We sat down with Larry Zarker, CEO of the Building Performance Institute (BPI), to discuss the future of home energy auditing and what may become the “new normal.”

Larry grew up in a home building family and started his career doing research for the National Association of Home Builders. He later moved to BPI, where he has now worked for the last 14 years.

As he mentions, Larry has lived and breathed home building for his entire life, so we wanted to pick his brain on the trends he’s seeing and get his insight on where residential contractors should be focusing their efforts in a post-Coronavirus world.

The takeaway – set yourself up now for success later.

There will be “pent-up demand” to get things fixed in the home.

For the last 2-3 months, we’ve been spending more time in our homes than usual. With living and working inside the home, we’ve started to notice the things that are causing us problems. Allergens, dirt, noises, etc. have suddenly appeared before our eyes, yet may have existed all along. Only now are we being confronted with these issues and looking for solutions.

As states open up, homeowners will increasingly seek home performance professionals to fix the issues in their homes. Larry noted that his colleagues in the remodeling industry have never been busier because they are responding to customers who urgently want to improve their homes.

“Train up” now so you’ll be ready to meet the demand.

Larry’s advice to business owners was to make the most of this time at home by learning and getting certified now while you have the time. When you get out in the field, he said, you get busy. You’ll look back on this time and ask yourself, “Why didn’t I do something with my time?”

For example, see our post on how one company is investing in education for its team during Covid-19.

Get ready for more online BPI training.

At the outset of the quarantine, Larry was surprised to see “such a dramatic move toward online training.”

In other worlds, professional development did not pause with the rest of the world. When we couldn’t attend live in-person training, we turned to our computers and mobile devices to help us continue reaching our goals.

And now that we’ve all proven that online BPI training and remote BPI certification testing is possible, it opens the door to similar opportunities in the future.

“There are a lot of people in the industry who are nearing retirement, and they weren’t necessarily going to be learning on their smartphone. But the new generation of people who are coming in… that’s just the medium,” noted Larry.

Generally speaking, we must all continue to embrace the digital technology around us and become comfortable with learning in that format. Of all times in history, we are most equipped now for online learning than ever, and that trend will certainly continue.

Here at Everblue, we offer multiple BPI training and certification courses, both in online and blended formats. In recent weeks, the online training has been most popular, but we will continue to offer in-person training for those who prefer that format.

View the BPI Certifications as stepping stones.

When you first look at the listing of BPI certifications, it can be overwhelming. Do you need all of them? Are all of these just components working toward one ultimate certification? Where do you begin?

We asked Larry for his opinion on which BPI certification is better for a newcomer to the home energy auditing industry – BPI Infiltration & Duct Leakage or BPI Building Analyst.

Larry noted that some of the feedback he received was that Building Analyst was a big leap for someone who had no previous experience in the home energy auditing industry. After all, Building Analyst requires a fairly comprehensive and technical understanding of both building science principles and energy auditing equipment. HIs recommendation was to first pursue BPI Infiltration & Duct Leakage and then upgrade your skills to the Building Analyst level.

“What I like about IDL (Infiltration & Duct Leakage) is, you’re taking two pieces of equipment that you need to know about – how to use a blower door and how to test leakiness of ducts – and you’re de-mystifying it,” he said.

By first achieving the BPI IDL Certification, you gain confidence and get that entry-level understanding of, I know how to use this equipment, and I can immediately apply these skills to my job.

“Then when they step up to Building Analyst, there’s no mystery,” he said. “They understand the process. I see the stepping stones as being important.”

Take advantage of advanced home energy auditing opportunities.

If you’ve already got the BPI Building Analyst Certification and are looking for more meaning in your career, Larry mentioned that the weatherization industry is very strong right now.

“We’re doing work for DOE right now to take our standards for the 1100 and 1200 standards through a process of re-upping with ANSI to make sure that the weatherization credentials are the strongest they can be,” he said.

BPI earned accreditation from the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) for the advanced Home Energy Professional (HEP) certifications in November 2013. The HEP certification program was developed with the support of the U.S. Department of Energy and prepares home energy auditing professionals for careers working with federal weatherization assistance program agencies.

