Green building training focuses on contractors

By Morgan A. Zalot | For the Philadelphia Business Journal

A certification program for green tradespeople that originated in Philadelphia is spreading across the country.
The Delaware Valley chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council helped develop and pilot the program in 2005 for regional builders and contractors.
Demand for the program from other chapters prompted the program’s managers to outsource it this year to Resource Dynamics Inc., a Yardley-based conference and workshop management firm specializing in green building and sustainability.
Resource Dynamics now works with chapters of the council across the country to help them operate Green Advantage training sessions and administer the certification exams locally.
“We’re a regional nonprofit, so we wanted to concentrate on spending our resources and time here in the Greater Philadelphia region rather than serving people in Arkansas or Texas. They have local chapters,” explained Heather Blakeslee, educational programs coordinator for the Delaware Valley Green Building Council. “[There's] so much market demand for it, [it's] probably better suited for a for-profit company.”
The number of building industry professionals who participated in the Green Advantage program tripled in 2007 over the previous year and program operators expect demand to increase through 2008.
Lisa Grayson Zygmunt, who helped develop the program and currently leads it for Resource Dynamics, said Green Advantage is to contractors what LEED is to designers.

“It’s a very complementary piece to the design for green building,” she said.

Green Advantage also ties in with LEED because if a certain percentage of contractors on a project pass the certification exam, the building automatically gains a higher point toward LEED certification.

Green Advantage is now a national program with more than 20 faculty members, said Zygmunt. USGBC chapters or contractor trade associations offer public workshops, and many chapters also do private workshops for companies that want to certify their workers so they can market themselves to builders
seeking LEED certification.
The workshops, which are taught jointly by an architect and a contractor, are one-day sessions that typically last from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a follow up certification exam on a separate day. The cost is generally $450 for a workshop, including the exam. If a contractor wants to take the exam without training or more than 90 days after the workshop the fee is $175.
The three main sections of the sessions focus on laying the groundwork for a green building, constructing a green building and finishing a green building. Workshops feature interactive learning in addition to lectures.

Robert Fleming, a DVGBC board member who serves as a faculty member on the architecture side of Green Advantage, said that the best part of the training is the balance it offers between real-world information and broad theories and perspectives on sustainability.
“The strategy is that architect is covering some big picture stuff, and you want the builder to understand how each action and practice fits into the overall picture of sustainability,” he explained.

Michelle Robinson, another Green Advantage faculty member who works as a sustainability specialist at Re:Vision Architecture in Manyunk, said that the juxtaposition of the contractor and architect¹s instruction makes the course more interesting and relatable because the two can play off of each
other’s expertise.
“And it¹s not just two instructors up front lecturing,” Robinson explained. She said the class also includes a number of breakout sessions including role play, green material exercises and a game of jeopardy featuring questions that may appear on the certification exam.

A schedule of public workshops as well as an online registration form is available at www.greenadvantage.org.

Malvern-based Liberty Property Trust senior vice president of national leasing and business development Jim Maneri said his company, which incorporated many green design features into the new Comcast Center, has been certifying its employees since the training first became available.
“The green movement, or the high-performance building movement, is something that we firmly believe in,” he said. “In fact, it¹s been a part of our culture for more than 20 years from the perspective that we¹ve always been focused on the environment that workers have in our buildings.”

He said “many” of the contractors involved in the Comcast Center, which includes features such as electric car charging stations and water-conserving toilets, were Green Advantage certified.
In addition to the center, some other green projects currently underway in the region include a project by King of Prussia-based Irwin & Leighton Inc. involving Target stores¹ first East coast LEED projects in Stafford, N.J., Philadelphia-based Intech Construction¹s Haverford College and University City projects; and Springfield-based W.S. Cumby¹s Overbrook School for the Blind.

W.S. Cumby regional construction manager and general contractor Michael O’Brien, who serves as a facilitator for the Green Advantage program, said that it is the only program of its kind that he knows of.

Washington, D.C.-based USGBC Professional Development Manager Ryan Snow said Green Advantage is the only program that offers a one-day workshop and certification. The USGBC, he said, supports another program with a similar curriculum, but that it is offered as a semester-long course at colleges.

“We found it valuable enough to make it mandatory for all of our administrative and field personnel to become Green Advantage certified,” said O’Brien. “The educational component of green building is so important in the successful delivery of a good green building.”

He said W.S. Cumby also requires all subcontractors on projects to undergo the training before they being working on-site.

Irwin & Leighton CEO Jim Brecker said it was natural for his company to obtain Green Advantage certification, as many of its customers are proponents of sustainability.

He said Green Advantage stands out among its competitor USGBC-approved training programs because they tend to be more LEED-centric, whereas Green Advantage focuses on the building aspect.

“I think it helps our people feel better about understanding when they hear things and see things exactly what LEED is,” he said. “It¹s also helped us as a company because our customers see us as being on top of things.”

Intech’s goal is to certify 100 percent of its project management and preconstruction team, said Project Director Chas Ricciardi.

“It’s the way the industry is headed,” he said. “We see more and more projects coming out with green building design whether or not they’re going for LEED certification, and we¹re just trying to educate ur people on what it’s all about.”

Blakeslee said she still receives inquiries about the program, even though her organization outsourced it to Resource Dynamics months ago.

“It”s one thing to design a green building, but if the contractor doesn¹t understand why the design team asks [for things], it can be derailed,” Blakeslee said. “It takes all three steps operating in a green manner to realize cost, energy and water savings. It¹s got to be designed, built and
operated green.”