On November 14th, 2011, the NYC Department of Buildings launched phase two of the Sustainable Contractor Designation Program to include NYC licensed plumbers and electricians, in addition to General Contractors for 1-, 2- and 3-family homes.  This initiative identifies trade licensees who demonstrate knowledge in sustainable practices through third-party certifications and agree to promote the use of green technologies to their customers. Those licensees that the Department identifies as sustainable will have an icon in the shape of a green leaf displayed next to their names in the Department’s Buildings Information  System (BISWeb). Learn more about this program here.

This is great news for GPRO! In addition to GPRO: Construction Management, now GPRO: Plumbing and GPRO: Electrical Systems have been named as one of the acceptable credentials for the Sustainable Contractor Designation Program.

GPRO: Green Professional Building Skills Training is a series of courses and certificate exams that teach the people who build, renovate, and maintain buildings the principles of sustainability combined with trade-specific green construction knowledge.

Related posts on GPRO

Ellen is the Director of Construction Education at Urban Green Council, and runs GPRO: Green Professional Building Skills Training. GPRO is a series of courses and certificate exams that teach the people who build, renovate, and maintain buildings the principles of sustainability combined with trade-specific green construction knowledge.

Here at Urban Green Council we LOVE data!  At Greenbuild last month Harvey Bernstein, VP of Industry Insights and Alliances at McGraw-Hill Construction, released a new study on the Workforce and Green Jobs.

The upshot is that in construction, green jobs are growing at a faster rate than non-green jobs. Green training is considered valuable to contractors, trades and A/E professionals and is becoming more widespread throughout the industry.

How big is this industry anyway? Globally, construction in 2011 is projected to be a $7.2 trillion industry, representing 11% of global GDP. In 2020 this is expected to rise to $12 trillion (13.2% global GDP), mostly in emerging countries.  Projections for the next 9 years are for growth in single family homes and commercial construction but flat for institutional projects.  As we all know too well, construction and design jobs in the U.S. have been generally declining since 2008, but the good news is that green construction has been rising as a segment of the market.  This year, green jobs make up more than 1/3 of jobs in the A/E and contractor communities.

Is there a shortage of green-qualified construction workers? 69% of AEC firms expect work force shortages of qualified construction workers during the next decade.  The MH survey tried to determine the reasons why.  Major reasons cited are:

• Lack of interest in the construction industry among high school students because its perceived as not being high-tech enough
• Retirement of senior staff
• People leaving the workforce during the downturn and concern that they won’t return
• Licensed trades (MEPS) expect the worst shortages.  Contractors expect shortages in carpentry, millwork, electricians, concrete/cement workers, HVAC workers and boilermakers

What does green really mean?: The survey asked what “green” meant to each individual.  Top responses included: energy use reduction, reduction of use of natural resources, and installation of renewable energy (this response was higher for trades).

Is specialty knowledge valued? Formal training is prized by the trades and by decision makers.  80% of trades surveyed said that unions and associations were highly valued sources of training for trades.  Happily we seem to be moving towards higher levels of teamwork in the industry – the survey reported that General Contractors are looking to improve their collaboration skills and value employees who are proficient with technology and have good people management skills.  From the perspective of A/E firms, GC’s and subcontractors, certified employees help them win projects and increase competitiveness across the board.

What are the benefits of green training as seen by those in the industry?

• More job opportunities: Training is key to getting and maintaining better jobs. 30% of green job workers said they needed major training when they started, and most reported that formal education and training programs will continue to be needed. 71% of hiring decision-makers believe that having green skills increases an individual’s competitiveness

• Higher compensation:
  • 58% of the entire survey estimated a 4% higher salary for green skilled workers;
  • 38% of trade contractors said they valued green skills at 7% or higher salary;
  • 14% of AE firms said they valued green skills at a 10% or higher salary

• More job security and opportunities for advancement. Trades (carpenters, HVAC/boilermakers, electricians, concrete/cement masons and plumbers) are expected to see the greatest growth in green jobs. The survey found 15% of trade jobs today are considered green jobs, and this is expected to increase to 25% in three years.

• Outside sources of training are surpassing on-the-job training for green skills.  The number of people who responded that they can get training on the job was lower as compared to those who stated a need for outside sources of training as more specialization and technology takes effect – this response rate was similar for trades and AE professionals.

How many green jobs are out there? One oddity of this survey is how it defined “green jobs”:  Green construction or installation job in building construction involving installation of a uniquely green system or requiring different skills to meet green goals.  This definition does NOT include administrative or non-construction professions such as manufacturing or producing green products.   Hmm…and I thought I had a green job.

• Of the design professionals surveyed:  there was a steep increase in those that stated that more than 50% of their projects are green.  The rate of increase is less steep for GC’s but still climbing.
• Of the responses from the unemployed (mostly architects): 17% are seeking an exclusively green job, 60% are seeking a green job and 31% said they were not as interested in non-green jobs.

