NESEA is thrilled to announce the launch of BuildingEnergy Access, a new initiative to support the work of WMBEs (women and minority-owned business enterprises) by connecting them with the resources of the NESEA community. In this cohort-based program, business owners will receive custom business development services, attend industry events for education and networking, receive marketing opportunities through a spotlight program, and participate in a business-owner peer group to hone their triple bottom lines practices (people, planet, and prosperity).

BuildingEnergy Access is an expansion of existing NESEA programs, supplemented with professional services from our program partner, HELM Construction Solutions. This program is designed to serve businesses led by people who have traditionally been underrepresented in the AEC (architecture, engineering, and construction) space, including people of underrepresented gender and racial identities.

The program will include two cohorts:

• Cohort 1, Launching January 2024:
  Serving companies led by women and other underrepresented gender identities
• Cohort 2, Launching January 2025:
  Serving companies led by BIPOC (black, indigenous, people of color) individuals
  

Who Should Apply?
This program is being funded with a grant from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. Participating WMBEs should be Massachusetts-based, or performing work in Massachusetts with an individual participant residing within the commonwealth. Priority deadline for Cohort 1 is Nov 21.

Event Date: Wednesday, November 1, 2023
Time: 4:00PM-5:00pm
Venue: Online
Cost: Free

Join us for the 2023 NESEA Annual Meeting, this afternoon, on Wednesday, November 1.

Whether you’ve been a NESEA Member since the beginning or are just curious about NESEA’s work and mission, this is the event for you. Members and non-members alike are welcome.

NESEA's Executive Director, Board Chair, and Treasurer will provide a report summarizing our last fiscal year (July 1, 2022 - June 30, 2023). In addition to learning about our recent work, participants will have the opportunity to network through virtual breakout rooms.

We hope to see you there! Questions? Contact nesea@nesea.org

Call for Proposals: October 18 - November 6
Review Period: November 6 - December 16
Notification of Status: December 2023
 
BuildingEnergy Boston 2024 Conference Theme: Climate Resilience
 
As the planet warms, the Northeast is already experiencing severe weather events, including prolonged heat waves and cold snaps, strong winds, heavy rains, and coastal flooding. Achieving climate resilience in our built environment will require us to implement a wide array of passive and active solutions to mitigate the effects of these changes. At the same time, we must continue to address the root causes by reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. It is also critical to ensure that vulnerable and under-resourced communities do not bear the brunt of these challenges.

For BuildingEnergy Boston 2024, we are eager to see session proposals connecting to the theme of climate resilience, especially those focused on:

• Case studies and lessons learned
• Decarbonization (operational and embodied) and electrification
• Planning and adaptation strategies
• Policy
• Environmental justice
• Building performance in extreme weather conditions
• Scalability
• Microgrids and distributed energy resources

Event Date: Thursday, November 2, 2023
Time: 3:00PM-4:00PM
Location: Online
Cost: free

Thinking of submitting a session proposal for BuildingEnergy Boston 2024, but don't know where to start? Have a question about the conference theme? Have an idea but want a different perspective? Join us for an informal chat with our conference chairs! This is a great opportunity to develop and refine session ideas while the call for proposals is still open.

Event Date: Friday, November 3, 2023
Time: 1pm-5pm
Location: Petersburg, NY
CEU Information: AIA (pending)
Cost: $25 Members/$35 Non-Members

Join NESEA this Friday as we tour the new Soul Fire Farm Program Center, a nearly all-electric commercial building constructed from straw-insulated panels. The project team, led by New Frameworks, will share the story of this project, including history, design strategies, and materials.

Attendees on this autumn tour will learn about the history of this project and how it meets Soul Fire Farm’s programmatic goals, while also reflecting the project team’s deep commitment to low-carbon building.

After an opening presentation from our hosts, we’ll tour the building, taking a deep dive into specific aspects of the project, and then close the day with a reception and a chance for a Q&A.

Event Date: Friday, November 17, 2023
Time: 1pm-5pm
Location: Hollis, NH 03049
CEU Information: AIA (pending)
Cost: $25 Members/$35 Non-Members
 
Join us for a Pro Tour of this recently completed single-family home in Southern, NH, built to provide comfortable, net zero living using low VOC materials and finishes.

During our tour, attendees will hear directly from the project team, led by the homeowner, who will provide their unique perspective on the vision and goals behind the project. Attendees will learn how this 1.5 story home was designed to meet the PHIUS air tightness standard and the Pretty Good House thermal specs, with a building science driven-concept design that also aimed for overall practical construction methods. The team will also discuss their material selection process, which prioritized low embodied carbon materials, avoiding Red List materials, and incorporating the Pharos Project chemical analysis.

After a welcoming presentation, attendees will tour the house and adjacent solar barn, hear members of the project team discuss their specific work. After, we’ll reconvene as a large group for a chance for Q&A and a networking reception. Join us!

