🌐 Everyone Inside Agrees—Net Zero Building Is Just Better

Horry County, where I live in South Carolina, has more net-zero energy schools than anywhere else in the country.

If you’ve ever been to Bike Week in Myrtle Beach, you’ll know why that is surprising.

There is nothing exotic about net zero. Nothing especially progressive. We know how to build these buildings. The technologies are proven. The costs are competitive. Net-zero buildings are often beautiful — inexpensive to operate, more comfortable to occupy, healthier for everyone inside, and dramatically lower carbon.

And yet, less than 1% of buildings are net-zero.

You’ve probably read the statistic about how 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from our buildings. It makes no difference. Not in terms of the planet — but in terms of its ability to focus our attention.

We hear numbers like this so often — about climate change, about the impact of various industries, various behaviors — that our eyes glaze over. It could be 10%. It could be 89%. We don’t sit up. We don’t pay attention. We don’t freak out. The number doesn’t move us.

None of it changes the fact that I still don’t have solar panels on my roof.

The problem isn’t that we don’t know how to build net-zero buildings. Buildings that generate their own energy on-site — through solar, through geothermal. Buildings so energy efficient that they run on a trickle. Made with low-carbon materials that have less impact on the planet in their manufacturing. We’ve known how to do this for a while.

The problem is we don’t have enough people willing to do it.

Drew Shula has spent two decades trying to build that will. As founder of Verdical Group, he and his team have worked on green building projects for Apple, Meta, and NASA.

Thirteen years ago, with a small team of green building consultants and no real idea how to run events, he started the Net Zero Conference in Los Angeles. It attracted a hundred people the first year. Today, it draws over a thousand architects, developers, engineers, and building owners annually.

Here’s what stood out from our conversation.

Few solutions mitigate climate change and adapt to its impacts simultaneously. Malibu High School does both.

“This project is a great example of a green building solving for a lot of things. But it’s also a safe place when there is a disaster. It is solving on multiple fronts — a beautiful project, a functional project, and a wonderful example of the future of what green buildings can be.”

Verdical Group helped certify the school under CHPS and consulted on the net zero design, including the solar array that cantilevers over the building — shading students and teachers from the LA sun while generating more energy than the school needs.

The 1% problem

“Less than 1% of buildings are net-zero buildings. And we know exactly how to do it. We know how to generate renewable energy from the sun, put enough solar panels on the building, reduce the energy load as much as possible. It’s pretty darn straightforward.”

Why the building industry moves so slowly

“General contractors make money off the fact that it’s repeatable. They’re very efficient, productive, and repeatable. So they hate change. The industry is just incredibly slow-moving. We’ve been doing the Net Zero Conference for going on 13 years now, and there’s not a huge number more net zero buildings in the US today than there was a decade ago.”

Embodied carbon: the emissions before anyone moves in

“Ten years ago, we were only talking about operational carbon. We weren’t really talking about embodied much at all. The embodied carbon is embodied in the materials — the energy it took to manufacture and then ship each building material to the building site. Now we’re looking at that energy and finding lower carbon alternatives.”

California is now regulating the embodied carbon of high-impact materials — steel, glass, aluminum — in new commercial buildings over 50,000 square feet. Drew expects other states to follow.

Policy is the biggest lever

“To me, policy is the big solution for the whole climate crisis. What if we had a national policy that required net-zero buildings? Then I don’t have a job anymore — and that’s great.”

What the building industry can learn from solar

“Solar is the lowest-cost form of energy today. When utilities are making decisions about energy generation, why would they choose a coal-powered plant when they could have a large solar farm that’s lower cost and cleaner? It’s just the obvious right decision without any policy guiding that.”

On staying optimistic

“It’s a strange space to be working in — lots of depressing news and lots of optimism at the same time. I just land on: I want to see progress happen. I want to solve this. I want to focus on solutions and keep my optimistic spark alive.”

Supercool Takeaway

Drew Shula didn’t invent a new building technology. He built a conference, a consultancy, and a career around a single conviction: that the building industry already knows what to do, and what it needs is more people willing to do it.

Thirteen years in, less than 1% of buildings are net zero. He’s still showing up.

Operator Takeaways

Ask for net zero before design begins.

Once the project is under construction, the decisions that determine energy performance have already been made.

Your material supply chain is about to have a carbon cost.

California is already regulating the embodied carbon of steel, glass, and aluminum. Other states will follow.

Know your building’s energy performance before someone requires you to.

Disclosure mandates are spreading city by city. That number will affect asset value, lease terms, and tenant decisions.

This Week’s Podcast Episode:

Everyone Inside Agrees—Net Zero Building Is Just Better

🎙️ Listen on Apple, Spotify, and all other platforms.

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Where Supercool Traveled This Week

PODCAST

Tune Up Your Warrior: Josh Dorfman / The Climate Economy Is Already Here

Go4Ceo: How the Low-Carbon Economy Is Creating Billion-Dollar Businesses & Profitable Climate Tech Companies

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