Past Events

On December 4th, NESEA hosted a BuildingEnergy Pro Tour in Falmouth, ME of a modular, net zero home and the nation's third Passive House-certified school!

NESEA hosted a Pro Tour of two sustainable homes in Lancaster, NH! The tours of these two homes, one a Net Zero Home, the other a Deep Energy Retrofit, were led by Ben Southworth, who designed both projects, as well as builder Tom Southworth, project manager Matt Hammon, and home owners Imre Szauter and Fletcher Manley.

Due to the overwhelming enthusiasm for the August Pro Tour of this site, NESEA was thrilled to be able to offer a second Pro Tour of the first Passive House in Wayland! The tour of this 2,500 square foot home was led by hosts Mike Dutra and Nicholas Falkoff from Auburndale Builders, Michael Hindle, CPHC, and Donald Grose, the project designer.

On October 2nd, NESEA hosted a Pro Tour of a Passive House retrofit in Manhattan! The project team was striving for Passive House EnerPHit certification, LEED Platinum certification, and committed to healthy “Red List” compliant materials. The tour was be led by Janus Welton, CSBA, LEED AP BD+C EcoArchitecture DesignWorks, PC and other project team members and concluded with a reception and presentation.

On 9/18/15, NESEA held on a Pro Tour of two projects under construction on the Hampshire College campus in Amherst, MA, designed to meet the rigorous standards of the Living Building Challenge (LBC). There are currently only eight certified LBC projects in the world.

This Pro Tour visited two sites located in Augusta and Lafayette, NJ, both of them residential homes. Each of these houses uses combinations of both passive and active renewable energy systems, including wind power, and most notably solar power.

Join NESEA on a Pro Tour hosted by NESEA member Menck Windows of their recently completed 75,000 square foot advanced production and process technology facility featuring state-of-the-art CNC equipment.

Over 70 people joined NESEA on this Pro Tour of the first Passive House in Wayland! The tour of this 2,500 square foot home was led by hosts Mike Dutra and Nicholas Falkoff from Auburndale Builders, Michael Hindle, CPHC, and Donald Grose, the project designer. The tour concluded with a reception, and a presentation entitled "Going Foam-Free in Passive Construction." CEUs: 2.5 AIA LU/HSW, 2.5 GBCI, and certificates of participation were available Member registration: $25 | Non-member registration: $35

During this Pro Tour of the Berkshire County Jail, a group of architects, engineers, and municipal planners, among others, toured the site of one of the deepest reductions of energy use by a state facility in Massachusetts.The project is projected to result in a 52% reduction in energy use through operational improvements, electrical and mechanical systems optimization and onsite renewable production. The tour of this 148,000 square foot facility was led by Bart Bales, PE, MSME of Bales Energy Associates, the energy engineer for the project, and concluded with a reception, presentation and Q&A session.

Thirty-five people gathered on a sunny spring afternoon for a Pro Tour of the home that won the 2015 Zero Net Energy Building Award, located in Greenfield, MA. The tour was led by builder and homeowner Spartan Giordano and lead carpenter Adam Heintz, and concluded with a reception, presentation and Q&A session.

Over 50 builders, students, architects, engineers, contractors and real estate professionals joined NESEA on a Pro Tour of the first Passive House in Rhode Island on Friday, April 17. The tour was hosted by builder Steve DeMetrick, and led by Steve DeMetrick, the architect Steve Baczek, the Passive House rater John Rodenhizer and the Passive House consultant Dan Roy. The event concluded with a reception and workshop led by homeowners and commercial real estate appraisers Brad and Jordan Hevenor on the topic of appraising high performance buildings.

On a warm (ish) day in April, NESEA organized a Pro Tour of two sites designed and built by South Mountain Company and Island Housing Trust, located on Martha's Vineyard MA. The tour showcased healthy, durable, comfortable homes that offer valuable lessons for building high-performance and affordable structures in the 21st century. The tour will concluded with an educational workshop with Matt Coffey, John Abrams and Marc Rosenbaum of South Mountain Company, and Philippe Jordi of Island Housing Trust.