We were delighted to host our annual awards reception, NESEA Night, in New York City for the second time on October 11^th 2023. It was a great evening that brought our community together to honor four outstanding individuals and to have some fun! We would again like to congratulate our award winners, Chris Benedict, Henry Gifford, Monisha Royan, and Phil Kaplan. We would also like to thank NYSERDA and Roadtrip Nation for their sponsorship and presentation.

You can see a gallery of photos from the reception here.

It was so wonderful to see our community back together at BuildingEnergy NYC and to see so many new faces (for 39% of attendees, this was their first NESEA event). The conference was a timely reminder of the incredible work happening around us and the necessity of sharing information and collaborating as we work towards decarbonization and a more sustainable built environment. We have compiled a collection of photos from the conference here and you can review slide decks from conference sessions on our website here.

Thank you to this year's sponsors, exhibitors, speakers, and Content Committee, especially to Conference Chairs Michaela Boren-Kapadia and Christina McPike, and Vice-Chairs Danielle Donnelly and Monisha Royan.

Our community is truly what makes our conferences special. We hope to see you at an upcoming NESEA event soon!

On October 20^th, NESEA held a Pro Tour of Ironworks Ithaca, a new all-electric urban infill project in downtown Ithaca, NY. The recently-completed project provides more than 120 apartments and 4,800 square feet of retail space while aligning with the city's ambitious goals of decarbonizing buildings by 2030. Our thanks go out to tour attendees, our hosts at Taitem Engineering, and to our sponsors for making the event so fun and informative. You can see photos from this event here.

Are you a Net Zero or Passive House Pro? How do people find you? MassCEC has supported the creation of BE+ CONNECTS, a discovery tool that curates companies, and their linked professionals, to promote expertise to clients designing and constructing high-performance buildings in support of the High-Performance Building Procurement Toolkit. Learn more...

Hosting Organization: Phius
Event Date: Tuesday, November 7, 2023 to Friday, November 10, 2023
Venue: Marriott Marquis Houston
Address: 1777 Walker Street, Houston, TX 77010

PhiusCon is North America’s leading passive building conference for zero energy design and construction, climate solutions, and building science expertise. Each year, PhiusCon attracts hundreds of architects, builders, engineers, policymakers and developers from across the globe with its combination of content-rich sessions and thought-provoking keynote addresses.

In addition to sessions and plenaries, the four-day event features:

• An expansive exhibit hall featuring the top high-performance building manufacturers
• The unveiling of the Phius Passive Projects Design Competition winners
• The official PhiusCon After Party networking event
• A tour of local passive projects

Learn more...

On January 31, commemorate the 10+ year anniversary of the Building Energy Exchange (BE-Ex), celebrate our recent awards, achievements, and recognize the exceptional individuals who have contributed to our success.

Join us as we celebrate more than a decade filled with impactful resources, programs, and initiatives, all supported by an ever-growing community dedicated to shaping the future of our built environment for a more healthful, comfortable, and climate-friendly future. Formal invitations with more details will follow soon.

Save the date and be part of “Celebrate BE-Ex! A Decade of Excellence” as we express our gratitude to those who have made it all possible and look to the future impact we can make together. Learn more...

Starts: March 25, 2024 9:00am
Ends: May 3, 2024 5:00pm
Location: Waitsfield VT Campus
Materials Fee: $135
Tuition: $6000

This 6 week intensive program will provide practical, hands-on experience in the design/build process centered on high performance, super insulated residential homes. At the end of the program, students will feel comfortable with basic hand and power tools, framing, building envelope detailing (both design and build), insulation types and methods, drawing and reading plans, understanding basic HVAC, plumbing and electrical systems and more. Learn more...

Hosting Organization: MassCEC + Built Environment Plus (BE+)
Submission Deadline: March 31, 2024

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) has partnered with Built Environment Plus (BE+) to run this exciting new challenge to influence design decisions to address the embodied carbon of projects. Along with cash prizes for projects demonstrating significant embodied carbon reductions, the Challenge is providing resources, tools, and trainings to support project teams in performing Whole Building Life Cycle Assessments (WBLCAs). Free licenses to either One Click LCA or Tally LCA are being provided to every firm that simply expresses interest in the Challenge.

The deadline for submitting projects is March 31, 2024. A total of $380,000 in prizes are available. Five prizes are reserved for first-time use of WBLCAs. Projects must be whole buildings over 20,000 square feet. Prizes include a $50,000 grand prize for substantial rehabilitation, a $50,000 grand prize for new construction, nine runner-up prizes of $30,000, and a $10,000 people’s choice award. Learn more...

Voting for the 2023 NESEA's Board of Directors election is open! This year, 6 NESEA Members are running for 5 open seats on the board. Our membership will elect 3 individuals, and the Board will then make 2 appointments. Voting is open to all NESEA Members and will close on November 2.

You can preview the candidate statement page now. NESEA Members each receive a unique voting link to cast their votes. Not a current member? Join or renew today to vote in this year's election.