Net-zero-energy projects are becoming increasingly popular in Oregon among developers, architects, and contractors. Meanwhile, research is ongoing to refine those projects.

Energy Trust of Oregon is contributing to such efforts via its Net Zero Fellowship program. Grants are awarded to support research projects that advance net-zero design, address potential barriers, or help grow community involvement in Oregon and/or Washington. The grants provide up to $60,000 over approximately one year.

A net-zero building, by definition, is one that produces as much energy as it consumes. From a design and development standpoint, the idea is to reduce as much energy use as possible.

Energy Trust of Oregon is generally seeing buildings on their way to becoming net zero, according to Naomi Cole, a consultant who runs the Net Zero Fellowship program. Oregon already has a handful of net-zero buildings, including the PAE Living Building – now considered the highest-performing building in Portland, she said. Its systems meet the building’s energy needs entirely, capture and treat all its water, and more.

The Net Zero Fellowship allows individuals or firms to research their own projects and take a deeper look into possibilities for different types of buildings. Two fellowship grantees have researched net zero energy through their companies’ projects: Anyeley Hallova of Adre and Jean von Bargen Root of MWA Architects.

Researching large-scale possibilities

Adre, a real estate development company, is engaged in two projects with potential to be net zero. Hallova, Adre’s founder, received her grant for development of a framework for an eco-district and district-energy microgrid for one of those projects: Williams & Russell, in Portland.

“The Williams and Russell project is a multibuilding project with different partners involved,” Hallova said.

Through the fellowship, Adre is studying energy savings and carbon emissions reduction at a district scale. The firm is looking into net zero energy, net zero water and net zero waste.

The net zero principles being pursued are: using less materials, using mass timber, using no fossil fuels, electrifying everything, and managing waste efficiently. The concept is to explore this on a district scale rather than building by building. The research will be complete sometime this year.

Project challenges include costs to purchase and install systems as well as jurisdictional issues tied to water and waste management.

The other net zero project is for Parrott Creek Child & Family Services, a nonprofit that has been in operation for over 50 years. The organization is preparing to expand its Oregon City campus, and the project is expected to be net zero if rooftop solar panels are included. Adre is pursuing a solar and storage grant for the project.

Potential for industrial projects

Jean von Bargen Root, principal and director of sustainability at MWA Architects, also received a Net Zero Fellowship grant. She has a passion for industrial architecture, and believes such projects deserve attention on energy conservation.

“Industrial projects were kind of sidelined,” she said.

As part of her research, von Bargen Root wanted to do a deep dive into the work being done at MWA, particularly regarding removal of barriers to net-zero industrial development. The firm teamed up with Convergence Architecture, a woman-owned firm based in St. Johns.

“That was also a key part of our work – we wanted to team with a small business, either woman- or minority-owned,” von Bargen Root said.

Changes in the Oregon State Building Code have become critical, von Bargen Root said. The 2021 Oregon Energy Efficiency Specialty Code will be “fully live” starting April 1, she stated. This code is intended to regulate the design and construction of buildings for effective use of energy. Von Bargen Root hopes her research will help people navigate the new code.

The fellowship concluded in November 2022. A webinar will be available at Energy Trust of Oregon’s online education portal later this month. Also at the website, two documents resulting from the research will offer interviews and climate-related information as well as a design guide.

There are two challenges MWA faces with net zero projects: navigation of power generation issues with utility companies and actual achievement of net zero energy use as opposed to design for it. Also, securing power generation equipment can be difficult, von Bargen Root said.

MWA’s net zero projects include Bonneville Power Administration‘s McNary substation and the Portland Water Bureau‘s Interstate Maintenance Facility renovation. For the latter, MWA helped reduce power consumption at the campus. Currently, the firm is working on the water bureau’s Bull Run filtration project as well as a bus barn facility for the city of Pendleton; net zero targets exist for both.

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Woodburn’s Success High School, designed by Opsis Architecture, has received a Zero Energy certification through the International Living Future Institute. It was the first high school in Oregon to enroll in the Energy Trust of Oregon’s path to net zero program and the first Woodburn School District project to be awarded the Zero Energy certification by the ILFI.

The Zero Energy certification by ILFI is based on actual performance and awarded to green buildings where 100 percent of its energy needs on a net annual basis is supplied by on-site renewable energy sources, with no combustion. It is the only performance-based standard of its kind operating globally.

