Nearly everyone made significant contributions to the discussion, but we’d like to recognize thirty students who put in the extraordinary effort to finish the final project. This the first graduating class, and they deserve public recognition for what they’ve accomplished:

Bob Lemaire

David Holmstrom

Rob Lewis

Brenden Maloof

Gerry Smith

Al Prendergast

Neil Randol

Rich Kinkel

Michele Sopher

Tobias Richon

Al Heath

Ben Hemberger

Erin Crafts

Nick Corsetti

Mary Rogero

Chris Lee

Evan Hardcastle

Jesse Smith

Chris Redmond

Clare Dow-Ramirez

David Sayers

Peter Brooks

Newell Pledger-Shinn

Brian Wohlleb

Tim McCarthy

Rheannon DeMond

Matt Coffey

Greg Milne

Ruben Valenzuela

Some of these graduates will be showing their work at the BE Conference in March. If you have a few extra minutes while you’re walking the show, take a minute to check out their work and congratulate them on what they’ve accomplished. These are the are some of the up-and-coming professionals who can help lead the conversation in years to come.

Following a very successful “soft launch” in October, with almost 60 students registered in two courses, I’m convening a working group of 6-8 NESEA members to step back – to help me set policies for how we run the program and how we integrate it with the rest of what NESEA does. Our first meeting is scheduled for December 7th.

Helping us fulfill the promise of BuildingEnergy . . . online, year-round

I view this committee as a natural extension of the BE planning committee, or as a curriculum committee, of sorts. The committee will help advise me on issues such as:

1. What criteria we should use for choosing the subject matter for BEMS offerings and for selecting instructors
2. What criteria we should use to ensure that instructors’ content does not unduly overlap with that of other instructors
3. Whether we should implement incentives, above and beyond a standard revenue share, for instructors who go above and beyond in marketing, and whose efforts bring a significant number of students into the course who would not otherwise have enrolled
4. What criteria we should establish for manufacturers/vendors who wish to offer courses on the platform, and whether/how we might brand such offerings differently than BEMS courses
5. What the course schedule should be and how to prioritize which instructors to approach to develop course content
6. Who we might approach as potential partners and/or for cross promotional opportunities
7. How can we best integrate this program into others NESEA offers – paying particular attention to integration with our crown jewel, the BuildingEnergy Conference.

Initially, the BuildingEnergy Masters Series was conceived as a way for NESEA to offer BuildingEnergy Conference-quality content year-round to practitioners within our community, irrespective of their locations – and to help NESEA diversify its revenues so that we are not relying exclusively on the success of our annual conference to float the rest of the organization. Based on the post-conference surveys we’ve done in recent years, we knew that many within our community crave the opportunity to learn from, and network with, each other year round. BEMS was conceived as one way to help fulfill that need.

We made a good start . . . now it’s time to incorporate what we’ve learned

When we launched our two courses this fall, we relied upon instructors who routinely draw large crowds at our BuildingEnergy Conference. We knew we could rely on them to deliver high quality content. And we knew that they were excellent teachers who would take the time commitment to develop top-notch educational content seriously. We had hoped to attract 8-10 students for each of the courses we offer in 2012 and 2013, but  Marc Rosenbaum’s Zero Net Energy Homes, and Paul Eldrenkamp and Mike Duclos’ Passive House:  The Future of Building in the US?, far exceeded our expectations. We attracted almost 60 students between the two courses – in large part thanks to Marc Rosenbaum’s extra marketing efforts!

We’re thrilled that the courses and the format seem to appeal to so many. And we’re looking forward to incorporating more opportunities for members to drive the direction of this program, just as they do the BuildingEnergy Conference and Trade Show. If you have feedback you’d like to share about this program or process, feel free to email me at jmarrapese@nesea.org or call me at 413.774.6051, ext. 23. Otherwise, I’ll keep you updated on the working group’s recommendations and the roll out of this new initiative.

“Rather than a snack, I want to provide the entire meal.”

Those were Marc’s words when we first met to outline his ‘Zero Net Energy Homes’ course for the Building Energy Masters Series.  I’ve watched him invest a tremendous amount of time and thought into the course since that initial meeting – now that I see all the content, I can confidently say that he’s achieved his goal.  He’s created an incredibly detailed learning path for people who really want to do this work.  It leverages a ton of existing content, and Marc’s video presentations take it to the next level and tie everything together.

Click this link to download our working syllabus for the class starting October 1st.  The formatting is unpolished, but it will give you a sense for the flow and depth of the offering.

I thought it would be useful to see what the entire meal looks like, just in case you’re hungry.

• “The course load averaged 5 hours per week.  There was a lot of variability in my schedule so I was glad the format was so flexible.”
• “I learned a ton, but also have new-found respect for how much there is to know to do Passive House the right way.  I can definitely apply what I learned to my job.”
• “Great instructors – I felt lucky to have their attention for such a sustained period.”
• Biggest opportunity for improvement: “…deeper and more frequent interaction between the students and the instructors.”

So – a pretty good start, we think.  This summer we’re working on integrating a discussion wall into the course page to promote more interaction within the course, and we’re also going to roll out progress trackers so the instructors can see who’s engaged and who’s not.

A revised and improved version of the Passive House Training will be available this fall, along with two new Building Energy Masters Series Offerings:

1. Zero Net Energy Homes with Marc Rosenbaum.
2. Innovation Workshop: Developing & Implementing Nature-Inspired Ideas with Randall Anway.

In parallel, we’re developing a certificate program to for the Building Energy Masters Series – our goal is to build a sustainable program that facilitates the dissemination of deep expertise.  We’ll continue to keep the community informed, and always welcome volunteers or feedback.   If this sounds interesting for any reason, let Mary or Travis know how you’d like to get involved.

I spent this morning on the job site of a high-performance home – a MacArthur Construction Company design-build project in Cambridge, MA.  Mike Duclos was there to perform a third-party energy model for the home, evaluating it against the Passive House standard.

As a lowly business person, I was there to answer one question: Why Passive House?

Duncan MacArthur, founder of MacArthur Construction, is a pragmatic guy.  He finds Passive House useful for re-framing conversations with mechanical engineers and clients:

I’m just glad somebody’s setting the bar extraordinarily high.  It’s something to shoot for – sure, we usually end up backing off in certain places, but by starting the conversation with Passive House we’re ending up in a drastically different place than by trying to make incremental improvements over what was done in the past.

Mike Duclos, instructor for NESEA’s new Building Energy Masters Series Passive House training course, put it this way:

I started my career in technology – building high-tech products.  [Holding up his cell phone] At that time nobody thought this was possible.  Then somebody built the first one and it was a huge thing that looked like a brick.  Now we have iPhones.  I think something similar is happening with buildings, and in five years we’ll be in a dramatically different, and better place.  Germany is already there – all we have to do is import.

My takeaway: Passive House is easier to understand as an outsider than LEED, or any of the other high-performance building standards.  So if you’re committed to sustainable building, it may be the most useful tool available for framing conversations with clients and subcontractors in a way that steers the project in a successful direction.  You can play good cop, while the strict, German standard plays bad cop.  As a marketer, project manager, and business owner, I see tremendous value in having the right conversations and the power of language on your side.  Having Passive House in your arsenal is a great investment for building professionals, even if you don’t get there with every (or any) project.