By Jay Fox

The 24th Annual New York State Green Building Conference took place March 5–6, 2026, at the Marriott Syracuse Downtown. Hosted by SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF) in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) New York Upstate chapter and the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems (SyracuseCoE), the conference drew attendees from across the state and beyond. Those in attendance included students and professionals from a variety of disciplines, such as architecture, engineering, construction, consulting, government, higher education, real estate, and more.

This year's theme, "Adapt, Evolve, Advance," focused on the industry's shared responsibility to meet the challenges of creating sustainable, high-performance buildings within a rapidly changing regulatory environment. Two keynote speakers headlined the event: Gaya Herrington, an internationally recognized thought leader in sustainability and transformative research, and Kevin Lanahan, senior vice president of External Affairs and Corporate Communications at the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO). In addition, Syracuse Mayor Sharon Owens addressed a plenary session Thursday morning.

The main event was preceded by a fireside chat with Herrington, Erik Backus (Professor of Practice and Howard E. Lechler Endowed Director, Construction Engineering Management at Clarkson University in Potsdam), and Karina Freeland (City of Syracuse Sustainability Planner) that was moderated by Monique Owens (USGBC Regional Director for Market Transformation & Development).

A Keystone Keynote

Combining Climate Action and Anti-Poverty Measures

For Mayor Owens, the discussion of sustainability and community empowerment was laser-focused on concrete efforts to fight poverty. She believes this will help bring people into the fold and help create alliances that will ultimately advance both goals. “We need to grow the choir, but the choir can’t grow if we’re not singing the same song,” the mayor said.

Owens noted that poverty continues to plague the city of Syracuse. Among cities with populations over 100,000, it regularly ranks among the top four for poverty rates for children of color.

Breakout Sessions

With any event, it can be difficult to delve into the specifics of each session (especially when you take 38 pages of notes, like some people), and we hope to do follow-up stories about some of the presenters and to perhaps give presenters the opportunity to share their insights at future Accelerator events. This post will explore some of the themes that emerged and hopefully entice readers to attend next year’s event. It is most certainly worth it, especially for readers who are based in New York.

• A6566, which enacts the “sustainable buildings act of 2025”;

• A8456, which is designed to reduce embodied carbon emissions in buildings and building materials;

• A8637, which enacts the "building materials reduction, reuse, and recycling act"; and

• A9255, which is designed to expand the use of mass timber for affordable housing, accessory dwelling units, and retrofits.

These pieces of legislation are not unique. Donohue noted that A6566 is similar to legislation recently passed in New Mexico and that A8456 is similar to the California Green Building Standards Code (CALGreen). Meanwhile, A8637 is akin to San Antonio’s deconstruction ordinance and is designed to “incentivize local political subdivisions of New York State to adopt and implement local ordinances supporting the deconstruction and salvage of valuable building materials and increasing the reuse of these materials.”

If you live in New York and support these pieces of legislation, let your representatives in Albany know.

Evolve

At least five separate sessions focused on the evolution of high-performance and Passive House buildings in the state.

Architect and Principal of Positive Trace Architecture Nicole Schuster examined the co-evolution of Passive House and electrification. Meanwhile, another session focused on Village Grove, a 2019 winner of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s (NYSERDA) Building of Excellence Competition and the New York State Association for Affordable Housing’s 2025 Upstate Affordable Housing Project of the Year. The panel consisted of HOLT Architects Principal Steve Hugo, Sustainable Comfort Director of High-Performance Design Michelle Tinner, developer INHS Director of Real Estate Development Lynn Traume, and Sustainable Comfort Director of Business Development Alex Fox.

Another session described two deep energy retrofits of buildings originally from the 1960s on Syracuse University's South Campus. These retrofits relied on passive principles, panelization, and the use of all-in-one HVAC and DHW modules by TK Fabricate. This project was touched on in a recent episode of the Passive House Podcast with Tony Daniels and Caitlin Matusewicz of Cycle Architecture + Planning, who were on the panel alongside Associate Professor Bess Krietemeyer (Syracuse University), Assistant Professor Nina Wilson (Syracuse University), Senior Engineer Crista Shopis (Taitem Engineering), and Tom King (Founder of TK Fabricate).

Blue Sea has also increasingly used modular components to cut down on costs and for quality assurance and control. Mahle noted that modular bathrooms have been standard in Blue Sea developments since the construction of The Eltona for a rather obvious reason: bathrooms need multiple trades to complete their jobs within a tight space. That need for strict sequencing can lead to delays. By moving construction from the site to the factory, those delays can be reduced.

Of course, Blue Sea did not stop being early adopters in 2009. As Mahle showed, Blue Sea has consistently pushed the envelope with novel building systems that improve building performance. Their mission, combined with generous incentives from state agencies like NYSERDA, has encouraged them to become Passive House trailblazers and two-time winners of the Buildings of Excellence Competition—for Linden Grove (Round 1) and the Brownsville Arts Center & Apartments (Round 3).

Advance

Because New York is choosing to adapt and to evolve, to improve upon its legacy infrastructure, and to invest in its communities and future generations, the state will continue to be an ideal ecosystem for clean and resilient buildings. Consequently, the state will continue to advance.

However, this is not a foregone conclusion. It takes policy work, innovation on the part of engineers and architects, upskilling of tradespeople, continued support from state and local agencies, a tremendous amount of education, and (as Kevin Lanahan of NYISO explained) a group of benevolent wizards making sure the lights stay on. It takes the work of people who put on events like this conference, including Master of Ceremonies Melissa O’Mara and members of the Advisory Council. This latter group includes people like Erik Backus, Nicole Schuster, and Kevin Stack.

As Schuster said during the Thursday morning plenary, it also takes “clarity of collective purpose.”

Any form of clarity can be hard to come by in 2026. Similarly, latching on to a sense of collective purpose can be difficult in a deeply divided climate. However, coming together even for a few days with like-minded people who feel compelled to abandon self-destructive models in favor of something regenerative and resilient is refreshing. It’s a reminder that there is a community who strongly feels, as Kevin Stack said early Thursday morning, “We choose to build as the world needs.”

The top photo of Syracuse courtesy of John Marino via Wikimedia