50th Anniversary: BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Retrospective

Connecting in the field to learn about innovative projects and advancements in sustainable technology and building practice has always been part of NESEA. Over the years, we've run countless workshops, tours, and other events designed to bring people together to see projects first-hand. The current iteration of this work is our popular BuildingEnergy Pro Tour program, deep dives into high performance building projects across the northeast. 
 
As we looked back at the first 11 years of this program, we aggregated our list of the 136 projects that we have featured as NESEA Pro Tour sites (including 10 that we ran virtually in 2021/22), to create the map below, which shows every city and state that houses a former Pro Tour project. We have also compiled a gallery of memorable moments that show the breadth of the program. We hope to see you at one of the remaining Pro Tours in our 2025 series. 
 

NESEA BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Host Cities 2013-2025


More About Our BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Program

BuildingEnergy Pro Tours are deep dives into high performance building projects across the northeast. During these half-day, accredited tours, the NESEA community comes together with the experts behind each project for days of learning and networking side-by-side. Since this program launched in 2013, we have highlighted 136 buildings, with a total of 6,754 event registrations (our average number of attendees per event is about 50).

While there have been some tweaks along the way, the basic format is the same: 

  • we gather together for an opening presentation or workshop to learn about the background, strategies, and special features of a building or project
  • we split into small groups to tour, learning from the experts whose work is being showcased
  • we always wrap the day with a reception and chance for more questions.

In addition to being invaluable opportunities to directly hear from and ask questions of experts, Pro Tours also serve as important regional networking events, giving our community a chance to connect and grow beyond our two annual metropolitan conferences. This program is also a consistent on-ramp: at any given event, typically 35-50 percent of attendees are at their first-ever NESEA event.

Late each fall, we put out a call for proposals for the following year’s series, which runs April-December. NESEA staff work with a volunteer advisory committee to work through the many proposals to develop an inspiring series that balance factors including stages of construction, professional backgrounds of presenters, types of buildings, materials, geography, and other special features.

You can explore previous events in detail here - and we hope you’ll be able to join us on one of the remaining events this year!