Session 1 (Keynote)
December 11, 2024: 9:00 a.m.
Click here to view presentation PDF.
The Keynote:
Challenges and Opportunities for Indoor Air Quality
in a World of Energy Efficiency and Climate Change
Jeffrey Siegel, Ph.D., Professor
Bahen/Tenenbaum Chair in Civil Engineering Department of Civil and Mineral Engineering
University of Toronto, Toronto, ON
About the presentation:
Indoor air quality (IAQ) has long been recognized as being important and public attention on IAQ issues further increased during the pandemic. However, unlike building energy use, indoor air quality has not dramatically improved in past decades. This presentation explores challenges and focuses on opportunities to improve indoor air quality in new and existing buildings while still recognizing the climate challenges that we face. Specific examples from homes, schools, and commercial buildings provide technical, knowledge mobilization, and regulatory approaches and explore their benefits and consequences. The goal of this presentation is to move us towards a place where good IAQ is appropriately valued and achieved across the building stock.
What you will learn:
-
Long-established core strategies to achieve IAQ
-
IAQ Myths
-
Evidence-based case for IAQ and its benefits for schools, office buildings and homes
-
Why IAQ hasn't improved in decades
-
The opportunities to improve IAQ in both new and existing buildings, especially in a world of energy efficiency and climate change
About Jeffrey Siegel, Ph.D.:
Jeffrey Siegel is a Professor of Civil and Mineral Engineering and a member of the Hub for Advancing Buildings at the University of Toronto and a Bahen/Tanenbaum Chair in Civil Engineering. He holds joint appointments at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Department of Physical & Environmental Sciences. He has an M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley as well as a B.Sc. from Swarthmore College. He is internationally recognized for his work on indoor air quality generally and air cleaning specifically and is a fellow of ASHRAE and a member of the Academy of Fellows of the International Society for Indoor Air and Climate (ISIAQ). His research interests include healthy and sustainable buildings, filtration and air cleaning, ventilation and indoor air quality in residential and commercial buildings, control of indoor particulate matter, cognitive impacts of indoor air quality, and the impact of building systems on indoor microbiology and chemistry. Prior to his position at the University of Toronto, Dr. Siegel was an Associate Professor at The University of Texas at Austin.