Better Homes, Better Future

In this session, the NAACP brings you an overview of the Centering Equity in the Sustainable Building Sector (CESBS) Initiative and the stories of two members at the intersection of energy, equity, and housing. Lonnie Feemster, President of the Reno-Sparks Branch of the NAACP and former energy inspector, is known around town as “Solar Man.” With immense care, he built his own passive house that provides a 100% electric, low-consumption, and comfortable place for work and play for three generations. Daphany Rose Sanchez, founder of Kinetic Communities Consulting (KC3) and proud New York native, leverages partnerships and resources to help close the gap between the affordable housing and energy efficiency industry for diverse New York communities. Lonnie and Daphany share a passion for supporting Black and brown communities to understand the human cost of energy, save money, feel safe, and live in a cleaner environment. They will share a call to action through stories and lessons for building professionals to design projects, policies, and programs first and foremost for people and for justice.

Episode 3 in this exclusive 4-part series with Doug Tarry of Doug Tarry Homes concludes our review of the 11 critical steps involved in building a house as a ‘system.’ We look at managing occupant comfort and indoor air quality through system design by addressing such topics as building a better basement wall, reducing the A/C size, and creating greater comfort in the house by the windows we select, to name a few. Watch full webinar here. Listen to special podcast series here.

Episodes 2 and 3 in this exclusive 4-part series with Doug Tarry, of Doug Tarry Homes, explore the 11 critical steps involved in building a house as a ‘system.’ Customer comfort is paramount and we have to consider how the client will use their home. We must ask ourselves one simple question: “Am I making the homeowner’s life easier or harder?" Episode 2 looks at how to avoid improper planning and design from the outset, both of which can impact the entire home and create costly errors and rework. Watch full webinar here. Listen to special podcast series here.

This is the first installment in an exclusive 4-part series with Doug Tarry, President of Doug Tarry Ltd., an award winning, leading home building company in southwestern Ontario, Canada. Having built and labeled more Net Zero / Net Zero Ready homes than any other builder in Canada, Doug is currently developing a book called “From Bleeding Edge to Leading Edge: A Builders’ Guide to Net Zero Homes.” This discussion will provide an overview of Doug’s book and delves into what he believes are the 4 principles of modern design. Watch full webinar here at the EEBA Academy.

Joseph Molina and Rene Carter join us for a "Better Homes, Better Future" podcast discussion on the benefits and strategies for hiring veterans. The National Veterans Chamber serves both the individual Veteran and the organizations that support our Veterans and military families. Veterans and military families are able to access resources to find jobs, start a business, and obtain advice in current employment. Employers benefit by accessing resources to help them create a welcoming military-friendly workplace, free training programs and access tax benefits when hiring military Veterans. Watch full webinar at the EEBA Academy here.

This episode will cover strategies and elements of radon mitigation with Randy Nicklas, Senior Engineer at Huntsman Building Solutions. Building codes are steadily increasing the requirements for building envelope airtightness, along with mechanical ventilation. One aspect that is critical in tighter building construction is the need for maintaining a healthy indoor air environment. Outdoor pollutants entering the building include not only allergens and various chemical compounds, but also radon gas. This presentation will outline the advances in radon control. View full webinar in the EEBA Academy here.

High performance zero energy homes provide many benefits including cost savings, energy resiliency, durability, comfort, and sustainable operation. While these types of homes have been built for a long time, the knowledge of how to build them has historically been kept by few. Now with increasingly stringent building codes across the U.S., driven by long-term energy policy and growing demands on the energy grid, all builders and implementers need to know how to build high performance. This session will review key strategies to build high performance zero energy homes discussing measures that impact building envelope, heating, cooling, ventilation, water heating, and other loads. The episode will highlight electric technology including heat pumps. Learning Objectives: Understand key strategies to build high performance zero energy homes Examine strategies to reduce building heating and cooling loads Examine common mechanical systems Identify key system interactions in high performance zero energy homes Watch full webinar here at the EEBA Academy. www.eeba.org www.teamzero.org

Do you know how a properly installed rainscreen makes your building envelope more durable? In the first part of this webinar, Peter Barrett of Dorken Systems will look at how rainscreens work to add drainage and drying capacity to a typical residential wall. In the second part, Chris Donatelli of Donatelli Builders will discuss the real-life building and renovation of a home in Chicago. As original builder, Chris will tell his story of constructing the original home, issues he discovered, and his road to sustainable repair of the walls. You will hear his actual experience managing the moisture issues along with amazing details about when, where, and how damage occurred and was remediated. You will learn to: · Easily design rainscreen principles into your walls · Evaluate the long-term benefits of added drainage and drying · Understand the impact of moisture management issues · Apply appropriate remediation techniques View full webinar here at the EEBA Academy.

Healthier Homes Awareness for Building Professionals educational program is now LIVE! The course designed by experts from Allergy Standards, Construction Instruction, and EEBA teaches builders how to build a better air quality environment for customers. Taking care of customers health and helping them make better, more informed decisions when specifying and purchasing products and services that effect the very air they, and their loved ones, breathe. Episode guests: Dr. John McKeon, CEO of Allergy Standards and Gord Cooke, President of Building Knowledge Canada and Partner of Construction Instruction.  Register and learn more about the course here in the EEBA Academy. Watch full webinar here.

