Betsy Pettit (Chair BE10) & Bruce Coldham (Vice Chair BE10)
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Betsy Pettit, principal at Building Science Corporation (BSC) and chair of BuildingEnergy10 conference (BE10). I approached Betsy about an interview right after she had moderated a grueling four hour planning session for BE10. Much to my amazement her trademark engaging, energetic and intelligent persona wasn’t diminished in the slightest. We are truly lucky to have this caliber of leadership amongst our ranks.
I hope you enjoy reading the following interview as much as I enjoyed conducting it.
Question #1: “Betsy, please tell us a bit about yourself.”
I’m a principal at BSC which has been providing leadership in energy conservation methodology for commercial and residential buildings for over 25 years. We have an exciting contract with the Department of Energy (DOE) that has been tasked to reduce overall energy use in buildings to Zero by 2020. Specifically, we work with the DOE’s Building Technology Program where we develop strategic teams of builders, developers, and material manufacturers who share in the vision of moving the country closer to energy independence. With a focus on residential buildings, we are helping them develop whole systems building techniques and processes for working with building professionals from manufacturers to designers.
Question #2. “What does BE mean to you personally and professionally?”
“I’ve been attending BE since 1991 and speaking at the conference since 1993. The conference has been a bedrock for my career and business. BSC was born out of a camaraderie of building science professionals that formed at BE91. The conference continues to be the place that I go to develop my skills, and learn how to do my job.
BE has also been a source of lasting friendships with people who are as passionate about building science as I am. It’s been such a center of my life, that I coordinated my wedding with the BE93 conference because I knew that everyone that I wanted to invite would be there.”
Question #3. “What is unique about BE10?”
Let me begin by addressing the two biggest elephant in the room, namely the ARRA (aka stimulus money). As we all know, earlier this year, the Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. The Act included tens of billions of dollars for states and local governments to make investments in energy efficiency, weatherizing modest income homes, renewable energy and transmission upgrades, energy efficiency research and much more.
Only a trickle of this money has made its way out of the Federal Government. Most State and Local governments have just begun receiving this money and are in the process of developing and releasing RFPs to promote the development of better energy reduction strategies and additional training for green jobs.
However, by the time BE10 roles around next March, we expect the stimulus spigot to be wide open. A huge percentage of attendees will be busy boning up on best practices to take advantage of the Stimulus generated opportunities. We also expect to see a significant increase in government attendees who are under equal amounts of pressure to improve their skill set to manage the outlay of this money.
Put simply, BE10 will be humming with a broad array of green professionals ramping up their knowledge base to absorb the Stimulus money.
BE 10 will also provide an opportunity for the NESEA membership to showcase its buildings that have exceeded energy code requirements, working to support the vision of building energy efficiency as a major carbon reduction strategy. We have the opportunity to inform the public dialog in ways that assure energy efficient regulations will be adopted.
Again, put simply, it is our obligation as concerned professionals to share both our knowledge about what works and what does not work for energy efficiency, and our decision-making processes about the design and installation of renewables.
Question #3: “How will BE10 give green practitioners an edge in this Stimulus Economy?”
On the heels of the expected passage of ARRA, BuildingEnergy10 will be one of the first conferences out of the shoot to provide focused information for practitioners on energy-use-reduction and non-carbon based energy production.
BE teaches by examples in praxis not preaching based on theory. The conference invites attendees to learn what has worked and what hasn’t based on real world experience from leaders – such as John Straube, Joe Lstiburek, Mark Rosenbaum, Steven Strong – in the industry whose careers have been guided by their passion to lower our carbon footprint.
There will be real case studies about how:
- Builders have retrofitted single and multi-family buildings to realize radically improved energy efficiencies;
- Communities have worked together to provide codes (Stretch Codes) and building standards (LEED) that promote energy use reduction in their buildings;
- Campuses or building developments have come up with shared energy use resources;
- Commercial buildings were designed, built and operated to realize significant energy improvements over standard building.
Question #5: “Any concluding thoughts?”
Because of legislation we hope passes in 2009 ( ACES ) that will require accelerated improvements in the energy codes, and improved awareness about global warming, 2010 will be a banner year for the building energy sectors.
The built environment in the Northeast accounts for 40% of our energy use. Imported fossil fuels account for 60% of the region’s electricity generation and over 80% of our home heating resources. Now we have the financial support to be looking at how to renovate these buildings in much deeper ways than in the past. We made great strides in weatherization over the last two decades improving our energy use by 10-20%. Now we have the opportunity to take energy efficiency to the next level and realize 50-70% reductions on a massive scale. BE10 is the place to learn how to do it.
I look forward to sharing more insights about the conference as planning continues.
Thank you for reading this blog post. Feel free to send Betsy your thoughts by commenting below.
