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On October 13, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the 10 selected teams for its $61 million “Connected Communities” initiative awards, and the team led by Pittsburgh-based housing innovation company, IBACOS is among them.
The 10 awarded pilot projects – managed by teams that represent a cross-section of the buildings industry including utilities, local governments, homebuilders, home performance contractors, and end-users – will deploy new technology to transform thousands of homes and workplaces into state-of-the-art, grid-connected, energy-efficient buildings. This project will help achieve the Biden Administration's goal of reaching a net-zero carbon economy by providing a model for reducing the building sector’s contribution to the climate crisis.
“We believe this is an incredible moment for a new level of collaboration and collective innovation to help accelerate the advancement of home and community energy efficiency and grid connectivity, driven by the development and utilization of leading-edge technologies and new business paradigms,” says Mark Tilley, CEO of IBACOS. “Our team is delighted and proud to be a partner with DOE and the Connected Communities initiative in this critically important work.”
The ‘Advanced Clean Communities Collaborative’ (AC3) team, led collaboratively by IBACOS and Walnut Creek, California-based Tierra Resource Consultants, includes a diverse group of highly experienced and accomplished companies and organizations that are leaders in the utility, housing construction and retrofit, and renewable energy industries. The AC3 team includes:
- IBACOS www.ibacos.com
- Tierra Resource Consultants www.tierrarc.com
- Duke Energy www.duke-energy.com
- Meritage Homes www.meritagehomes.com
- Elevation www.poweredbyelevation.com
- Energy and Environmental Economics (E3) www.ethree.com
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) www.nrel.gov
- EnergyHub https://www.energyhub.com
The team will deploy a comprehensive mix of Distributed Energy Resource (DER) technologies to optimize the energy use of 1,000 new and existing homes. The project will include single-family and multi-family homes and both owner-occupied and rental properties in Duke Energy’s North Carolina service area.
A key objective of the project is to demonstrate the value proposition for all stakeholders (builders, energy service providers, utility, and utility customers) to participate in a “connected communities” DER program. The project will gather data on aggregated grid impacts and value across a range of buildings, end uses, and technologies to help identify best approaches to delivering flexible distributed capacity at scale; support grid reliability and resiliency; and deliver meaningful customer, climate and community benefits.
For more information on the Connected Communities projects, visit, https://www.energy.gov/articles/doe-invests-61-million-smart-buildings-accelerate-renewable-energy-adoption-and-grid.
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About IBACOS
For 30 years, IBACOS has played a leading role in driving innovation in the housing industry. We are passionate about the delivery of better homes that successfully balance the needs of the consumer, the industry, and the environment. We partner with leaders in the housing industry and the U.S. Department of Energy to improve the quality, performance, and sustainability of the American home. Our collaborative team has extensive experience in business strategy and management, industry intelligence, building science and sustainability, technology development and the process of innovation.
About Tierra Resource Consultants
Tierra provides expertise across the breadth of emerging issues in today's energy markets including distributed energy resource program optimization, integrating grid responsive technologies with utility resource planning and operations, strategic electrification program development and innovations in decarbonization. Our clients include utilities, regulatory bodies, public agencies, and private sector clients in the U.S and Canada.
About Duke Energy
Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is one of America’s largest energy holding companies. Its electric utilities serve 7.9 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, and collectively own 51,000 megawatts of energy capacity. Its natural gas unit serves 1.6 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky. The company employs 27,500 people. Duke Energy is executing an aggressive clean energy strategy to create a smarter energy future for its customers and communities – with goals of at least a 50% carbon reduction by 2030 and net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
About Meritage Homes
Meritage Homes is the sixth-largest public homebuilder in the United States, based on homes closed in 2020. Meritage Homes has delivered over 145,000 homes in its 36-year history and is the industry leader in energy-efficient homebuilding and an eight-time recipient of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year for Sustained Excellence Award since 2013 for innovation and industry leadership in energy efficient homebuilding. For more information, visit www.meritagehomes.com.
About Elevation
Elevation is a fully integrated residential energy solutions company providing solar, energy efficiency, and smart energy management technology. As a 2019, 2020, and 2021 Contractor of the Year recipient by the U.S. Department of Energy, Elevation is a leader in clean-energy technologies and their deployment to homeowners, institutional operators of single-family rental properties, and utility providers. poweredbyelevation.com
About Energy and Environmental Economics, Inc. (E3)
Energy and Environmental Economics, Inc. (E3) is a leading economic consultancy focused on the transition to clean energy resources. They are the developers of several industry-leading analytical tools in electricity resource planning, greenhouse gas scenario analysis, energy markets analysis, and demand-side resource valuation. E3’s analysis is increasingly utilized by the utilities, regulators, and developers, and advocates that are writing the script for the emerging clean energy transition. For more information, visit www.ethree.com.
About The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is the U.S. Department of Energy’s primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research. NREL's buildings research is transforming energy through building science and integration. Our research significantly enhances the resiliency, efficiency, and affordability of energy systems across the United States and the world. Our researchers are expanding the frontier of scientific knowledge that enables optimized energy use, generation, and storage in the built environment at multiple scales. Our goal is to permeate energy justice throughout the innovation research, development, demonstration, and deployment pipeline.