Photo credit: Linh Do

Brian Wennersten, LEED BD+C, O+M, GPRO:CM is an Instructor and Principal of SKYed Eco Education & Consulting, and a certified GPRO Instructor. The following is derived from an interview with Anthony Brower, LEED AP BD+C, ID+C, Sustainable Design Director at Gensler.

GPRO continues to expand its reach in teaching green building practices to those working in the construction field with its recent release of GPRO Electrical Systems course.

Local Union 3, I.B.E.W NYC, longstanding supporters of GPRO, will continue their commitment to green building practices by teaching GPRO Electrical Systems and Operations & Maintenance Essentials to their apprentices and journeymen this fall. Topics will include: fundamentals of green building and sustainability in electrical systems, lighting, heating and cooling, renewable energy, green job management and other work practices that will assure high building performance.

The electricians union will also soon begin construction on their new Electrical Industry Training Center (EITC) building in Long Island City, which is aiming for LEED certification.  The space will provide an innovative and technologically advanced learning environment for union members to continue their professional development. In addition to GPRO courses, Local 3 will offer hands-on training for solar and wind power at their custom designed training installation on the roof of the new building.

Local 3 electricians joined in the integrated design process with the architects at Gensler which enabled the team to provide a more holistic approach to the project.  We had the opportunity to speak with Anthony Brower, Sustainable Design Director at Gensler.  Mr. Brower said that from an electrician’s perspective, reducing energy consumption was at the forefront in the design of the building.  He noted that the training center will allow end users to learn about the latest technology in Advanced Lighting Control systems as well as benefitting from improved indoor environmental quality.   With all of these energy efficient features, GPRO students will not only be able to learn in an amazing setting, but they will be taught by example from how the building was designed and constructed while continuing to meet the increased demands to train electrical professions in energy efficient technologies.

Greenbuild 2011 in Toronto is complete! The closing plenary on Friday was a pleasant mixture of inspiring presentations, rousing calls to action and jokes about Canadian accents.  Fortunately, the Canadians were the ones doing the joking so no international tension was sparked.

The session started with a bang for me on a personal level.  Judith Webb, USGBC Vice President for Marketing introduced Scot Case from UL Environment (a major sponsor of the conference) and she explained that she met Scot at Speak Green, the June conference I organized while I was at Urban Green Council.  She even spent a sentence describing what the conference was about.  I was pretty thrilled to have something I played a central role in lauded in front of the entire Greenbuild conference.

For his part, Scot Case gave one of the only sponsor speeches I can remember that seemed heartfelt and didn’t include a laundry list of accomplishments.  He told us why he was excited to be in the room (because many of his heroes had stood at the same podium) and why UL Environment wanted to support the event (because they want to be at the forefront of certifying the impact of materials and products for buildings.)  Kudos to UL for letting him do it his way.

Four speakers comprised the closing plenary, or to be exact, four speakers, one video and one pinch hitter.

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My day at the conference was dominated by an excellent session on the future of the Cradle to Cradle framework.  Reading William McDonough and Michael Braungart’s book when it was first published was a transformative moment in my life.  It focuses on most everything that is wrong with our industrial economy, a system devised for 19^th century needs, and they do it with a wonderful mixture of intelligence and humor.  Later in life, I helped persuade McDonough to deliver the keynote address at Urban Green Expo.  And one of my fondest memories is of spending two surreal early morning hours at a hotel bar with Michael Braungart, talking about everything under the sun.  He’s one of the smartest people I’ve ever met, hilariously funny, and totally committed.

The panel this morning walked the audience through recent developments on the C2C front.  David Johnson from William McDonough + Partners spoke of small things, such as the release of LEED pilot credit #43 for the use of the Cradle to Cradle framework on building materials, and large, such as their recent projects.  These include the Ferrer Grupo building, which is shaped like butterfly wings in plans, and includes an atrium that will release huge quantities of local butterflies seasonally.  He talked about Martha Johnson (head of GSA) calling for her agency to base their future on a cradle to cradle framework.  Johnson is effectively the landlord of the federal government, so it’s a big deal that she is thinking like this.  David Johnson quoted her as saying, “What if disposal wasn’t disposal, what if disposal was pre-design?”

David Nieh, from a Chinese developer called Shui On Land, presented on a massive project in Dalian, China that included the C2C framework in their master planning.  His best line, “The most efficient form of transportation is ‘taking the eleven line’, otherwise known as using both of your legs.”

