The Center is a real-world example of how high-performance, all-electric buildings can cut emissions, save money, and produce more clean energy than they use.
It’s official: Utah Clean Energy’s Climate Innovation Center in downtown Salt Lake City has earned both Zero Energy Certification™ and Zero Carbon Certification™ from the International Living Future Institute. These designations are more than labels. They are based on 12 months of actual building performance data, rigorous analysis, and independent verification, confirming that the Climate Innovation Center is operating as one of the nation’s high-performance, all-electric, zero-emission buildings, with a tiny embodied carbon footprint.
From Promise to Proof
When Utah Clean Energy set out to create the Climate Innovation Center, the goal was ambitious: show that buildings in Utah can be comfortable, efficient, resilient, and powered by clean energy with no fossil fuel use on site. Now, after a full year of measured performance, the building has the data to prove it.
“We built the Climate Innovation Center to be a model for high-performance, zero-emission building design. “These certifications confirm that high-performance, zero-emission buildings are not theoretical, they are achievable today, right here in Utah.”
– Kevin Emerson
The building combines smart design choices with clean technologies: an airtight and efficient building envelope, high-performance windows, efficient lighting and controls, energy-efficient appliances, variable refrigerant flow air-source heat pumps for heating and cooling, a hybrid heat pump water heater, and 38.7 kW of on-site solar power paired with 30 kW of battery storage.
What the First Year of Data Shows
- The Climate Innovation Center is about 47% more energy efficient than a conventional office building of similar size and function.
- The Center is saving about $11,400 per year in avoided utility bills, enough to pay back the incremental construction costs in about 12.2 years.
- During its first full year of data collection, the building generated 8,906 kilowatt-hours more clean electricity than it consumed. This excess solar energy is sent back to the grid, and is roughly equivalent to the annual electricity use of a typical Utah home.
- The building also supports three electric vehicle charging stations used by staff most days of the week, with solar energy covering both building operations and vehicle charging.
What Zero Energy and Zero Carbon Mean
Zero Energy Certification™ recognizes buildings that meet their annual energy needs with on-site renewable energy and operate without combustion. In the Climate Innovation Center’s first year of performance, the building avoided nearly 340 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions by using clean solar energy.
Zero Carbon Certification™ goes even further by validating deep reductions in the embodied carbon associated with construction materials such as steel, concrete, flooring, and other building products. Using the Athena Impact Estimator, Utah Clean Energy worked with University of Utah engineering student interns and GSBS Architects to complete an embodied carbon analysis showing a 97% reduction in embodied carbon for the Center.
A Teaching Tool for High-Performance Buildings
Located in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City, the Climate Innovation Center shows what homes and buildings can become: comfortable, resilient, efficient spaces that run on clean energy and produce zero on-site pollution.
The Center serves as Utah Clean Energy’s headquarters and as a community education hub for climate convenings, conversations, and action. Utah Clean Energy has documented the building strategies behind the project so communities, building owners, designers, and policymakers can learn from the model and pursue similar levels of performance.
Key Features of the Climate Innovation Center
All-Electric Design
- Air source heat pump for heating and cooling
- Heat pump water heating
- Induction stove top
- Heat pump clothes dryer
- Electric vehicle charging
- ZERO need for fossil fuels
High Energy Performance
- Energy modeling and iterative design
- Airtight and well-insulated building envelope
- High-performance windows
- Energy efficient ENERGY STAR appliances
- Efficient lighting and controls
- Mechanical ventilation includes an evaporative cooling stage and an energy recovery ventilator (ERV)
- Variable refrigerant flow heat pump
Powered by 100% Clean Energy
- Rooftop solar plus solar canopy (38.7 kW)
- On-site battery storage (30 kw)
- Grid interactive operation
Water-Smart Inside and Out
- Water-efficient fixtures and appliances
- Drought resistant and pollinator-friendly garden
Lower-Carbon Choices from the Ground Up
- Retrofitting an existing building produced significantly less carbon than building new
- Mass timber was used in place of concrete and steel to reduce embodied carbon
- Features high recycled and reclaimed materials, including carpet tiles, countertops, ceramic tiles, and reclaimed wood flooring
Learn More
Everything about how the Climate Innovation Center was designed and built can be found at www.climateinnovationcenter.org.
We would like to clarify that Utah Clean Energy is not a solar company. We are a nonprofit organization that advocates for solar and other clean energy technologies, but we do not install or sell solar in any way.