Rheia, a new company developed by IBACOS that grew out of research funded in part by DOE’s Building America Program, is partnering with some of the country’s top home builders to demonstrate a patent-pending “plug-and-play” air duct system designed to be installed within conditioned space in today’s energy-efficient new homes.
Learn more in this recent article published by ProBuilder.
IBACOS had the opportunity to sit down with Katie Beck, Head of Homebuilders for Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance, to have a candid conversation and explore the topic of underwriting homebuilders in a changing industry. The interview focused on how a builder should best present themselves to insurers and discussed the reality that brokers should be digging into a builder’s story far beyond the numbers to truly understand the homebuilder’s world. Watch or read the full interview.
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IBACOS Team Selected as a Partner in DOE’s $61 Million Connected Communities Initiative
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the 10 selected teams for its $61 million “Connected Communities” initiative awards, and the team led by Pittsburgh-based housing innovation company, IBACOS is among them.
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IBACOS Plays Key Role in Development of Plug-and-Play Residential Duct System
IBACOS, in conjunction with strategic Building America research, helped create an innovative, market-ready HVAC solution for heating and cooling ducts inside conditioned spaces.
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IBACOS Interviews Berkshire Hathaway on Homebuilder Liability Insurance
IBACOS sat down with Katie Beck, Head of Homebuilders for Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance, to have a candid conversation and explore the topic of underwriting homebuilders in a changing industry.
read story
OUR EVENTS
PERFORM Managing Director, Glenn Cottrell, delierved delivered a presentation at PCBC 2018 in San Francisco. The session, "A Paradigm Shift: Looking at Quality as an Investment Rather than a Cost of Doing Business," helped builders examine how much they are holding in reserve to pay for warranty claims, defects, and litigation, and explored a model that “flips the script”—identifying the opportunities that come from investing those dollars in better building and management practices to achieve reliable profitability and boost buyer satisfaction.
Click here for more information on the Cost of Quality and where opportunities for savings lie in business areas such as value engineering, construction oversight, cycle time, cost variance, customer delight, warranty, employee engagement, trade/supplier loyalty, training value/valuation, documentation and execution.
Partner Michael Dickens presented the IBACOS' Vision for the Future of Homebuilding at this year's Policy Advisory Board Meeting for the Joint Center for Housing Studies.
The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies advances understanding of housing issues and informs policy. Its Advisory Board is comprised of approximately 60 CEOs of large companies in the housing industry. Through its research, education, and public outreach programs, the center helps leaders in government, business, and the civic sectors make decisions that effectively address the needs of cities and communities.
IBACOS presented a vision for the future of the industry that encompassed an integrated design process, offsite construction solutions, and new, collaborative relationships.
New at IBS this year, the NAHB Production Builders Executive Club at the International Builder Show, where IBACOS had the opportunity to speak, is an invite-only space for the director level and above, among the top 250 builders. Invitees had access to daily networking breakfasts, lunches, receptions, and special presentations and discussions led by industry experts.
On Tuesday, January 10 at 10:00 am, Glenn Cottrell, Managing Director of Builder Solutions spoke on the topic of the “Cost of Quality.” In this session, he examined the opportunities that come from investing dollars typically set aside for risk and litigation into better building and management practices.
Other speakers in this space included:
- Ryan Serhant, Million Dollar Listing New York / The Serhant Team
- Barbara Corcoran, Shark Tank/ The Corcoran Group
- Dave and Jonah Stillman, Gen Z Guru
- Glenn Cottrell, Director – Builder Solutions, IBACOS
- Jim Tobin, NAHB Chief Lobbyist
- Rob Dietz, NAHB Chief Economist
- Nick Lenhart, Executive Director of Design Strategy, KTGY
- Global Design Team, Whirlpool
- David Rice, Founder, New Home Star
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IBACOS Speaks at PCBC
IBACOS recently delivered a presentation, "A Paradigm Shift: Looking at Quality as an Investment Rather than a Cost of Doing Business" at PCBC in San Francisco.
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IBACOS Speaks at the Policy Advisory Board Meeting for the Joint Center for Housing Studies
IBACOS had the opportunity to speak at this year's Policy Advisory Board Meeting for the Joint Center for Housing Studies.
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IBACOS Speaks at the International Builder Show (IBS)
IBACOS had the opportunity to speak at the NAHB Production Builders Executive Club at the 2017 International Builder Show.
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Employment Opportunities
Be Better, Think Better, Do Better.
It’s our simple belief. We show up every day with the intent to make a difference and walk our talk. We're committed, passionate people who love what we do and think creatively to move the ball forward... and we're in it together.
Student Associate Program
As active, contributing members of our team, our student associates have the opportunity to gain real-world experience that can significantly impact their careers. Interested? Submit your resume to careers@ibacos.com.
IBACOS is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
IBACOS’ PERFORM team of experienced, construction-quality professionals partner with leading production homebuilders nationwide to improve the quality and performance of the homes they build.
For more information about PERFORM, visit the PERFORM website.
Sound like a good fit for you? Join us. Click below for the full job description.
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For the media
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IBACOS works with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), to find new strategies for deep energy retrofits.
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Builder hopes to bring Passive House standard to production homes
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IBACOS co-founder joins board as Chair of Building Systems Research
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