Rick Wertheim, Senior Vice President for Housing & Green Development
United Way of Long Island
Mr. Wertheim is the Senior Vice President for Housing & Green Initiatives at United Way of Long Island. He oversees the Green Construction, Energy Retrofit, and Workforce Development Training programs the organization offers to Long Islanders wishing to enter the High Growth, High Demand emerging careers in the Green and Energy Efficiency Industry. He is a graduate Architect, BPI and RESNET trained energy professional, construction manager and builder/developer. He has developed/renovated over 150 homes following Energy Star for Homes standards, Universal Design principles for aging in place, HUD Healthy Homes protocols, and most recently, the U.S. Dept of Energy’s “Zero Energy Ready Home” Program.
He developed the NYSERDA funded “E3 (Energy Efficiency Education) SmartBuild Center” in Deer Park to train the next generation of Green Collar Workers with State of the art equipment, a fully operational “House of Pressure” and a Hands-on fee for service division to install the most advanced air-sealing and insulation strategies for high performance homes as well complete gut rehabilitations, deep energy retrofits, and ground up Green construction for the special needs and affordable housing sector on Long Island.
His latest achievement was to receive for the third year in a row, the 2017 “Housing Innovation Award” Grand Award in the Affordable Housing Category from the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s “Zero Energy Ready Home” Program, showcasing health, comfort, durability and sustainable energy savings that Long Islanders desperately need. This particular home yielded a “Net Positive” return for the agency that runs the special needs project, meaning it generates more energy than it uses and returns a check back to the agency yearly from the utility.
The E3 SmartBuild Center is the Hub for United Way of Long Islands Zero Energy Ready Home initiative, the United Way of Long Island’s Housing Development Corp, Weatherization Division, Industry and individual energy retrofit training, OSHA safety training, as well as programs like Youthbuild, VetsBuild, and Green Job Corp.
