Dr. John Straube

John Straube is a Principal at RDH Building Science Inc. and a professor of building science in the Civil Engineering Department and School of Architecture at the University of Waterloo. Energy-efficient, healthy, durable and sustainable building designs are a general goal of his research, which is often supported by advanced computer simulation, laboratory testing and full-scale natural exposure performance monitoring. Dr. Straube has consulted to many major building product manufacturers, government agencies (CMHC, NRC/IRC,UN, NRCan, DOE, EPA), and a range of design professionals and building owners. Considered an international expert in moisture-related durability issues, his building science expertise has been applied to moldy roofs, failed masonry, leaky EIFS cladding, insulating Mongolian yurts, wet basements, rotting crawlspaces and attics, historically sensitive retrofits, and litigation support for buildings as diverse as commercial office towers, manufactured housing, and sustainable strawbale homes.

Dr. Straube has been involved in the preparation of design and construction guides for numerous organizations, and has published dozens of technical papers in academic peer-reviewed conferences and journals as well as trade journals and magazines. He is the author of High Performance Enclosures: Design Guide for Institutional, Commercial and Industrial Buildings in Cold Climates and co-author of Building Science for Building Enclosures.

Zack Semke

Zack Semke is Director of Passive House Accelerator, a member of Al Gore's Climate Reality Leadership Corps, and a co-founder of Shift Zero in Washington State. His goal is to accelerate the transition to healthy, zero emissions buildings for everyone.

Bruce King

Bruce King is the author of “The New Carbon Architecture” and "Build Beyond Zero" (with Chris Magwood, due out in June, 2022), and has been a structural engineer for 43 years, designing buildings of every size and type all over the world. He is also author of the ASTM standard for earthen construction, the Marin County Low-Carbon Concrete code, and the books “Buildings of Earth and Straw”, “Making Better Concrete”, and “Design of Straw Bale Buildings”.

Mr. King is also the Founder and Director of the Ecological Building Network (EBNet), a non-profit information resource that sponsors the BuildWell Source (buildwellsource.org), an online library of low-carbon and carbon storing materials.