresa received her Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology, and Masters and PhD degrees in Chemical Engineering, both from the CaliforniaInstitute of Technology.
While at DuPont, Theresa demonstrated a track record of anticipating the need for new technologythrough the strategic analysis of technology trends and driving the deployment of innovation in themarketplace. She is an inventor on four patents, two of which introduced new product categories intothe construction market: 1) Development of industry’s first “drainage wrap”, creating a new waterresistivebarrier category [US6355333B1 “Construction Membrane” (2002)], and (2) Introduced thecategory of “formable window flashing” [US7351296B2“Stretchable Flashing Materials and Processes forMaking” (2008)].
Dr. Weston is a 25-year member of ASHRAE, having served on the Technical Activities Committee, theStandards Committee and as the Chair of the Residential Buildings Committee, as well as serving on anumber of Technical and Standards Project Committees. As chair of ASHRAE 90.2 ANSI/ASHRAE/IESStandard 90.2-2018, Energy-Efficient Design of Low-Rise Residential Buildings, Theresa led thecommittee to transform the standard to a leadership standard. She was also a member of the projectcommittee which produced the initial publication of ASHRAE Standard 160 Criteria for Moisture-ControlDesign Analysis in Buildings.
Theresa is active with industry standard and code development activities outside of ASHRAE, includingwith ICC, and ASTM. She chairs ASTM E06.41 the Performance of Buildings Subcommittee on AirLeakage and Ventilation. She currently serves on the ASTM Committee on Publications and as amember of the ICC Residential Code Interpretation Committee.
Dr. Weston is a prolific author and industry speaker. Recent activities include chairing anASTM Symposium and resulting special technical publication on Whole Building Air Leakage:Testing and Building Performance Impacts (STP1615) as well as presentations at ASHRAE, EEBAand RESNET Conferences. She is the Vice-Chair of the ASHRAE sponsored Buildings ConferenceSeries.
Topic
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 90.2-2018 and the Pathway to High-Performance Residential Buildings
ASHRAE holds a unique position through its standards to define and shape residential buildingperformance. ANSI/ASHRAE/IES 90.2-2018 (replacing the Standard 90.2-2007) is a leadership standardthat presents a new approach to deliver residential building energy performance and which results inbuildings with higher energy efficiency than those built to the IECC-R. Consequently, ASHRAE 90.2 is anoption as a turnkey residential stretch code.The path to creating ANSI/ASHRAE/IES 90.2-2018 as a leadership standard was initiated by a StandardsAdvisory Panel recommendation to the ASHRAE Technology Council that set goals for a leadershipresidential 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.Additionally, ANSI/ASHRAE/IES 90.2-2018 provides leadership by incorporating detailed verificationrequirements, thus ensuring that the intended energy performance results are achieved.This presentation reviews the structure, requirements and potential applications of ANSI/ASHRAE/IES90.2-2018. The standard’s development and future path will be discussed.
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.
