ACCA Existing Residential Building Improvement Standard: Some Thoughts

Comment

Comment by Ed Voytovich on April 26, 2011 at 9:25am

Well said, David.  The puzzlement just keeps self-replicating.  I'm sure you have noticed (as heaven knows I have) that candidates to do our work who also meet your ideal (which is the same as mine) make hens' teeth seem readily available.

This is the first question that needs to be addressed, and in my worldview it comes way ahead of green building and passivhaus construction.

My own fantasy would be to bring the military home, train them to do excellent retrofit work, run projects like battles, create officers and non-coms who can lead their troops, pay for it by slashing the need for foreign energy, and share the approach with other developed nations.  Of course, the second pincer would flank the sustainable use of water, and pay for wastewater purification and desalinization plants with funds previously dedicated to advanced fighter aircraft and other such projects.

Like I said, it's a fantasy.

Comment by David Willson on April 26, 2011 at 8:05am

Yes, an excellent question, and a puzzlement worth talking about, Ed.  Something you allude to without really driving home is that it is your experience and time in the field that allows you to believe in yourself as someone qualified to do audits and quality retrofits.  Your credentials do, also, but only in conjunction with your experience.  And therein is the rub.

 

How do we instill in our newcomers to the field of Home Performance that the classes and credentials they may be picking up are only the ticket in the door and that they have to watch the show for a while before they're qualified to get up on the stage?  Can it be made more explicitly during BPI, HERS, or BIG classes that these classes are only a beginning?  And can that be done without discouraging the many thousands of workers that must enter the field in the next 5 years?  Can we, as mentors and employers, successfully instill in those we hire that this is a complex field, with no shortage of surprises, and a young enough field that it's growing and changing at a rapid pace and requires constant learning? 

 

I think all of the above.  I won't take somebody on that hasn't passed the basic BPI certification and I realize there's still many hours of one on one mentoring that needs to be done.  My ideal of an employee:

 

An understanding that Building Science actually has a fair amount of science in it,

Always looking for what they can learn from the project at hand,

A constant quest for thoroughness and perfection,

Enough humbleness to recognize mistakes when made and fix them,

A thorough understanding of customer health risks in what we do,

A rock solid belief that a satisfied customer is the best sales tool.

 

It's up to those in the field that already are all of the above to define the above as worthy goals for all employees.