Brad Liljequist

2025 marks the 20th anniversary of the launch of zHome, the first ILFI certified Zero Energy community in the United States.  This groundbreaking project aimed to make zero carbon living mainstream by demonstrating an array of new, but available, technologies under one roof.  Over the last 20 years, the solutions zHome showcased have become much better, more accessible, and less…

Editor’s Note: Brad Liljequist directed the Zero Energy and Zero Carbon programs at ILFI from 2013-2018 and the Living Community Challenge from 2014-2015. Between 2008-2011, he developed the first ILFI certified Energy Petal and Zero Energy community in the United States, zHome. Today, Brad leads Zero Energy and Zero Carbon efforts for McKinstry, a national construction, consulting, and energy services…

The following is an excerpt from The Power of Zero: Learning from the World’s Leading Net Zero Energy Buildings by Brad Liljequist, our former Zero Energy Director at the International Living Future Institute. Get 30 percent off The Power of Zero from Ecotone Publishing using the code POZ30.  The International Living Future Institute defines Net Zero Energy (NZE) as “One hundred percent of…

One of my all-time favorite tools is the Kill-a-Watt meter.  Available in several models, this inexpensive, handy tool allows you to find out how much electricity a given plug-in item uses.  Simply plug it into the wall, then plug the item into the Kill-a-Watt.  Several different settings provide real-time wattage, voltage, and amperage readings, as well as watt-hours to determine…

ILFI is excited to announce its new Zero Carbon Certification.  Providing a new performance pathway situated between Reveal and the Zero Energy Certification, the Zero Carbon Certification provides greater flexibility around project fuel types (for existing projects) and placement and ownership of offsetting renewables. The ILFI Zero Carbon Certification is the first worldwide Zero Carbon third-party certified standard.  It recognizes…

My first introduction to mineral wool was during a 2005 visit to the pioneering Zero Energy project, BedZED, in England. There were a lot of amazing things to take in that day, and mineral wool was one of them. Insulation made out of rocks? Cool! To find out that it was the predominant insulation in Europe was equally surprising, especially…

Brad Liljequist: Hi David—tell us about yourself. David Mead: I’m a Building Performance Specialist at PAE Engineers. I work as both an energy engineer and architect within our office, integrating systems to achieve high performance goals for projects. I went to school for architecture originally, and I kept wanting to focus on performance, and realized building systems were the key…

Last week, I was in the District of Columbia, hosting a zero energy seminar and reception as part of our Zero Energy Roadshow partnership with Arup.  While I was there, I was able to check in on the construction progress of one of my favorite ZE projects—the American Geophysical Union Headquarters, which is a ILFI registered Zero Energy project.  This…

ILFI has recently been working much more with the Passive House community, to connect the networks in both people and thought. This fall, we had an excellent Net Positive Symposium in Vancouver, held jointly with Passive House Canada, as well as a Net Positive track and class at the North America Passive House Network conference in Oakland, CA. A key…

For the past three years, we’ve hosted the Net Positive Energy and Water Conference to explore net positive energy and water solutions. We’ve recently evolved the Net Positive event model to provide even more bang for our energy buck. To build on the metaphor, we are trying to provide capacity building and education to our current and new constituents more efficiently…

I first become interested in zero energy buildings in 2003. There were several things that pulled me into the concept, and probably the most compelling aspect was the scale of the change. At the time, I was managing a municipal green building program and we were struggling to convince developers to make relatively minor incremental changes like using low-e windows…

Editor’s Note: The following excerpt is a chapter from the Power of Zero, the latest release from Ecotone Publishing. Net Zero Energy — the first stage in a transformation toward a carbon-free future. Net zero energy (NZE) buildings, though compelling and meaningful, are just a beginning. We are only in the earliest days of a revolution in net zero energy…