Michael Bendewald: Analyst

Contact Information

Rocky Mountain Institute
Attn: Built Environment Team
1820 Folsom Street
Boulder, Colorado 80302

Michael J. Bendewald researches and develops carrying capacity analysis, focusing on GHG emissions, as a way to inform building design. With a background in philosophy and building science, he balances big ideas with practical and cost-effective solutions.

RMI Projects:

Green Footstep – Mike has led the development of this RMI service and online tool. With roots in ecological footprint methodology and a paper authored by RMI’s Victor Olgyay, Green Footstep has been developed into a method for carbon-based building sustainability assessment and goal-setting, as well as an online tool that is freely available for building design professionals and students.

Carbon and energy goal setting – On several projects Mike has helped teams develop carbon and energy goals, bringing some clarity to often-used but rarely defined terms such as “net zero” and “carbon neutrality.”

Sustainable building design – Mike has provided consulting regarding daylighting, electric lighting, thermal comfort, and renewable energy systems.

Background:

Mike has experience as an educator, presenter, and international researcher. For two consecutive years Mike wrote and taught weekly lessons in k-12 schools as part of a National Science Foundation Gk-12 engineering outreach fellowship.  He has presented at charrettes and green building conferences on the topic of GHG emissions and buildings. In 2008, he was a fellow on the NSF East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes program where he researched building commissioning protocol and the Japanese green building rating system, CASBEE (Comprehensive Assessment System for Building Environmental Efficiency).

As a graduate student in the Building Systems Program at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Mike has taken coursework in building science and engineering, energy policy, and science, technology, and society (STS) studies. Mike wrote his master’s degree thesis on the incorporation of life cycle assessment and carrying capacity analysis with building sustainability assessment. This work relied heavily upon economic input-output life cycle assessment.

Education:

Master of Science in Civil Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder, 2009
Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, Saint John’s University (MN), 2003

Publications:

“Creationism and Evolution,” co-authored with Carl Mitcham, in Battleground: Science and Technology, ed. Sal Restivo (Westport Connecticut: Greenwood Press).