REAL ESTATE NEWS

The USGBC California (USGBC-CA) growth-stage commercialization program for innovative technology in the built environment has named the 15 companies selected for Cohort 8 of the Net Zero AcceleratorŽ (NZA), which will provide some major savings.

The pilot program kicked off June 24 and runs through early December. These companies are ready to put practical, cost-effective solutions to work in real pilots with building owners and operators across California and beyond.

"What a pilot does is replace the guesswork with a real number for your building," Colin Mangham, chief experience officer at USGBC California, told GlobeSt.com.

"The owner comes out to the other side knowing exactly what the technology actually did to their asset, with data they can present to their board. This is where the program offers the best value."

The NZA was founded in 2019 on a simple observation: Policy was moving faster than the technology could reach the field.

"The building code [policy] now wants embodied carbon reductions on large commercial projects, and more than 30 jurisdictions have adopted reach codes that go past the state minimum," Mangham said.

"So, owners are being asked to hit targets on a timeline, and the solutions that would get them there already exist. They're just not visible, and they're not connected to the people who need them."

Therefore, Mangham said, every year a working technology goes unadopted is one that emissions didn't need to be produced and savings an owner failed to capture.

"That gap is what this program closes," he put it bluntly.

Savings depend entirely on the tech and the building, so a single program-wide number would not accurately reflect them, according to Mangham.

NZA's latest pilot flight manual includes the results reported by the company.

A few examples: Ampd Energy reports up to 85 percent fuel and operating cost savings when construction sites replace diesel generators with their battery systems.

Capture H2O reports 20 to 50 percent water reduction on cooling tower operations.

Gradient finds 85 percent to 88 percent energy savings from heat pump retrofits.

Participating Companies Selected

An independent committee selected Cohort 8 from a field of dozens of applications spanning eight countries. No two companies are direct competitors and together they represent eight US states as well as Canada, Germany and the UK.

Since then, across seven cohorts, more than 120 companies have come through the NZA. They have piloted in office towers, on shorelines, inside affordable housing and across utility territories.

Cohort 8 spans the systems that determine how a building performs, from the power coming in and to the envelope holding conditioned air.

Members by solution area, according to a USGBC-CA release, which will provide California building owners with savings:

For Solar & PV, the list includes Rocking Solar (Monroe, OH) and Stellaris (Nashua, NH).

Nostromo Energy (Irvine, CA) is working in the energy storage category.

Electrical Distribution: Cence Power (Markham, ON) and Panduit (Tinley Park, IL).

Demand Response & Power Quality: Captivate Energy (Wake Forest, NC).

Envelope Diagnostics: QEA Tech (Markham, ON).

HVAC Optimization: Endo Enterprises (Warrington, UK); Transaera (Somerville, MA); Vybe Energy (Falls Church, VA).

Cooling & Dehumidification: Green Matters Technologies (Langley, BC).

Mobility & EV Charging: IonDynamics (Novi, MI).

Roofing: Shield Roofing (Canoga Park, CA, US offices).

Carbon & Materials: Carbon Upcycling Technologies (Calgary, AB).

Lighting & Occupant Health: BIOS Lighting (Carlsbad, CA).

Source: GlobeSt/ALM