The UBC Building Decisions Research Group (previously the ETA Lab) is an interdisciplinary research group based out of the UBC Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS).

We are designers, engineers, and scientists working together, seeking to build new connections within the aligned fields of building energy systems, indoor environmental quality analysis, simulation, statistics and uncertainty analysis, robust decision-making, health sciences, economics, and policy.

The future of the built environment is fraught with significant challenges. Rapid decarbonisation of the global building stock needs to go hand-in-hand with improving the health, well-being, and equity provided by our built environment. We know the technologies and design measures that address one challenge are not always complementary to the others. The decisions we make in the next 10-30 years, whether as innovators, entrepreneurs, policy-makers or consumers, must be coordinated and informed not only by what we already know but by what we don’t (a.k.a.: uncertainty).

The BDRG is a part of the UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture and the Department of Mechanical Engineering. It is directed by Dr. Adam Rysanek, Assistant Professor of Environmental Systems, UBC SALA and Mech Eng. (Associate Faculty).