Imre Szauter, retired electrical engineer, shares why he and his wife Deborah have supported NESEA's Capacity Campaign, and why he hopes you will too.

In 2013 we hired NESEA Member Ben Southworth, President of Garland Mill Timberframes, to build our retirement home. It was easy to detect his enthusiasm for both timberframing and energy efficiency. Ben was knowledgeable, dedicated to his craft, and open to discussing new technologies.

We’ve had no disappointments at all in the house (and I recognize that I’m picky in terms of the technical aspects, and my wife is picky in terms of aesthetics).

Many of the concepts he brought to the table—and ultimately incorporated into our house—came directly from his experience with NESEA.

We want others to benefit from working with professionals like Ben. So when he described NESEA’s Capacity Campaign to us, we knew we wanted to support it. If NESEA continues to grow and thrive, it will provide more opportunities for those entering the field to attend conferences and building tours so that they too can learn to do great work.

That’s why we chose to donate and why we hope you will too.
 

We moved into the house in July 2015, and hosted a BuildingEnergy Pro Tour that November. We wanted to make our home available to professionals so they could learn from the project.

While much of the technology in the house was new to us, it was very familiar to the NESEA community. Ben had walked away from conferences and other NESEA events with specific technical knowledge that he was able to incorporate into our home.

It’s been wonderful to learn from Ben and hear how much he has learned from other long-time NESEA Members, like Marc Rosenbaum. It’s immensely important to have people like them who are willing to share their knowledge with the community.

We hope that NESEA can continue to mentor those developing careers in high performance building and energy efficiency. This is why we're supporting the Capacity Campaign, and we hope you will too.

P.S. - If you are not able to make a donation to the Capacity Campaign, perhaps you can help by sharing the role NESEA has played in your work, and by asking a satisfied client to make a donation in your honor. Feel free to share this email with your clients to support that “ask.” Thank you!