Two hundred years ago homebuilders never heard of power tools, never mind electricity. One hundred years ago contractor computer software did not exist.
Over the decades those in the construction trades have found the need to adopt new technology and skills to stay relevant in an evolving world. In the coming decades those in the building industry appear poised to evolve again as the green-building concept takes root.
“There are going to be an awful lot of jobs that are going to have a significant energy component, but they will be located in the core skills of the field that they have elected to endeavor to pursue,” said Steve Kitchin, who chairs the U.S. Green Building Council Rhode Island chapter.
Kitchin, who is also vice president for corporate education and training at the New England Institute of Technology, said defining a green job is difficult. Is a plumber that can fix a 20-year-old hot water heater and a 1-year-old geothermal system part of the green-building economy? Or is he just keeping pace with changes in the field?
“I’m not sure I can define that as either being green or not being green,” Kitchin said. “I know this: It involves sustainability, but that person still needs to have a set of core skills in the traditional ways we’ve been heating buildings for the past 50 years.”
But this is no futuristic concept. Kitchin said many workers who see green building as an opportunity to advance their careers or help their business are already doing that.
The businessman
For three years, Dan Mercer worked at Fidelity Investments selling mutual funds and other products to financial advisers. He loved it.
But as he watched energy prices climb and interest in renewable energy systems grow, he thought about his old employer, Gem Plumbing & Heating Co. in Lincoln. When the price of home heating oil hit $4 a gallon, people clamored for renewable energy systems. Mercer thought Gem deserved a piece of the action.
He met with the company’s owners and persuaded them to create a position to focus on renewable energy technologies. Last year they agreed and Mercer, now 26, took a job with Gem.
“This is a tremendous opportunity right now,” Mercer said. “It’s almost like buying into the stock market when it’s low.”
Mercer said homeowners and commercial landlords no longer view energy-efficient systems as a niche market but as a route to lower utility bills. Someone needs to sell, install and maintain these systems and Mercer wants Gem to be that company.
For Mercer, Gem already owns the perfect springboard. Its plumbers and electricians make hundreds of visits annually to homes and businesses for routine repairs. In the process they find antiquated and inefficient heating systems. With the proper knowledge, they can fix the clogged toilet that brought them to the home or business, and recommend a new energy-efficient, tank-less water heater. Plus, Gem can install it – and that means more profit.
Yes, spending money to train technicians to fix a solar hot water system as quickly as a kitchen sink takes money and banks on the assumption that customers will demand the technology. Inquiries about green technologies already constitute between 7 and 10 percent of calls Gem fields each week. Mercer expects that number to only rise as countries like China and India demand an increasing share of the world’s limited oil reserves and energy prices in the United States rise.
Gem already took a major step toward committing to green technologies by launching plans to install a 64-kilowatt solar system on the roof of its headquarters. When complete, the system will provide technicians hands-on experience. Mercer hopes the interactions will also make his technicians feel comfortable pitching a similar system to customers they visit. Combined with additional training, the chance for green technologies to move from the margins of the Gem’s profit and loss sheet to a lead position is high, Mercer said.
“It’s just a matter of playing your cards right and putting all the pieces together,” he said.
The electrician
When New England Tech and a consultant started designing a solar system for the roof of one of the school’s buildings, Mike Eggeman, an assistant professor in the electrical-technology program, worried about trees just as much as wiring. Shade caused by nearby trees threatened to decrease the energy output of the 135 solar panels that the school ultimately installed on the roof.
Eggeman, an electrician by training, previously would have paid little attention to trees. But with an emerging green-building industry, Eggeman, 44, and his students are being compelled to broaden their skills set to compete. In October, New England Tech added an optional seventh quarter to its electrical program. The quarter focuses solely on green technology. The school says about half the students in its traditional program stay for the extra quarter.
“It gets you in the front door of a contractor’s place,” said Mike Petit, 56, an adjunct instructor in the program who owns his own electrical-contracting business, The Grid Company.
Petit and Eggeman said employers tell them that they prefer students who complete the extra quarter and obtain an entry-level certification from the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners. Alteris Renewables, a major installer of renewable energy systems, told the school outright that faced with choosing between two candidates – one with certification and the other without – the company would hire the one with the certification.
“They see us as a breeding ground,” said Meg McKenna, chairwoman of the electrical technology department.
The instructors said they expect employers to increasingly call on employees to service not only traditional light switches, but solar arrays, geothermal systems and wind turbines, too. New England Tech sees such skills as becoming so important that administrators see an opportunity to create a bachelor’s program for electrical technology that encompasses green- building-technology training.
The energy engineer
Tom Coughlin acknowledges his job appears counterintuitive. Coughlin, 53, works for Rhode Island’s largest distributor of electricity but spends his days advising customers how to use less electricity.