The 1100 and 1200 standards refer to the HEP Energy Auditor and HEP Quality Control Inspector certifications, which both build upon a candidate’s work experience in the residential energy efficiency industry.

We enjoyed speaking with Larry and getting his views on the current state of the home energy auditing industry. For more of Larry’s thoughts, check out the full interview below:

A Conversation with E4TheFuture Founder, Steve Cowell

Our Everblue Co-Founder, Jon Boggiano, recently had the opportunity to sit down and speak with Stephen Cowell, current president of E4TheFuture. Everblue specializes in both BPI training and certification. Together they discuss the state of the energy efficiency industry, how it’s being transformed, and the bright future we have to look forward to creating together. Their conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity below.

Jon Boggiano

As a serial entrepreneur, he is an innovator, leader, and investor who focuses on forging organizations that positively impact the greater good. His twin passions are building things (products, experiences, and companies) and mentoring professionals. Jon serves as a board member and advisor to a number of companies and non-profits.  He holds a BS from the US Military Academy at West Point and an MS from Stanford University. In 2011, the White House recognized Jon as a Champion of Change for his work at Everblue. 

Stephen Cowell

Steve founded and has directed numerous energy efficiency and renewable energy organizations, including Conservation Services Group (CSG) in 1984. He was the organization’s chairman and CEO until the 2015 sale of its assets. Under Cowell’s leadership, CSG designed and implemented conservation and renewable energy programs for utilities, state agencies, and other entities nationwide ultimately providing services to more than 3.2 million businesses and households. Cowell successfully advocated for energy efficiency as a least-cost power supply option. He helped to create and build the residential energy efficiency industry through sound public policy, legislation, and establishment of trade ally networks as well as delivery of cost-effective programs.

E4TheFuture promotes residential clean energy and sustainable resource solutions to advance climate protection and economic fairness by influencing federal, state and local policies. Their goal is to build resilient and vibrant energy efficiency and grow the clean energy sector by developing local innovative strategies.

As a well-established thought leader, E4TheFuture serves as both an actor and an enabler of others’ actions. They publish, convene, advocate, and develop demonstration projects to promote education in their industry.

E4TheFuture collaborates with industry stakeholders to provide expert policy solutions, education, and advocacy in a pragmatic way. As a small, nimble organization, they integrate smart strategies to accomplish public policy goals to advance clean energy.

As the energy industry evolves, E4TheFuture supports advancing the effective integration of energy efficiency (EE) with other distributed clean energy resources, with the goal of ensuring affordable, clean and equitable energy use for all customers. 

How did you get started?

When Steve began his career, he became interested in energy conservation. In 1979, at the request of the Carter Administration during the Iran hostage and oil crisis, Steve was asked to come up with an idea of how to address the challenge that everyone faced as oil prices tripled. So he immediately reached out to the state’s weatherization program to better understand energy conservation.

After learning about low cost and no cost energy that people can achieve on their own, he was personally thanked by Walter Mondale, then vice president of the United States, and was awarded state funding to organize workshops in Massachusetts:

“We organized workshops all over the state for the next several years [and] educated hundreds of thousands of people a year on how to save energy. That was it. That was the decisive start to the concept of energy efficiency as a public policy to help our economy. To help our country. And in 1982, I left the state government to set up a vehicle that [could] bring this to reality, and that was Conservation Services Group. We started in 1984 and we essentially developed the concept of setting up and managing energy efficiency as a resource.”

Jon: “Was Conservation Services Group an advocacy group or did they actually perform audits by going into homes and doing retrofits themselves?”

Steve: We were absolutely going into homes and doing it, because “our feeling was if we didn’t do it and prove that it worked, we couldn’t advocate for it — it has to be built on something that’s clear and can be done successfully and fully replicated.”

How has Covid-19 affected our industry?

Jon: “How would you say the community is doing currently? If somebody is furloughed because of Covid-19, is this an industry that’s growing and worth coming back to? Or should they go find another job doing something else?

Steve: “We’re coming back. They’re definitely coming back…We have been working across the industry to help facilitate the rules and procedures for how we can get back. We’re asking questions like, ‘How do we re-enter homes? What are the safety protocols? What are the health considerations? How do you comply with all [of] the new health rules that are going to be in place for at least the next year?’ We need to do a lot of training and a lot of educating to help work with the rule makers.”

