Webinar: Vivian Loftness on "Environmental Surfing"

Harnessing the power of the environment optimizes the energy efficiency and performance of a house.

The act of catching a wave to surf is an excellent example of how we can leverage the powers of nature for an intended purpose. When surfing, a wave effortlessly propels you across the water. Like surfing, housing design can essentially use nature's unique forces to do the work for you.

Vivian Loftness, an internationally recognized author, educator and thought leader, takes this concept to a new level, introducing "Environmental Surfing" for buildings. This webinar builds upon the "Natural Comfort" best practices advocated in Housing 2.0. 

Loftness discusses proven design strategies that optimize nature and can be integrated with energy efficiency to reduce the demand building heating, cooling, lighting, and water loads by up to 70 percent to 90 percent. "Environmental surfing" is a critical foundation for any carbon neutral or zero energy goals. Outstanding communities and buildings that inspire and nurture us are the incredible dividends from following her lessons.

Watch the presentation below:

About our presenter:  Vivian Loftness, FAIA, LEED, Design Futures and NIBS Fellow, is Paul Mellon Chair and University Professor at Carnegie Mellon University. She is an internationally renowned researcher, author and educator, with over forty years of focus on environmental design and sustainability, advanced building systems integration, climate and regionalism in architecture, and design for performance in the future workplaces for productivity, health the triple bottom line. 

In 2020, she published her second edition of the Springer Encyclopedia for Sustainable Built Environments. She has served on over 25 Board of Directors, including EPA's NACEPT, DOE's FEMAC, the National USGBC, ILFI and AIA Boards, as well as on fifteen National Academy of Science panels on sustainable built environments. Vivian has is recognized as one of 13 Stars of Building Science by the Building Research Establishment in the UK, received the Award of Distinction from AIA Pennsylvania and NESEA, holds a National Educator Honor Award from the American Institute of Architecture Students, a "Sacred Tree" Award from the US Green Building Council, and the 2021 ARCC James Haecker Award for Distinguished Leadership in Architectural Research. Vivian Loftness has a Bachelor of Science and a Master's of Architecture from MIT.

The Housing 2.0 program is made possible by the generous support of building industry leaders, including Mitsubishi Electric, ZIP System, Panasonic, and Schneider Electric.