Opsis and its design team partner, Interface Engineering, designed the new school, which was completed in 2018, with a range of energy-saving features to achieve zero energy performance. Top performance features include a high-performance building envelope, a 251 kw-DC array comprised of 728 panels located on site by A&R Solar and a highly efficient mechanical and electrical system designed by Interface Engineering. The building’s variable refrigerating flow systems provide all the space heating and cooling for the building and offer high cooling and heating operating efficiencies. The efficient design of the building includes three heat recovery ventilators that recover energy from the building exhaust air to preheat incoming ventilation air. Additional energy-saving and sustainability strategies include the use of extensive daylighting controls in the commons and classrooms, occupancy-controlled power receptacles and the use of water saving products from dual-flush toilets to low-flow faucets.

Working closely with the school district and staff, Opsis designed the new 11,700-square-foot school around a unique alternative education program for grade 10-12 students not well served by a traditional high school setting.

The Energy Trust of Oregon worked closely with the school district, providing a range of technical assistance to maximize the efficiency and potential of the new building’s solar array to help reach its goal of generating as much energy as the school uses.

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Not many zero-energy homes are available in the Portland market. But 11 more are on the way.

In Northeast Portland, design-build firms Green Hammer (construction services) and Birdsmouth Design Build (architectural services) are teaming up on a project being developed by Zach Parrish of Ono Development. Going Street Commons will include five single-family homes and three duplexes.

“Basically in every other case we’ve done there were major owner tenants or owners that were part of the process,” said Stephen Aiguier, founder and president of Green Hammer. “But this one is the first speculative that we’ve been a part of, and they are fundamentally different projects.”

In part, it’s a response to rising demand for highly energy-efficient homes.

“I think what’s kind of exciting is there are 11 zero-ready condos for sale,” Aiguier said. “They are like the other zero-energy buildings that we’ve done – they’re super insulated, they’re super comfortable. But we get calls all the time from people who are moving to Portland and they say, ‘I’ve got an $800,000 budget and I want a zero-energy home; what do you got?’ And I’m like, ‘We’ve got nothing.’”

But Going Street Commons, at 4905 N.E. Going St., in the Cully neighborhood, is poised to become the largest zero-energy-ready subdivision in Portland.

“When I bought the property three years ago I was going to be the developer and be the architect and do it all, including affordable housing,” said Josh Salinger, founder and CEO of Birdsmouth Design Build. “I wanted to prove we can build zero energy with cost parity, and even affordable housing. I wanted to prove the critics wrong.”

Ultimately, Salinger said, the project scope was beyond his company’s capacity, and projected costs precluded affordable housing. Zoning restricted development to 11 units.

“If we were able to build four more homes there, we could have driven the costs of these down,” Salinger said. “Zoning was the biggest prohibition. It would have worked with (Residential Infill Project rules) in place; it would have made a huge difference.”

To simplify design and construction, each home – whether in single-family or duplex form – will have the same 1,758-square-foot floor plan with three bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms and flexible attic space on a third level.

The barn-style homes will have black-stained larch wood siding and feature energy-efficient appliances. Each home will have a private yard with access to a shared green space and community garden, while a 5,000-gallon rainwater storage tank will provide irrigation for landscaping.

Earth Advantage��platinum certification will be sought largely because the individual homes will not have pre-installed photovoltaic panels.

“We’re zero-ready on this one, so between the PV on the structures and then the other units we could get the whole community to zero energy,” Aiguier said. “But depending on your unit you could choose to add solar or allocate some of solar from the community space to your condo.”

When it comes to designing a zero-energy building, Salinger said, three key factors normally play a role: the site layout; surface area to volume ratio of the building; and the air barrier and building envelope.

“Maybe the most important thing is designing the air barrier in from the inception,” Salinger said. “Most of the energy losses in the home are lost to diffusion and leakage, so if we have a tight air barrier, which means very few penetrations, suddenly it has less risk of moisture damage, less mold, higher indoor air quality; you’re really controlling the air and it makes the buildings last longer and feel more comfortable.”

The surface area to volume ratio comes from a building’s shape. The most efficient shape in terms of heat loss is a sphere, which isn’t great for building design. A square is the next best bet, and for Going Street Commons, this concept was crossed with a Scandinavian aesthetic: a simple gable end design and long, flat walls and roofing.

“Boxes are not super compelling architecturally,” Salinger said. “But the Scandinavian vernacular has those gables, which turn those boxes into something compelling – and it’s something I think is beautiful. It has the low surface-to-volume ra

tio, and that’s how we came across that form and that vernacular.”

