Page 10 - Green Builder January 2017 Issue

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Renewal Energy Atlanta Awaits
2017 IECA
Group Aims for Region One
Conference
‘NetZeroPlus’
Weather Channel’s Cantore and EPA’s Zeller
Label
will open and close the February event.
A new marketing plan is underway
WEATHER CHANNEL METEOROLOGIST Jim
for Canada’s International Cantore and Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) Senior Project Manager Craig Zeller are the
IGround Source Heat Association.N AN EFFORT to reduce confusion and stand apart respective opening and closing keynote speakers at
from other “net-zero energy”-related industries, the Environmental Connection 2017, the International
Canadian chapter of the International Ground Source Erosion Control Association (IECA) Region One’s annual conference
Heat Pump Association (IGSHPA) is relabeling itself in Atlanta, Feb. 21-24.
as “NetZeroPlus” and will promote its energy and
environmental contributions, not its technology. Cantore, a frequent contributor to NBC News, will discuss changes
in weather patterns, predictions for the future and how these changes
According to IGSHPA-Canada Executive Director Bill
Eggertson, the industry has suffered from marketing confu- Craig Zeller Jim Cantore
sion by using technology terms such as “geothermal,” “earth
energy,” “GeoExchange” will affect the environmental industry over the next 50 years. He will
or “ground source heat lend insight on how the industry can prepare for the future in weather.
pump.” He says the new
focus will allow the in- Zeller’s closing keynote presentation will cover his experience as
dustry to work with oth- the EPA’s on-site coordinator for the cleanup and recovery efforts
er stakeholders to boost of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Kingston Fossil Plant en-
a building’s performance vironmental disaster in Roane County, Tenn., on Dec. 22, 2008. The
beyond NetZeroPlus by failure of an ash dike at the TVA facility caused a catastrophe where
increasing efficiency in approximately 5.4 million cubic yards of coal ash was released over
plug load. 300 acres, choking the adjacent Emory River, disrupting electrical
power, rupturing a natural gas line and water line, and covering a
A NetZeroPlus heat railway and local roadways.
pump produces twice as
much renewable energy For more information, visit www.ieca.org.
as a whole house will consume for all end uses, surpassing the
definition for “net-zero energy,” Eggertson notes. With more www.greenbuildermedia.com
than 120,000 such systems nationwide, IGSHPA is actually one
of Canada’s largest producers of renewable energy.

Eggertson says the association has developed social media
tools to explain how energy is produced and consumed,
including a three-minute video that illustrates the vision of
transitioning Canada into a NetZeroPlus nation. The site is
http://NetZeroPlus.ca.

8 GREEN BUILDER January/February 2017