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Energy Summit 2026 - Schedule

Updated May 22, 2026

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• Housing Check-in

  Noon – 3:00 p.m.
  Laurel Creek Residence Hall
• Vendor Setup

  Noon – 3:00 p.m.
  Grandview Ballroom, North End Zone Facility at Kidd Brewer Stadium
• Student Poster Setup

  Noon – 3:00 p.m.
  Solarium, Plemmons Student Union
• Registration

  2 p.m. – 4 p.m.
  Grandview Ballroom, North End Zone Facility at Kidd Brewer Stadium
• Opening Reception

  4 p.m. – 6 p.m.
  Grandview Ballroom, North End Zone Facility at Kidd Brewer Stadium
• Keynote Address

  • Michael S. Regan
  • Followed by Panel Discussion w/ special guest John Szoka

  6:30 p.m. – 8 p.m.
  Schaefer Center

• Breakfast

  7:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.
  Central Dining Hall, River St. Cafe
• Opening Plenary

  • 930am-940am- Welcome Remarks
    Mike Kapp, Director of Sustainability & Energy Mgmt- App State
  • 940am-1000am- State Energy Updates
    Representative from the State Energy Office
  • 1000am-1020am- State Recycling/Composting Updates
    Sandy Skolochenko, NC DEACS
  • 1020am-1115am- Circularity and Resiliency
    Aly Kalifa, Positive Company

  9:30 a.m. – 11 a.m.
  Parkway Ballroom
• Lunch

  11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.
  Cascades, Plemmons Student Union
• Poster Judging Session (students and judges only)

  11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.
  Solarium, Plemmons Student Union
• Working Groups

  • Academic Integration
    Location: Linville Falls, 226
  • Campus Energy Planning, Policy and Performance
    Location: Roan Mountain, 122
  • High-Performance Campus Design
    Location: Beacon Heights, 417
  • Journey to Student Leadership
    Location: Grandfather Ballroom, 137ABC
  • Path Toward Zero Waste
    Location: Grandfather Ballroom, 137ABC
  • Transportation-Oriented Opportunities
    Location: Three Top Mountain, 169

  1 – 3:30 p.m.
  Plemmons Student Union
• Networking Break and Poster Viewing

  3:30 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.
  Cascades and Solarium, Plemmons Student Union
• Breakout sessions

  • Dispersed Densification in Suburban to Compact Neighborhoods
    Location: Roan Mtn, 122
    High-performance Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) create density while maintaining the intended neighborhood aesthetic and flow. Giving property owners the tools and funding allows for a granular approach, enabling precise problem-solving and ensuring the community is happy and thriving. If this planned concept and process is encouraged we can help create community resilience.
  • Phius Certified Veterinary Hospital
    Location: Linville Falls, 226
    What does it take to design and build the first Passive House (Phius+ 2018)-certified animal hospital in North America? Care First is a 45,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art animal hospital located in Raleigh, NC. Designing and building this facility to Phius standards came with a host of challenges. We’ll talk through lessons learned and explore how high-ventilation buildings such as clinics and hospitals can benefit from passive building standards and approaches.
  • Head, Hands AND Heart: Addressing Eco–/Climate Emotions in Sustainability Education
    Location: Three Top Mtn, 169
    Research shows that climate worry and eco–anxiety are pervasive and often disruptive among today’s youth. Sustainability and climate literacy education have traditionally ignored the emotional dimensions of learning about planetary crisis, with negative impacts on both student learning and mental health. This session explores the ways that App State’s climate literacy initiative is addressing the affective dimensions of facing climate change and other environmental problems head-on, and engage in an activity that you can take back to your own campus community.
  • Turning Campus Wi-Fi Into an Energy Signal: Occupancy Analytics for HVAC Reduction and Policy Change
    Location: Beacon Heights, 417
    Colleges and universities already operate a dense Wi-Fi infrastructure that can be repurposed as a powerful, low-friction source of continuous occupancy insight without the need to procure and install any new hardware. Andrew Rook from UNC – Chapel Hill and Sue Bork, campus technology advisor at Lambent, will discuss how Wi-Fi-based occupancy analytics can drive measurable energy savings while maintaining comfort and indoor air quality. You’ll learn how to leverage this data to support rebates under NC Bill 1292 and create a strong foundation for policy, setpoint, and operational change at scale.
  • Town of Boone Sustainability Walking Tour
    Location: Gather at Locust St. Circle entrance
    Join the Town of Boone's sustainability and special projects manager to take a walk downtown and engage in conversation about the projects the town’s sustainability committee has been working on.