Going Street Commons’ building envelopes are an integral part of the design, along with four inches of EPS (expanded polystyrene) roof insulation and two inches of GPS (graphite polystyrene) foam-board foundation insulation, which exceeds code requirements. The rigid roofing insulation panels can even be removed from the building and reused elsewhere.

The flip side of the envelope is an efficient heating and cooling system. Each single unit – a combination of a heat pump and a heat recovery ventilator – is kept indoors with ductwork and venting set up to exit building walls instead of using a roof penetration.

One thing that really sets Going Street Commons apart is the use of a panelized wall system. The wall panels included stud walls, insulated sheathing, weather-resistant barrier and wooden battens upon which to mount exterior siding.

“Most of the battens were included with the wall panels,” Aiguier said. “The windows we actually just installed on-site; it was easier just putting them in right here. But our air barrier is super simple. There are no eaves on the building; it just wraps up and over. Transitioning from the walls to the ceiling can be a little bit complicated, so this makes air tightness super achievable.”

Green Hammer superintendent Greg Walton agreed and said the construction process has been relatively smooth.

“In a perfect world, if everything came out just how we wanted them, these buildings would go together in a day,” he said. “In this situation, the owner and developer worked directly with (the manufacturer) and we were a third party, so there were a lot of misses in general. But as a whole, it was really pretty seamless. There were little things that I attribute to a learning curve, but it went together pretty well.”

The building industry must do as much as it can to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Salinger said.

“We have a moral obligation to our children and the planet to pay attention to these things because our industry is so impactful to the climate,” he said. “And when you do these things you make a building of much higher quality.”

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In the short video below, Green Hammer Inc. Design Manager Erica Dunn and Director of Construction Mike Liggett talk about how they aim to achieve net-zero energy certification for Tillamook Row, the firm’s 16-unit multifamily residential project in the Eliot neighborhood of Northeast Portland.

Also, view our photo gallery of the project, as well as the full story right here.

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Tillamook Row, a 16-unit community with shared amenities in Portland is now leasing. Developed by BCMC Properties, and designed and built by Green Hammer, Tillamook Row is the first Zero Energy multifamily project in Portland to serve renters. It includes five buildings and has a mix of owner and renter units oriented around a central courtyard. All five buildings were designed using and modeling to meet Zero Energy goals. Here’s a photo gallery from the project site. And check out the 91��Ƶ print edition for the full story on Aug. 13.

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Hammer & Hand will host an Aug. 6 event to present awards in the Portland contractor’s annual design competition.

The event, which will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. at the American Institute of Architect’s Center for Architecture at 403 N.W. 11^th Ave., is open to the public. The event also will feature the unveiling of an exhibit exploring how high-performance buildings can tackle climate change, said Zach Semke, director of business development for Hammer & Hand.

This is the second year for Hammer & Hand’s , which is open to architecture students and interns. The awards aim to encourage and recognize building practices that achieve net zero energy consumption, Semke said

This year’s competition attracted 50 entries, twice as many as last year. The entrants represent 24 universities from across the country, as well as from Toronto, Canada.

“It was fun to see it take off,” Semke said of the contest’s second year. “There is a lot of growing interest in high-performance building and the idea that buildings can generate more energy than they consume.”

Specifically, entrants were asked to design a net-zero energy, mixed-use, four-story multifamily building on a parcel bounded by Northeast Couch and East Burnside streets and 14^th Avenue.

Top winners will share a $6,000 prize and will have their designs put on public display in Portland and Seattle.

During the Aug. 6 event, Hammer & Hand also plans to unveil, “Evolution of Enclosure: The Anatomy of Building Performance,” a exhibit featuring the materials, techniques and designs used by four architecture firms to create net-zero energy, mixed-used, multifamily buildings, Semke said.

The exhibit will consist of four full-scale wall assembly cross sections, a suite of building science illustrations, project photography and an interactive set of high performance building animations.

The exhibit draws on built projects in Portland and Seattle that were designed by Holst Architecture, Scott|Edwards Architecture, SHED Architecture & Design and the Miller Hull Partnership.

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In Portland, green buildings can be attractive – especially if the price is right.

Apartment tenants are in the process of moving into , a mixed-use building at 3935 N. Williams Ave. The $3.2 million project could become the nation’s first net-zero apartment building, according to the project leader. That will depend on how energy is used in the building’s two retail spaces and 18 apartments, which are all leased, and much sooner than projected.

“Almost without exception, the people who contacted us about living in ecoFLATS wanted to live there because it was green, and they cared about that,” said Susan Stratton, president of NBS Multifamily Management.