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Benchmarking!  Energy Use Intensity!  Just saying them out loud gets me pumped!  In some ways Greenbuild is a full-on geekfest.  The more technical and the deeper into the weeds a session promises to go the more excited most of us are for it to begin.  Today’s lunchtime roundtable on Benchmarking is a case in point.  Measuring your energy and water use.  Reporting it online and comparing the numbers to your peers.  It’s not exactly Cirque du Soleil but if you understand the challenges that confront our building industry you know that just knowing how much energy you use is the first baby step in reforming the performance of our buildings.

The roundtable today brings together experts on the subject from New York City and Canada to compare and contrast the systems used, share the lessons learned in each system and discuss the potential challenges that remain and what can be expected in the near term.  It was an impressive collection of folks, including representatives of the NYC Mayor’s office, US EPA, Canadian Green Building Council, Natural Resources Canada and many others.

The Canadian benchmarking program is similar to the US EPA Energy Star program.  It’s voluntary, for instance, and some of our discussion focused on the impact if NYC’s Greener, Greater Buildings Plan- which mandates benchmarking.  On the one hand, voluntary benchmarking has, of course, low participation.  But mandatory benchmarking, while creating a much greater data pool, may encourage gaming a system that is, by necessity, a self reporting process.  Obviously, because I am familiar with the NYC program I found the Canadian program the most interesting.  They have been through a couple rounds of reporting and are starting to see the returns on retrofits.

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An early start at Greenbuild this morning with a really fun session on the next generation of LEED.  Scot Horst of the USGBC moderated the 90 minute program which was modeled after Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest.  Seriously.  There were “players” acting scenes while Scot delivered quotes from the play.  Sounds corny, I know.  But it worked pretty well.  My guess is that he was inspired by the setting- the “room” was actually a traditional theater, with raked floor, raised stage and a hanging mezzanine.  Each session in that space today is an “Act” and each speaker a “Scene.” The individual speakers were great.   Lauren Riggs from the USGBC talked about the metric reporting they hope to provide to those that have signed on to their Building Performance Partnership.  Garvin Cardi from Christman Company talked about their new headquarters building in Lansing (more on this, below).  And Marcus Sheffer of 7group talked about creating positive feedback loops that span the divide between completion of construction and occupancy.  I chose the session to see my YR&G colleague, Lauren Yarmuth, present on building a culture within an organization.   She used her own stories and a series of photos, several of which were laugh out loud hilarious, to describe the continual journey and the constant attention needed, to build and maintain a sense of community.

On a more nuts and bolts level, Garvin Cardi from Cristman talked about the development of their headquarters in Lansing, Michigan.  The project got a lot of attention from the green building community for being “double Platinum”- for both LEED Core & Shell and Commercial Interiors (for their offices’ portion of the building.)  It was singular for being achieved in a landmarked building (it received significant historic building tax credits) and was one of the very first applications of underfloor air distribution in an existing building.  Michigan State University did an extensive study of the health and productivity of the building occupants and found solid evidence of reduced absenteeism, less asthma and generally happier employees.   Despite these solid results, when looking at their utility bills, Cardi found a problem. They were using twice as much energy as expected- even though people were generally very comfortable.  Their Energy Star score was 35.  Which is appalling.  So they spent a year commissioning their systems and found that without proper attention to the building controls they had systems like the perimeter heat in the underfloor cavity that were running full tilt, every hour of the year.  Through improvements of these systems, documented through the LEED-EBOM process they improved their Energy Star score to 81 (which is stellar) and became one of the first triple-platinum projects in the country.

Photo credit: The Christman Company and Gene Meadows

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Greenbuild: Tuesday
Greenbuild: Benchmarking Roundtable
Greenbuild: Cradle to Cradle
Greenbuild: Finale

Tuesday at Greenbuild is warmup day.  The Expo Hall is not yet open and the general educational sessions have not begun.  But there is plenty of throat clearing as the engine of this huge conference warms up.  Tuesday is traditionally the day of the Chapter Forum- when the USGBC gathers representatives from many of the nearly 80+ chapters around the country for sharing of best practices, networking and just generally getting to know one another.   I presented the findings of Urban Green Council’s Speak Green conference in June at the Chapter Forum today and the crowd was a wonderful amalgam of folks from all over the country.  You can’t help but be staggered by the huge variety of communities around the States.   One of the delegates was from Wyoming and in a presentation pointed out that the average population density of New York State is 357 people per square mile.  In Wyoming that figure is 5 people per square mile.  The statistic speaks directly to the vastly different challenges in these two places.

Earlier today the Chapter Forum heard from Cascadia’s Jason McLennan about his book, Zugunruhe.  I read it last year when it was published, and as with most things that Jason is behind (like the Living Building Challenge) it is full of intelligent perspectives on common issues, surprising connections, and riddled with humor.  “Zugunruhe” is the word German biologists use to describe the flutter of activity among herd animals in the days and weeks before they begin a migration.  It’s a beautiful metaphor for the current gathering of our herd- the green building community.  The book is worth reading for the chance to ruminate on this metaphor, and its implications for your own life, all by itself.

