Even as the home building industry sees a record surge in sales, it still faces a tough challenge with labor for the foreseeable future. Novel approaches to attracting young people into the trades and efforts like North Carolina Building Performance Association (NCBPA’s) workforce development initiative may ultimately be the catalyst to solving...

While the terms sustainable, energy-efficient, and green building are broadly used to describe construction that centers on building performance, there’s no national program that focuses on career development in building performance. That’s why North Carolina Building Performance Association (NCBPA) Founder and CEO Ryan Miller is investing heavily...

Eighteen months ago, Insulation Institute spoke with North Carolina Building Performance Association (NCBPA) Founder & CEO, Ryan Miller, about a comprehensive building performance workforce development initiative that could serve as a model for other states and organizations in recruiting workers into the building performance trades. The...

The International Energy Agency (IEA) today issued its Special Report on Sustainable Recovery, which details a three-year path forward for a green energy-based global recovery post-COVID-19. The report calls for a broad scale of global actions to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, recover jobs lost during the pandemic, and boost economic...

Mineral wool continuous insulation (CI) is increasingly used in both residential and commercial applications. Insulation Institute’s new release, “How Mineral Wool as Continuous Insulation Can Benefit Your Building,” reviews the many benefits of using mineral wool insulation as CI.

5 Reasons to Build with Mineral Wool

Chris Laumer-Giddens is an architect and custom builder. He's an HVAC designer and building enclosure specialist whose current design-build project is a 2,800 square-foot, three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath home in Marietta, GA. Given the many hats Chris wears, it's remarkable that he still finds time to...

Thomas Branch is president of Comfy House, a Pennsylvania-based home performance company that specializes in building energy modeling, energy efficiency retrofits, and energy efficiency inspections. As a RESNET and BPI certified rater with decades of experience in the business, Branch is qualified to speak about the deficiencies he sees in energy...

Gerardo Macias, an insulation installer with Northern Insulation in Wauconda, IL, is the winner of the 2019 “America’s Best Installer” competition, held Nov. 7-9 in Denver, CO, and won the event’s top prize of $10,000. The annual competition, hosted by Insulate America and Johns Manville, saw Macias compete against contenders for the title in the...

New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) has some of the most advanced policies and programs in the country to support a net zero built environment for existing and new construction homes. Other states would do well to follow their lead.  

Designers Report on Energy Efficiency Trends

Fixr.com recently published its 2019 Energy-Efficient Home Design Trends Report. The study’s authors interviewed 25 experts in the home design industry to peg upcoming trends in energy-efficient home features, design, and building trends. These experts have a pulse on what consumers want in design but...