The secret, according to one of the project developers, Jean-Pierre Veillet, is to offer sustainable living at an affordable price. No bells and whistles are necessary, he said.

“A lot of developers still make a fatal error in their design, in terms of what people want for finishes,” Veillet said. “Here, they aren’t stainless steel appliances; they’re Energy Star appliances. Instead of ceramic sinks, we have IKEA sinks.”

Also, the units’ light fixtures and curtains were designed by students at the Pacific Northwest College of Art.

To keep lease rates down for the building, which has a $200,000 solar array on its roof, Veillet said his team performed a lot of vetting on each decision in regard to affordability and energy efficiency.

Tenants pay approximately $1,000 for a 594-square-foot, one-bedroom apartment or $1,550 for a 770-square-foot, two-bedroom apartment, Stratton said.

Floor plans in ecoFLATS apartments are open to provide better circulation for energy efficiency. Entrances to the units are on the outside of the building: The absence of interior corridors means less area to light, cool and heat, Veillet said. Even with these energy-efficiency measures, net-zero status will depend on the tenants.

Each apartment’s energy usage will be monitored on a screen in the building’s lobby. Veillet also plans to encourage energy conservation by offering incentives – such as a coffee shop discount – to residents.

“It’s a challenge, but it’s a good challenge,” said Sean McGuirk, an ecoFLATS resident. He worked with Veillet on a green building project for Nau, where McGuirk works in marketing. When Veillet started working on ecoFLATS, he offered McGuirk a chance to get involved and become an on-site manager.

“Sean is helping to create community,” Veillet said. McGuirk will help foster what Veillet calls the “social aspect” of net-zero energy.

McGuirk predicts that the sustainability-minded residents of ecoFLATS will “all about” achieving net-zero energy usage. However, there are no provisions written into tenants’ leases about energy consumption, Stratton said.

Veillet said he may consider taking on another green apartment project, but not until ecoFLATS wraps up. Apartments are completed, but some parts of the project are still in progress. The ground-floor retail units, which will be occupied by a tattoo shop and Hopworks Urban Brewery, are still being finished. A community garden space will be created, and the energy monitoring system still needs to be set up.

“We didn’t expect to need it until absorption was complete, and we didn’t expect that to happen within 30 days. The bank told us it would take a year,” Veillet said.

The ecoFLATS project was developed by 3935 N. Williams LLC, under the direction of co-managers Veillet and Doug Shapiro. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold certification is being pursued for the building. The quick success of the project is drawing attention: Veillet said he is giving tours of the facility once or twice a week to developers, researchers or government officials. His hope is that the project could be duplicated on a larger scale.

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No one will need to adjust the thermostat at Portland Community College‘s Newberg Center on chilly days. The building itself will be able to take care of that.

The center is poised to open this fall as PCC’s first net-zero-ready building. The joint venture of R&H Construction/Colas Construction is tackling the $4.5 million project designed to generate 100 percent fewer carbon dioxide emissions than the average U.S. building of the same type and size. But that is dependent on whether money will be available to cover the cost of additional solar panels, according to Gary Sutton, PCC project manager.

The Newberg project, a 13,500-square-foot educational facility, is being paid for with money from a $374 million bond passed in 2008 for construction projects at seven PCC locations. To achieve the net-zero goal, Hennebery Eddy Architects‘ design calls for a highly insulated building envelope, passive heating/cooling systems and rooftop solar panels.

Presently, however, only 25 kilowatts of solar are budgeted for the building. Installation of the remaining 75 kilowatts may hinge on cash incentives available from the Energy Trust of Oregon, Sutton said. The estimated cost for the additional panels is approximately $400,000.

“The funding for the remaining solar panels would come out of our bond, which is limited,” Sutton said. “Right now, we are weighing the estimated cost against what the Energy Trust can offer us in terms of incentives. We are waiting on the Energy Trust to make an offer, but I am hopeful we can make a decision in the next few months, before (the building) is completed.”

The building’s key efficiency components are its passive heating and cooling systems, according to Doug Reimer, an associate with Hennebery Eddy. Structural insulated panels – precast walls made from rigid, foam-plastic insulation sandwiched between two layers of oriented strand board – make it difficult for air, and energy to escape through the building’s envelope.

Meanwhile, automated louvers open to let in air to cool the building, or close to keep heat from escaping, depending on classroom temperatures. Skylights distribute and diffuse natural light into classrooms and offices during the day; energy-efficient lights provide light for evening classes. A radiant heating slab makes up the building’s floor and uses warm water piped beneath classroom floors to keep students toasty in wintertime. Cool water could potentially be used in the summer, Reimer said.