  4:15 p.m. – 5:15 p.m.
  Plemmons Student Union
• Night on the Town - On Your Own

  5:15 p.m. until...
  Support Local Boone Establishments

• Housing check-out

  7:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.
  Laurel Creek Residence Hall
• Breakfast

  8:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.
  Parkway Ballroom, Plemmons Student Union
• Breakout Sessions

  • Alphabet Soup of a Well-Performing Building
    Location: Rough Ridge, 415
    Individual passive design strategies lend themselves to better efficiency, but when combined, they create the basis for high-performing design capable of meeting net zero operational energy targets long term while addressing IEQ, comfort, acoustics, and energy. This presentation will offer approaches that may be borrowed from Phius and other third-party rating systems like LEED and WELL, which can be applied to any building design to ensure the constructed results are what the owner and design team expected.
    In order to achieve expected performance outcomes, building designers must address the interdependence of the building form, enclosure layers, thermal breaks, and the HVAC system optimization. The various sustainability certification systems each provide their own framework for integrating and balancing these parameters. However, the most high-performing buildings align with the guidelines of Phius (Passive House US) and meet its requirements for certification.
  • Data Geeks Unite: Strategies for Sustainability Tracking and Storytelling
    Location: Parkway Ballroom, 420
    Do you track or gather data for your institution's STARS report, GHG inventory, zero waste reporting, or other sustainability-related metrics? Or do you use data curated by others to tell a story? If either of these is true (or if you are just a data geek, like us), please join us to share your tips, strategies, experiences, and questions.
    Topics for discussion will include:
    
    • Organizing the Chaos: Tips for managing requests for information (RFIs), tracking contact attempts, and organizing complex responses.
    • Modern Tools: Insights into using AI to help sift through, analyze, or identify anomalies in large datasets.
    • The Human Element: Effective ways to engage data partners and use student work—both in the classroom and on your team—to collect and process info.
    • Filling the Gaps: Strategies for identifying and exploring data gaps, particularly in challenging areas like waste and water.
    
    Please feel free to bring examples that illustrate how you've used data to tell your sustainability-related story. We look forward to learning from your wins and your "works-in-progress" alike.
  • Sustainable, Attainable Housing
    Location: Beacon Heights, 417
    What if energy is not just something we consume but something we design? In a world shaped by climate shocks, AI acceleration, and increasingly fragile infrastructure, the real question is not how we power our buildings, but how we sustain our lives. In this 15-minute talk turned fireside conversation, Chris Moeller introduces #StableLiving, a framework for building durable communities by aligning three forms of energy: human energy (how we live and work), community energy (how we support and rely on one another), and physical energy (how we generate, store, and distribute power). Drawing from his evolution in commercial real estate and the lessons revealed by Hurricane Helene, he explores how housing can function as energy infrastructure – reducing volatility, lowering total cost of living and creating resilience at the household level.
  • Campus Sustainability Walking Tour
    Location: Gather at Locust St. Circle entrance
    Join our Student Sustainability Ambassadors for a stroll across campus to highlight the many sustainability programs and projects at App State.

  9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
  Plemmons Student Union
• Break

  10:30 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.
  Plemmons Student Union
• Closing Plenary

  • 10:45-11:45- Mass Timber Panel Discussion
    Rob Howard, Evan Hutchinson, and Arezou Sadoughi, App State
    Jessica Scarlett, Woodworks, Inc
    Aaron Gould, VaproShield
    From concept to completion, WoodWorks is committed to supporting developers and design/construction teams in bringing wood buildings to life. As a nonprofit organization, WoodWorks provides free project support for commercial and multifamily wood buildings, along with a robust nationwide education program and a wide range of technical resources. Their expertise spans all wood building systems and technologies.
    Aligned with this mission, the Sustainable Technology and the Built Environment Wood Innovation Grant project focuses on advancing the application of innovative wood-based systems—particularly in modular and hybrid mass timber construction—toward real-world implementation. By leveraging industry collaboration, research, and design optimization, the project aims to demonstrate scalable, cost-effective solutions that enhance constructability, sustainability, and workforce development. The integration of WoodWorks’ technical guidance and educational resources supports both the design process and knowledge dissemination, helping bridge the gap between research and practice.
  • 1145-1215- Student Focused Climate Engagement
    Aleisha Whipple, App State Grad Student
  • 1215-1230- Poster Awards
    Jamie Russell and James Sharp, App State
  • 1230- Closing Remarks

  10:45 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
  Parkway Ballroom, Plemmons Student Union
• Networking Lunch

  12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
  Parkway Ballroom, Plemmons Student Union
• Local Tours - transportation on your own

  • Innovation District- STEM Building, District Energy System, and Affordable Housing Complex
  • Phius Passive House

  1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.