Coughlin, a program manager at National Grid, said the London-based utility sees green building as a way to keep its balance sheet healthy and shareholders happy, all while being a good environmental steward.
That’s because National Grid merely distributes electricity and makes no profit from the sale of the electricity itself. Less electricity consumption translates into fewer costly substations, power lines and the like that can cost National Grid millions, and sometimes billions, of dollars.
“Recognizing the importance of energy efficiency is part of the day-to-day business of what we do,” said Coughlin, who works at the utility’s Waltham, Mass., offices.
Coughlin specializes in working with schools to reduce their energy usage and companies to reduce electricity costs associated with lighting. He recently worked with Sperian Protection in Smithfield to overhaul the company’s lighting and save it about $87,000 a year in electricity costs. The company will make back its $220,000 initial investment in less than three years, thanks in part to a $78,000 incentive from National Grid.
On the National Grid side, there are increasingly more people working in Coughlin’s department. The department has tripled in size to about 160 people since National Grid merged with New England Electric System about 11 years ago and then underwent a series of additional mergers. And during the past two year’s Coughlin’s budget has increased by 30 percent each year.
“There’s been a lot of growth and a lot of need [for] people who understand how to build green buildings,” he said. “Building a new building green is not necessarily an easy thing.”
The architect
In 2006, Mark Spaulding walked into a U.S. Green Building Council workshop and saw a troubling sight. The architect at Symmes Maini & McKee Associates recognized his competitors studying to become certified in an emerging green-building standard known as LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. Spaulding, who had walked in with no interest in receiving the certification, quickly changed his mind.
“I think that was a little bit of an incentive to say, ‘If I don’t have it, I may be seen as incapable,’ ” he said.
Spaulding, 50, said the concept of green building will not spawn a new generation of architects focused solely on sustainable building techniques. Nor will architects push to the side basic building principles passed through generations. Instead, successful firms will integrate traditional building skills with green concepts.
“It’s a little like building-information modeling or technology that is inherent in the profession now,” Spaulding said. “You’re not going to draw by hand anymore.”
At SMMA, with offices in Providence and Cambridge, Mass., Spaulding said the ability to understand sustainable building techniques has become a necessity. SMMA does not bill separately for green-building work, but it’s understood that green techniques are used during the design process.
In the past, architects followed a formulaic process that modeled buildings’ energy systems around available technology and left little room for creativity. Today, Spaulding said the emphasis on suitability forces architects to become creative. He finds himself studying the culture of corporations as much as the contour of the land.
Today, companies and elected officials increasingly demand it. Spaulding said executives at global computer company EMC Corp. highlighted SMMA’s green-building expertise while awarding it a project to revamp some of its data centers and offices with an emphasis on energy efficiency.
It’s also allowed the company to make a big impression. SMMA designed the Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island headquarters in Providence that includes sustainable building features such as low-flow water fixtures and a green roof. Spaulding said Blue Cross did not start out demanding green features, but when SMMA showed the company the possibilities and associated cost savings, Blue Cross jumped at the opportunity. The health insurer left a happy client, a future reference and Spaulding looking for the next latest-and-greatest concept.
“I think the idea is always thinking beyond the current to what’s next,” he said.
The lawyer
James Hall does not carry a hammer, a screw gun or a saw. The company he works for does not build homes or stores. But this lawyer at Adler Pollock & Sheehan sees the escalating interest in green building as a future opportunity for the firm’s Providence office.
Hall, 40, is working to become certified under the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED program, which is rapidly becoming the de facto building standard for energy-efficient buildings.
Hall, a partner at the firm, said developers are increasingly tying the standards into contracts. And lawmakers are weaving them into laws regulating the construction of public buildings. And some contracts offer rewards or tax credits to builders and architects who deliver buildings that meet certain LEED-certification levels.
When things don’t go quite right and disputes arise, contractors or the people who hired them call in the lawyers to sort out the green-building standards.
“It’s becoming a more fertile ground for attorneys to be versed in,” Hall said.
Adler Pollock & Sheehan bills itself as a full-service firm, and Hall said it sees green building as an area critical to keeping that pledge. The firm started a green-practice group and is sending Hall and another attorney to classes leading up to LEED certification. His group is also studying green-building standards adopted by states and towns and the process under which the U.S. Green Building Council certifies buildings as meeting LEED standards.
“There’s a huge component to staying competitive, and I don’t think there’s any way you can ignore this wave of regulation,” Hall said. “If you do, I think you become as a firm somewhat antiquated and less than full service. And at a firm like Adler Pollock we market ourselves as a full-service firm. We can do anything you can ask us.” •
