Peter Rumsey, P.E., ASHRAE Fellow, AEE Fellow
220 Montgomery, Ste 321
San Francisco, CA 94104
United States
(510) 205-4575
Region: X
Honorarium: None
Languages Spoken: English
Rumsey
Peter is widely recognized as a global leader in energy efficiency and sustainable building system
design. Peter founded Point Energy Innovations in 2014 and is its CEO and Chief Design Innovator.
Before that he founded Rumsey Engineers in 1998 which was acquired by Integral Group in 2009.
He served as Integral’s West Coast Director and Chief Technology Officer.
He has consulted to venture capital firms, successful start-ups and has worked worldwide: in North
and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa. He has directed the design of 41 LEED Platinum
projects, 10 COTE Top Ten projects, 3 Living Building Challenge projects, and 22 Net Zero projects.
Peter has been responsible for many key innovations in energy efficient design and analysis,
including pioneering the use of chilled beams, efficient outside air systems that eliminate reheat,
radiant cooling systems, low pressure drop distribution systems and the use of guaranteed
performance contracts for HVAC systems.
His designs include the world's highest scoring LEED Platinum CI, the first certified Net Zero
project, the world's first LEED Platinum pre-certified data center, the first Net Zero laboratory, the
first LEED Gold microchip manufacturing plant, the first radiant cooled building in India for Infosys, the high-profile greening of The Empire
State Building, and the largest Zero-Energy public building in the U.S. One of his major areas of innovation is making green affordable -
creating prominent examples of green buildings that are affordable and practical. In 2012 the Association of Energy Engineers named him
“Renewable Energy Innovator of the Year.” His design of the Packard Foundation Net Zero HQ won ASHRAE’s prestigious Award of
Engineering Excellence --only given 4 other times in ASHRAE’s 100-year history.
Peter is a graduate of UC Berkeley and has taught a graduate level engineering course on low energy buildings at Stanford for over 15
years
Topic
Building Decarbonization

This presentation will provide an overview of a roadmap for decarbonization of U.S. buildings. Buildings in the U.S. account for 40% of carbon emissions. Eighty percent of that is from electricity use and the remainder is from the combustion of fossil fuels for heating and other uses at the building. As many states, utilities, and large corporations are moving to get electricity from clean, carbon neutral sources, it is clear that electricity is becoming the carbon-free choice of energy for many in the United States. Buildings that use natural gas and other fossil fuels for heating will be stuck producing carbon emissions, as electricity becomes increasingly carbon free. Natural gas can now be replaced with electric systems that provide equivalent or better service. An all electric building coupled with a renewable or carbon free source of electricity is considered to be a decarbonized building. Pathways for electrifying both new and existing buildings will be discussed, as well as the trajectory of how this approach can decarbonize the U.S. building stock.

Energy Efficiency, the Vast Untapped Potential
ASHRAE’s 90.1 standard has already reduced energy use in new buildings that follow the standard by close to 60% since its inception. There remains a vast untapped potential of energy efficiency in all sectors of our economy including buildings. Estimates put the savings at another 60% of where we currently are with the 90.1 standard. ASHRAE members play an oversized role in harvesting this potential. Peter Rumsey will share his fourty year experience in designing some of the country’s lowest energy buildings. A building can not be sustainable without energy efficiency. And we will never be able to decarbonize the building sector without it. Peter will share tips and tricks as well as hacks that make buildings more energy efficient and affordable. He will delve into the world of low pressure drop design, fully daylight buildings, all electric buildings, and creative ways to lower process loads. His approach is novel and has resulted in him working on over 50 LEED platinum buildings. He leverages “state of the shelf” strategies that are attainable by all building designers, especially HVAC engineers.
Making Sustainability Affordable
Peter Rumsey, who has worked on 50 LEED platinum projects in his career, will discuss how to make sustainability more practical. The key that he has unlocked is how to make improvements to building performance durable and affordable. He will share hacks on how to design buildings that owners and developers want to build. He has worked with tech companies, developers, universities, industry and non profits. He will share insights from specific projects. He will discuss all aspects of sustainable building design but will emphasize the areas where ASHRAE members can make the most difference. Those areas include energy efficiency, indoor air quality and thermal comfort. He typically aims for energy use that is 30% to 50% better than the current ASHRAE 90.1 standard. The projects he will share are fully decarbonized achieving either net zero energy or net zero carbon.