Jon: “Is energy efficiency even of importance? If you look at current federal policy and the scaling back that we’re seeing, what’s your perspective on both the impact of coronavirus and the state of federal funding. Where is this going? Do you see a growing future for energy efficiency?”

Steve: “The absolute [answer] is yes. The tools that we use, the methods of communication may change, but due to the current stay-at-home recommendations, people are viewing their homes in ways that they probably didn’t when they just went in and out for dinner and went to sleep and left for work in the morning. Now they’re living there 24/7. And there are very clear comfort questions. There are health questions. We’ve been working a lot with the folks around the country who are looking at the issues surrounding how healthy is our home? Air quality, particulate matter. Considering asthma, et cetera. And so, health, and the quality of [our homes] is totally interactive and interrelated. And if we’re going to meet our climate goals, we have to make our homes more energy efficient.”

The Impact and Extension of Technology

Jon: “Everyone these days has now been getting more accustomed to doing things remotely, getting more comfortable with technology to mitigate the exposure and lower the risk of spreading Covid-19.”

Steve: “Exactly. Because more can be done online, more can be done virtually, [and] the whole issue of remote energy assessments is now on the table. Using data that’s available online. Being able to look at a home virtually with someone carrying their Facetime around. This epidemic has really shoved new tools into our lap, and provided the experience of working remotely where we have become more comfortable dealing with people in this new way rather than face to face in the same room… It’s also more efficient.”

What’s ahead in terms of public policy?

Jon: “What policy changes are coming? Is any of this current or future stimulus money going to affect our industry? What can people look for and expect either at the state or federal level? What are your thoughts?”

Steve: “There’s a proposal that’s being developed by Building Performance Association [BPA] and our team. It’s called Hope for Homes. It is a reconnection of the Home Star initiative they did in 2008 that I was leading. This was part of the 16 billion dollar energy portion of the stimulus bill. And we got that passed. This led us to the idea to take this to the next level, and move it forward- let’s do Home Star, which is basically taking the work around individual homes and accelerating it.’ But, we didn’t get it passed. We got it through the House but didn’t get it through the Senate. We came within one vote.” But, “there’s a whole coalition of folks that are putting together Hope for Homes, which would [include] incentives and technical support and tax credits, et cetera.”

Getting the Economy Back on Track

Steve: “First, you’ve got to deal with the health, right? Get people healthier. Stop the spread. But, we have to then get our economy working again. There’s a lot of discussion and talk about what do we need to do to get our economy back up and moving. Hope for Homes is one part of that equation that we’re hoping will be incorporated into the stimulus bill. Yes, one part of many… and we are working with contractors and small businesses in our industry to help them with the PPP program to help them deal with the health issues. There’s the PPP and the PPE, or personal protective equipment… BPA has a website with information on both of those things to help those in the industry navigate what’s out there.”

The Future of Energy Efficiency

Jon: “So you see lots of new opportunities for people? Any trends you see right now? What would you recommend for people? Do you see any trends in training and certifications or utility programs that people should be on the lookout for? What are the trends that you’re seeing that people can look for over the next six months to a year?”

The Road Ahead

Steve: “We have work to do. It is complex, but we can work together to evolve our industry. Take advantage of this unique opportunity to chart a new path forward.”

Jon: “Prior to the pandemic, the biggest complaint I’ve heard from a lot of businesses is just finding people, their biggest constraint to growing their energy auditing and energy efficiency, home performance business was labor. Where can they find great talent? Do we think the pandemic will change that?”

Steve: “Well, there’ll be a lot of people looking for work.”

Jon: “Yep, and hopefully we can draw them into the industry.”

Steve: “That’s right. Come on in. Is this an industry that’s got a long way to go? Absolutely. There are great opportunities [and] new skills to take advantage of. Join us.”

Thank you, Steve, for taking the time to share your thoughts on the industry with us. We really enjoyed our time together and learning about the policy changes that will help accelerate and grow the energy efficiency industry. If you’re as excited as we are to improve the industry and want to get started, check out our course catalog.”