Continuing education opportunities for architects at Greenbuild 2024

Earn CE credits while exploring topics relevant to design professionals.

Architects and designers bring their creative and technical know-how to green buildings and spaces every day. To stay on the leading edge of innovation, though, architects must always be exploring new ideas and learning from one another. Design decisions fit into a greater dynamic that encompasses not just buildings, but healthier systems, communities and global climate strategies.

At Greenbuild, running Nov. 12-15 in Philadelphia, opportunities abound for continuing education that delves into the topics that most concern designers in 2024. Discover the latest insights from your peers on designing for decarbonization, life cycle priorities, existing building retrofits and more.

Exploring topics in design at Greenbuild

Here are a few of the many Greenbuild sessions, summits and workshops that reflect how design decisions fit into larger sustainability strategies; these selections also offer CE credits for AIA members and those with LEED professional designations administered by GBCI. On the Greenbuild sessions page, you can filter listings by CE credits in the Continuing Education Credit Offered dropdown.

Future-Proofing Decarbonization with LEED v5 workshop

Tuesday, Nov. 12, 8 a.m.-12 p.m.

Greenbuild's 2024 workshops are half-day tailored opportunities to connect with experts in your field and receive real-time solutions to your challenges. Workshops are available only to attendees with a Conference or Student pass.

What decisions do we need to make for buildings we are designing, constructing and operating to swiftly decarbonize the building industry? What steps should we take to initiate this process, and what tools does USGBC offer to facilitate this? LEED v5 has been holistically created to guide decisions and actions to move us toward our global climate goals. It provides clear steps for delivering new buildings with ultra-low greenhouse gas emissions and rewards existing buildings for leadership and planning to hit future decarbonization targets. Learn the importance of decarbonization plans, how to establish these plans for individual assets, regardless of where they are in the life cycle, and how to tie that into portfolio-level planning.

The Carbon, the Whole Carbon, and Nothing but the Carbon

Wednesday, Nov. 13, 3-4 p.m.

Whole life carbon assessment (WLCA) is a rapidly evolving framework generating significant interest and momentum in the design industry. Its ultimate goal is to fully account for all building-related carbon emissions and provide valuable information to design and policy communities to direct efforts for reducing impacts and meeting climate targets. This session explores the challenges, opportunities and limitations of WLCA through two exciting projects. First, researchers from the CLF and UC Berkeley present preliminary results and recommendations to advance WLCA based on an analysis of 30 real-world buildings in California. Second, designers from Perkins Eastman and CMTA discuss the carbon impacts of John Lewis Elementary, a LEED Platinum, net zero energy school. The design team presents a detailed analysis of its embodied and operational carbon footprint and evaluates the effectiveness of hypothetical design iterations to reduce its life cycle impacts.

Design Standards for Complex Building and Infrastructure Portfolios: Airports Perspective

Thursday, Nov. 14, 3-4 p.m.

To ensure quality service and continued operations at aviation and maritime facilities, the City of Philadelphia Department of Aviation, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ), and the Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) have undertaken projects to enhance their sustainability and resilience. One common example is the implementation of design standards to guide the life cycle of their complex building and infrastructure portfolios. This session will review the unique objectives of these standards and how they were informed by climate action planning and related projects, discussing how the standards integrate building rating systems (LEED Zero, LEED v4.1 for Building Design and Construction, WELL v2, Parksmart and Envision) in manners befitting organizational objectives, as well as lessons learned and opportunities to apply the standards to a range of real estate portfolios.

Saving the Old to Teach the Young at Penn

Friday, Nov. 15, 10:15-11:15 a.m.

The historic West Philadelphia Title and Trust Company building from 1925, now known as the Ronald O. Perelman Center for Political Science and Economics at the University of Pennsylvania, combines the adaptive reuse of an existing building with a new addition. The constraints of the existing building inherited by the design team encouraged a high degree of creativity and collaboration. The project team will discuss the analysis used to determine the most appropriate strategies to avoid demolition and reduce embodied carbon. The team designed for two distinct conditions with a seamless interior experience that reduces embodied carbon while optimizing energy performance, visual comfort and thermal comfort. The session will also address how to resolve questions of historic building design by using 3D laser scan information. Representatives from the university, KPMB Architects, Atelier Ten and Keast + Hood Structural Engineers will shed light on the variety of challenges and opportunities of working with historic buildings and evolving them to adapt to 21st century academic needs.

Other opportunities to learn

In addition to sessions, the Expo Hall offers myriad exhibitors sharing their top products and services for green building. More types of networking opportunities are available than ever before. Last but not least, you can learn from local building and site designs at our Greenbuild tours around the Philadelphia area on Nov. 11 and 15.

View the full education lineup.

Register for Greenbuild.

View the full education lineup

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