“It’s not your typical building,” he said. “The mechanical systems are different and there are more skylights and louvers to control light and natural ventilation. People who maintain the building will need to learn some new things.”

For the contractors, the project requires efficient building techniques. The premade structural insulated panels must be installed just right, according to Mark Simpson, project manager with R&H, because modifying them later would be a daunting task. It’s a similar situation for the concrete slab floor.

“We’ve actually been waiting on a clear day so we can pour the whole slab,” Simpson said. “With a project like this, your ability to make changes is a lot more challenging. Pouring when it’s too cold outside increases the risk of breaking the slab.”

Another R&H Construction/Colas Construction joint venture, the June Key Delta House living building in Portland, has provided workers with net-zero experience, according to Andrew Colas, president of Colas Construction. Living buildings use systems similar to those being installed in the Newberg Center project.

“The June Key Delta project has really prepared my guys for working on this project,” Colas said. “More and more, we’re seeing this type of project being built. In 20 years, it will be a standard for building.”

The project is expected to wrap up before classes begin this fall, Sutton said. The college’s faculty and staff will receive training related to the unique systems, but the building will essentially operate independently.

“On winter mornings, the radiant heat kicks in to get the building up to temperature,” Sutton said. “At night in the summer, it opens up vents to pump in cool air (and) then closes in the morning to trap it. It’s exciting to be working in a living building that’s reacting and working in symbiosis with its environment.”

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A building hasn’t met the 2030 Challenge until there is proof of performance. But that proof isn’t easy to obtain.

If buildings are to eventually meet the final goal of the international initiative and become net-zero, then the industry must have better methods of tracking energy performance post-construction, architects and engineers say.

The goal of the 2030 Challenge, issued by Edward Mazria in 2002, is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions via construction of buildings with greater energy efficiency. This year, the challenge called for all new building projects to be designed 60 percent more energy efficient than current building energy codes. But according to Isaac Adams, job captain with THA Architecture, many firms still don’t know if their buildings have met previous goals because of a lack of post-occupancy data.

THA has attempted to track the energy use of its projects after construction by collecting utility billing information from project owners. But so far, only a few owners have obliged THA’s requests, Adams said.

“We’ve had clients that never get back to us,” Adams said. “We work on a lot of university projects, and colleges generally get one giant utility bill for the whole campus, not one building. There are nerves over sharing data from an underperforming building. But this data needs to be out there, because a lot of people have a lot to learn from it.”

Obtaining the data is crucial as firms strive to achieve future 2030 Challenge bench marks, said Brad Wilson, an associate with PAE Consulting Engineers. Architects and engineers can design efficiency into buildings through HVAC systems, grid-tied solar systems and other methods. But occupant behavior will determine whether net-zero energy use is a pipe dream or a reality, he said.

Wilson has been working with architecture firms to find better ways of tracking energy use for multifamily housing, the most difficult building type to track. Residential and student housing projects’ plug loads tend to vary significantly from building to building. A plug load represents the energy consumed by electronic appliances plugged into a building. A residence hall may be significantly energy efficient on paper but perform much differently once students move in with computers and stereos.

“You can only get energy use down so far,” Wilson said. “We have a good handle on how we reduce energy loads for lighting, heating and cooling. But plug loads are personal. There’s no design directive there.”

PAE Consulting Engineers is performing studies at Oregon and Washington residence halls to learn how energy is being used by students, Wilson said. Architects can then better predict energy modeling.

Wilson, an engineer, is accustomed to analyzing data in this manner, but many architects are not. That’s why the 2030 Challenge provides a spreadsheet so that architects can plug in utility and energy modeling information to determine energy use in their designs. But that spreadsheet is geared toward commercial projects. And when Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects began inputting data from its mostly residential projects, senior architect Caroline Forsythe found that the spreadsheet didn’t work. As a result, Ankrom Moisan has little post-occupancy data and little knowledge of where its projects stand in regard to the 2030 Challenge.

That’s changing, however. Ankrom Moisan, THA Architecture and other Portland architecture firms are working with the University of Oregon and nonprofit Better Bricks to develop a better spreadsheet. Information from utility bills and energy modeling will be able to be used for projects of any type, including multifamily, said Alison Kwok, a UO architecture professor working on the project. Student interns for months have been crunching numbers from 20 sample projects to make sure the tool works as it was designed. The tool and sample data are scheduled to be unveiled in December.

