Join us for our monthly meeting!

Please arrive at 6:00pm for registration and networking. Dinner will be served at 6:15pm followed by chapter announcements and introductions. The technical presentation will begin at 6:30pm. We look forward to seeing you!

Topic

Defining and Assessing Resilience

Overview

The increasing threat to communities from storms, floods, wildfire, and extreme temperatures has heightened the focus on the resilience of the built environment. Merriam-Webster defines resilience as “an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change”. While resilience is a simple concept, incorporating resilience into buildings and communities can be extremely complicated. To evaluate building and community resilience it can be useful to examine it through a series of lenses, including personal or emotional experience, financial impact and community impact. This presentation uses multiple lenses to discuss aspects of resilience (mitigation, disruptive events, response and recovery) in order to understand the ecosystem of standards, specifications, and codes used to define and assess resilience. Many of the evaluation criteria in these standards have grown out of past work on energy efficiency, durability and sustainability. These criteria range in scope from the individual building to the community level. This presentation will review the industry activities currently underway to assess and improve the resilience of the built environment.

Presenter

DR. THERESA WESTON

Dr. Theresa Weston is a building science research professional specializing in the durability and energy efficiency of buildings.  Theresa started The Holt Weston Consultancy in November 2020 to foster innovation of building materials, and products to improve the resilience and sustainability of buildings.  Prior to starting the Holt Weston Consultancy, Dr Weston was a DuPont Laureate with the Dupont Safety and Construction business, having worked for DuPont for 35 years.   DuPont Laureate is the highest technical professional level in the DuPont company. 

Theresa received her Batchelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Masters and PhD degrees in Chemical Engineering, both from the California Institute of Technology.

Theresa has demonstrated a track record of anticipating the need for new technology through the strategic analysis of technology trends and driving the deployment of innovation in the marketplace. She is an inventor on four patents, two of which introduced new product categories into the construction market:  1) Development of industry’s first “drainage wrap”, creating a new water-resistive barrier category [US6355333B1 “Construction Membrane” (2002)], and (2) Introduced the category of “formable window flashing” [US7351296B2“Stretchable Flashing Materials and Processes for Making” (2008)].

Dr. Weston has been a member of ASHRAE for over 25 years, having served on the Technical Activities Committee, the Standards Committee and as the Chair of the Residential Buildings Committee, as well as serving on a number of Technical and Standards Project Committees.   As chair of ASHRAE 90.2 ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.2-2018, Energy-Efficient Design of Low-Rise Residential Buildings, Theresa led the committee to transform the standard to a leadership standard.  She was also a member of the project committee which produced the initial publication of ASHRAE Standard 160 Criteria for Moisture-Control Design Analysis in Buildings.  Theresa is currently a member of SSPC 189.1 and a member of the SSPC 90.1 Envelope Sub-committee.  Dr. Weston has received the ASHRAE Distinguished Service, the ASHRAE Exceptional Service and the ASHRAE Residential Service Awards.

Theresa is active with industry standard and code development activities outside of ASHRAE, including with ICC and ASTM.  She chairs ASTM E06.41 the Performance of Buildings Subcommittee on Air Leakage and Ventilation.  She is the Chair of the ICC Energy Code Interpretation Committee and a previous member of the ICC Residential Code Interpretation Committee.  Dr. Weston also served on the ICC Ad Hoc Committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Dr. Weston is a prolific author and industry speaker. She is the Vice-Chair of the ASHRAE sponsored Buildings Conference Series. She serves on the ASTM Committee on Publications.

Meeting Notes