Tuesday is also the day of the International Summit- a gathering of folks from all over the world, including representatives of the many international green building councils advocating for LEED.  The closing plenary of the summit included representatives from Poland, United Arab Emirates, India, Romania, Jordan, Mexico, Sweden, Italy, Brazil, Finland, Korea, Spain, Norway, Argentina, Chile, Columbia, and Canada.   Sessions at the Summit focused on lessons learned from around the world and how these nascent councils can be supported.

The Brazil delegate pointed out that all 12 of the stadiums planned for the 2014 World Cup are required to achieve LEED Platinum Certification.  One of them includes 2+ MW rooftop solar array.  Despite the water efficiency realized at the stadiums for the South Africa World Cup, it is hard to imagine such an aggressive target being called for at the World Cup even a couple years ago.

Tonight the Expo Hall opens and tomorrow the general educational sessions begin.  Planning at Greenbuild is usually a mistake because the days end up being a series of derailments, but the sessions I am hoping to attend tomorrow include a presentation by my YR&G colleague and Urban Green Board Member Lauren Yarmuth on building culture within a sustainable organization, a panel discussion on Eco-Districts, and a presentation of the progressive Oregon Sustainability Center.  I’ll let you know what I see hear in this space tomorrow.

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Greenbuild: Wednesday Morning
Greenbuild: Benchmarking Roundtable
Greenbuild: Cradle to Cradle
Greenbuild: Finale

On September 27^th Urban Green Council will debut a truly unique course on New York’s Energy Conservation Code.  The project was funded by NYSERDA, developed by Urban Green, and will be delivered by the AIA New York chapter. We think it represents a major step forward for energy code training.

As our energy code thresholds are being raised, and as compliance with the code receives more and more attention, quality training to bring architecture and engineering professionals up to speed is of paramount importance.

Most courses that cover a technical subject like the energy code can be pretty grim affairs—slides packed with relentless bullet points and indecipherable tables.  There are often very few images, and the material presented seems to rely on the student combing through printouts of the slides at a later date.  Worse yet, there is often little prioritizing of the content being conveyed.

Over several months Urban Green Council worked with highly experienced consultants to develop course content that is detailed without being overwhelming.  The goal is for the students to “understand” the code rather than providing a survey of every paragraph of the code book. The course neatly guides the student through recent changes to the code, and refers them to those items that are most often misunderstood and those places where the greatest opportunities for energy efficiency exist.  The result is a course that is graphically pleasant and covers the material in a way that is comprehensive without being overwhelming.  A manual is provided with the course to allow students to revisit the content.

The course will be delivered multiple times between now and mid-2012 – the first on September 27th. Complete details are here.

Like me, you’ve probably heard the sentiment that however much progress we’ve made on sustainability we are still way behind Europe; much of what we consider advanced is just standard practice over there.

For example, there’s an EU-wide mandate for new buildings to be net zero by 2021. The UK has mandated an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050. Many of Europe’s building codes are far stricter than our own…and so on.

Virtually all one hears on this subject is anecdotal, or so general that it’s not useful.  Here at Urban Green Council we’ve been asking ourselves for some time how much what we “know” about Europe’s building industry is accurate and what lessons there are for own industry.  Are the progressive measures similar across Europe?  Do they have programs on par with the Greener, Greater Buildings Plan? How do our best buildings (both new and existing) compare with those in Europe? What about the rest of the world, like Canada and Asia? And how much of the differences between these regions are driven by market characteristics like energy prices?

Our September conference, Global Lessons in Green Building: How NYC Stacks Up, will address these questions through two high profile panels.  One will focus on policy and codes, the other on market and finance forces.  We’ve developed the conference hand-in-hand with our partner, ULI New York, and are looking forward to the closing remarks from Clay Nesler of Johnson Controls. It’s our hope that learning about green building in the rest of the world will give us a better understanding of initiatives at home and expand our sense of what’s possible.

Please join us September 19^th.  A cocktail reception will follow the proceedings.

RELATED READING:
Greening the Concrete Jungle (The Economist 9.3.11): America’s cities are confronting climate change. They are also saving money.
Germany Sets Renewable Records (Grist.org 8.31.11): In the first half of 2011, renewables accounted for fully 20.8% of power production.
In Seattle, Work Starts on “Greenest” Office Building (L.A. Times 8.29.11): 1st big office building designed to carry its own environmental weight being built in Seattle, 1 of 12 “living buildings.”
Is This the World’s Greenest Neighborhood? (NRDC: Switchboard 8.24.11): Dockside Green in Victoria, BC was the first applicant for LEED for Neighborhood Development.
Western Grid 2050 (NRDC Switchboard 8.24.11): Provides a Clean Energy Vision & Roadmap for the West’s Economy and Environment