Insulation Institute Blog

Pandemic Could Drive Net Zero Construction

Pandemic May Drive Zero Energy Construction

iStock-916028432-1-1An increasing number of states and municipal governments are considering more stringent energy efficiency goals into their updated building codes. For example, new residential construction in several locales within Colorado must comply with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Zero Energy Ready Home program. While Colorado may be on the leading edge, states that have targeted carbon reduction are ramping up efforts to move to more stringent building codes. The pandemic may accelerate that activity.

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Pandemic Could Drive Net Zero Construction

How to Nurture Workforce Development

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 significant workforce challenges. In this third and final of a three-part blog series, we look at why and how state and national organizations can get involved with these initiatives.

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How to Nurture Workforce Development

Seeds for Workforce Success

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 in developing the Building Performance workforce in the state.

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Seeds for Workforce Success

Developing Careers in Building Performance

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 initiative

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Developing Careers in Building Performance

5 Reasons to Build with Mineral Wool

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 educate others about high-performance, energy-efficient building practices, but he does.

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5 Reasons to Build with Mineral Wool

Clean Energy Sheds 595K Jobs

A new report released yesterday by E2 (Environmental Entrepreneurs), the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE), E4TheFuture, and BW Research Partnership shows that nearly 600,000 clean energy workers have lost their jobs since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is nearly 18 percent of the total industry workforce, according to the group’s press release.

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Clean Energy Sheds 595K Jobs

How Building Will Change: Healthier Products

COVID-19 has more Americans staying at home to reduce the rate of disease spread, and that means spending more time indoors. While few people associate indoor air with pollution, a study from Washington State University last year reported that indoor air could be much more polluted than outdoor air. This pollution is due in part to emissions that come furniture, household cleaning products, cooking, and notably, building materials.

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How Building Will Change: Healthier Products

A New Normal: Virtual Inspections

The current pandemic has forced many industries to develop alternative methods for their typical operations, and construction is no different. In the first of a new series we’re calling, “How Construction Will Change,” Insulation Institute takes a look at a growing trend for the building industry: virtual code inspections.

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A New Normal: Virtual Inspections