Save the Date: Thursday, October 2, 2025, New Location: Cintas Center
Morning Keynote
Katie Patrick, Environmental Engineer & Design, Author of How to Save the World
Katie's Presentation:
Can Gamification and The Environmental Imagination Save the Planet?
Presentation Overview:
Games are a big deal. But can they save the planet? Since the recent tech startup boom, entrepreneurs have been investing in the art of getting their users to do stuff – triggering a renaissance in the field of behavioral psychology. Designers then took another step, looking to understand why games are so effective at getting their players hooked – and called this new approach gamification.
What happens when you put behavioral design, gamification, and technology entrepreneurship together with big environmental causes like climate change, air pollution, and deforestation? Can we change people's environmental behavior using gamification techniques? Can we make saving the world as fun as a game? Katie calls this emerging movement "Fitbit for the Planet” design.
Katie's Bio: Katie designs apps, dashboards, and campaigns that sharply tap into people's motivational core, applying techniques used in game design and behavioral science to create environmental action. She is the co-founder of Energy Lollipop and Urban Canopy in San Francisco — startups that are devoted to bringing down the peak CO2 released by the electricity grid. We just launched a Chrome extension that shows the California grid emissions in real-time.
Lunch Keynote
Nicole Hagerman Miller, Managing Director, Biomimicry 3.8
Nicole's Presentation:
Can buildings function like a forest? Looking to Nature as a model and measure for positive impact and regenerative design.
Presentation Overview:
Nicole will share how leading companies and their built environment teams are looking to nature to create, design, and retrofit facilities to have a positive impact on ecosystems, employees, and the communities in which they operate. The presentation will share the process and tools companies are using to inform key decision-making, including site selection, design guidelines, and reporting metrics that support their journey to delivering positive impact and regenerative outcomes.
Nicole's Bio: Nicole Miller serves as the Managing Director of Biomimicry 3.8, a social enterprise dedicated to helping change-makers create a more sustainable world by emulating nature’s designs and core principles. In her role, she drives internal strategy, projects, and initiatives that support the legacy of Biomimicry 3.8, with her primary goal to create a 100-year company. Nicole holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Montana. She is a Fellow of Columbia University’s American Assembly Next Generation Project—a review of U.S. Global Policy and the Future of International Institutions.
Closing Keynote
Lois Arena P.E., Director, Passive House Services, Steven Winter Associates, Inc.
Lois' Presentation:
Passive House: A Proven Path Toward Carbon Reduction, Resilience and Energy Efficiency
Presentation Overview:
The Passive House (PH) building standard is the most stringent energy efficiency standard in the world. It is quickly being identified as one path to achieving the carbon reduction goals set forth by a multitude of states and municipalities around the country and the world. Projects range from single family dwellings to large scale multi-family mixed use buildings to commercial spaces and industrial buildings. The concepts are a consistent roadmap to achieving high performance, net zero ready and net zero carbon buildings.
The benefits of the PH building standard for building owners and occupants far exceed energy savings. Comfort, resilience, affordability and durability are just a few. This session will explore how and why this standard has made such inroads into the market, how it is helping achieve climate action goals in the US and the financial case for widespread implementation. Case studies of completed projects will be reviewed and compared to cost data and financial and energy savings.
Lois' Bio: Lois Arena, Director of Passive House Services at Steven Winter Associates, Inc., possesses over 25 years of experience in the building science field and has extensive experience with new and existing buildings. Lois holds both U.S. and International Passive House consultant certifications. She has co-authored and presented training programs about energy efficient building practices to professionals in all sectors of the building industry and is regularly invited to present at conferences and private firms around the world to discuss the benefits of Passive House adoption.