A professor of architectural engineering at Penn State by the name of James Freihaut has been recognized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Committee on Sustainable Energy for his work in improving sustainability and safety in buildings. During the committee’s 30th Jubilee session on September 22, Freihaut was honored for his contributions over the past 30 years.

Freihaut’s research focuses on building mechanical systems, with specific interests in indoor air quality and building science, combined heat and power systems, distributed energy systems, enclosed space air quality issues, and system constraints on air treatment/filtration solutions. 

The UNECE Committee on Sustainable Energy’s work is designed to improve access to affordable and clean energy and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the carbon footprint of the energy sector. The focus is on energy efficiency, cleaner electricity production from fossil fuels, renewable energy, natural gas, and methane. In addition to contributing to this mission, Freihaut helped develop the committee’s High-Performance Buildings Initiative. The initiative focuses on disseminating guidelines for energy efficiency standards in buildings across the world. 

As per Penn State’s announcement, Freihaut also helped establish “municipal centers for excellence” in numerous cities across the world, including Vancouver, Pittsburg, Philadelphia, and Brussels, as part of the initiative. The centers share best practices and initiate ideas among developers, contractors, architects, and engineers. 

“It is becoming increasingly apparent that building systems will need to rapidly evolve into active nodes in the energy generation and energy exchange infrastructure not only in the United States, but in other societies as well,” said Freihaut. 

“I felt quite honored to be recognized, but there is still much more work to be done in the scope of sustainability in the building sector,” Freihaut continued. “We have only made a fraction of the movement that needs to be made to become truly sustainable.”