“We’re trying to help firms to do these energy analyses themselves at some point,” Kwok said. “With this tool, firms can look at all of their past projects and see how to improve their design. It’s a tool to look at the past, but plan for the future.”

However, the real key to improving accessibility to data is to build relationships with project owners early on so that they can become comfortable sharing building performance information in the future, said Kurt Haapala, associate principal with Mahlum Architecture. Integrated design, which features architects, engineers, contractors and project owners designing and building a project together from the start, provides such an avenue, Haapala said.

“We need to get into the routine of being conversant in this world of energy use from the start,” Haapala said. “It always comes down to the users. If occupants understand the building, they can contribute to its efficiency. Being informed on this information will make our work better, but we have a long way to go.”

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In 1994, Jean-Pierre Veillet, owner of Site Works Design Build, reinvented the wheel when it came to how his company showed up at a job site. Instead of driving to work on four wheels, Veillet rolled up on his bicycle, pulling a trailer of tools and materials.

Now Veillet hopes to reinvent the way developers design mixed-use projects with his new 20,000-square-foot, mixed-use apartment building on North Williams Avenue. The project is aiming to reach a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-gold certification, but the main goal of the project, Veillet said, is to turn the building into a net-zero energy apartment building. He’s putting the success of his project in the hands of his future tenants.

The building, called Eco Flats, is designed for people who are more concerned with being energy-conscious than living in a building with amenities such as a swimming pool, Veillet said. But their level of being energy-conscious will essentially determine whether this project succeeds or fails in its bid to achieve a net-zero energy rating.

The building will contain a common hydronic heating system and a 3,000-square-foot solar array of photovoltaic and thermal collectors. The system, attached to the fourth floor of the building, will attempt to produce enough hot water and energy for the entire building. This means that each of the 18 apartments in Eco Flats will have to work together to achieve goals set each month so that the building can operate on its own without having to pull power from the energy grid.

Becky Walker, program manager for the program, said the Eco Flats building is one of 15 projects accepted into the pilot program, which aims to have projects achieve energy savings of up to 50 percent beyond Oregon’s building code. But it’s the only one that’s attempting to achieve a net-zero energy rating while offering a residential component, an approach Walker said is the first of its kind in the nation.

“You just don’t know how much energy the tenants are going to use until they are there,” Walker said. “But they are looking into designing some pretty creative ways to provide feedback to the tenants.”

The feedback, according to Veillet, will come in the form of monitors in both of the building’s entrances. The monitors will act as a virtual “big brother” for the tenants, showing everyone how much energy and water each apartment is using. Forget to shut off the bedroom light before leaving for the day? Someone is watching – or at the least, tracking the action.

The fact that someone, or possibly even everyone, in the building is watching will likely influence tenant behavior, according to Joe Rhinewine, a clinical psychologist and director at Portland Mindfulness. Eco Flats tenants might watch their energy use if they’re given data privately on their individual use. But if a tenant knows her information is being shared with her neighbors, that will probably have an even stronger effect, Rhinewine said.

He likens the behavior to what happens to a driver traveling down a road where a digital reader board is tracking the speed of vehicles in the area. A driver may not think twice about how fast his vehicle is moving until the actual speed flashes up in big digital numbers. If the sign is being monitored by police, the driver becomes even more cautious, Rhinewine said.

Veillet isn’t going to rely solely on human nature to keep his building at net-zero energy, however.

The building doesn’t have any associated parking for vehicles, a deliberate omission that Veillet thinks will result in attracting mainly bicycle-centric tenants who might take a certain amount of pride in leaving a small footprint on the planet.

In addition, on months when tenants take steps that lead to the building hitting net-zero status, Veillet plans on giving tenants rewards, such as drink and food coupons redeemable at neighborhood restaurants.

Of the 18 apartments in the building, 12 are 600-square-foot, one-bedroom units while the rest are 750-square-foot, two-bedroom apartments. Veillet said the building will be ready for tenants to move in March 1, and although rents aren’t firm yet, he expects they will be about $900 per month to $1,400 per month.

The building will also feature two retail spaces on the street-level – an unnamed restaurant is considering one of the spaces, Veillet said – as well as secure bicycle parking, a bicycle maintenance room and communal showers. Community garden space and a courtyard are featured on site and connect with a space that Veillet said could feature an additional building with 12 apartments and two more retail spaces in the future.

“This is a prototype,” Veillet said. “If we do it well, we’ll do this many, many more times. Right now we’re just trying to understand what this population likes and wants in a building.”

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