"Decarbonization" and "electrification" are becoming household words in some parts of the country. This discussion will demystify these terms, covering the motivations, benefits, and nuts and bolts of making the switch -- transitioning mixed-fuel homes to 100% electricity. If you have concerns about indoor air quality, resiliency, or the changing climate, there's something for you in this podcast. Learning objectives: Explain the benefits of electrifying homes to clients, friends, and family Understand how electrification supports resiliency goals Differentiate between the two electric alternatives to each of the four typical residential gas appliances Create a customized home electrification roadmap Episode guest: Ann Edminster, Founder and principal of Design AVEnues LLC Watch webinar here at the EEBA Academy.

This special Team Zero episode explores the current and evolving definitions of high-performance homes, their components, and how they affect global populations. For this episode, we are joined by Ken Johnson, Senior Manager of Performance Construction at Mitsubishi Electric Trane US and Rich Williams, Vice President of Alliance Green Homes. The discussion tackles the growing topic of the role that Indoor Air Quality plays in the construction and maintenance of high-performance homes. Listeners will learn about the critical green certification programs related to energy efficiency, and how they can move towards creating a high-performance home.

We’ve all heard that we need to “Build Tight and Ventilate Right,” but do we have the approaches that we need that are cost competitive, bring sales opportunities, and are beneficial to resiliency, comfort, and IEQ? In this podcast, we’ll briefly cover why it’s important to use balanced ventilation in tighter homes, but we will then move on to the most common strategies for getting each component right. This includes strategies for achieving tighter buildings and then a review of the seven most common balanced ventilation strategies with some tips and tricks along the way to make it work. Join Dan Wildenhaus, Technical Advisor and Industry Liaison for BetterBuiltNW on this journey to getting homes dialed in for our codes, certification programs, and most importantly our homebuyers’ future experience. Instructor: Dan Wildenhaus Watch on the EEBA Academy.

Chef Rachelle Boucher of Kitchens to Life cooks her favorite Chinese New Year dishes as two of the top experts in Indoor Air Quality bring a fresh perspective to traditional cooking and the vital role of ventilation in today's homes. Speakers: Rachelle Boucher, Chef & Induction Expert at Kitchens to Life Alex Siow, San Francisco Showroom Director Watch webinar

This 1924 Colonial home had fallen into severe disrepair before coming up for sale. As part of the much needed renovation, the new homeowners (two Steven Winter Associates, Inc. employees) wanted to eliminate onsite combustion and produce as much of their operating electricity as possible. Other goals included lower embodied energy materials and a healthy indoor environment. LEED v4.1 for Homes offered one platform to address energy, health, and materials. The home was gutted down to the foundation, framing, and floors before the year-long renovation. After the first 8 months of occupancy (July—February), the home produced 14% more energy than it consumed. Homeowners: Maureen Mahle and Steve Klocke Moderator: Aaron Smith Learn more

Harvard's JCHS partnered with The Farnsworth Group to interview Homeowners and Contractors about their experiences building a healthy and/or green home. This research looks at activities and projects conducted by both groups to better understand what is being done to promote occupant health & safety and environmental & energy performance. This webinar will present the findings along with insights.Learning Objectives:1. Learn about homeowners' concerns, reasons, activities and obstacles around a healthy and safe home and the products and solutions within.2. Learn about what contractors see is their customers' interest level, trends, benefits, and constraints surrounding healthy and safe homes and the products and solutions within.3. Understand homeowners' concerns, reasons, activities and obstacles around an environmentally friendly and energy efficient home, and the products and solutions within.4. Learn about what contractors see is their customers' interest level, trends, benefits, and constraints surrounding environmentally friendly and energy efficient homes and the products and solutions within.Speaker: Grant Farnsworth

Exploring Carrier's latest advancements in variable speed technology, we are excited to introduce the enhanced premium comfort features and 24V communication protocols.Learning Objectives:Learn what variable speed is, and its benefits.Discover Carrier's newest performance 27VPA9 OverviewUnderstand utilizing 24V signals for variable speedLearn what the 27VPA9 means to the homeowner.

How do we make sustainability scalable? In this talk, Levven shares how it’s using innovation and design to democratize access to smart, sustainable electrical systems so that every homeowner, regardless of income or geography, can benefit from efficient, connected living.Learning Objectives:1. Identify the main inefficiencies in traditional electrical installations.2. Explore how wireless power and control systems can significantly reduce material costs and labor time.3. Learn about Levven’s vision for accessible sustainability through design and engineering.4. Gain insight on how continuity and replication is the key to build efficient construction practices to reduce cost across all aspects.

This panel brings together housing developers who are rethinking and reimaging housing from the construction process to design, from materials to operations, so that more people can afford comfortable, safe, healthy housing options. From ex-Amazon pros who are using automation and robotics to create micro factories, to an all-new set of materials for a better performing design, to human centric design practices that cut the cost of ownership in half. The discussion will cover current housing demand and the keys to hitting affordable price points. By sharing experience, success and failures, these experts share the answers to housing’s future.Learning Objectives:1. Understand new technology and innovative processes that can deliver higher performance homes, along with their performance metrics.2. Discover innovative approaches to the design, construction and operation that will help deliver more product faster and at a lower cost.3. Learn about how these innovative solutions are not only lower cost but healthier, more sustainable and comfortable for occupants.4. Discuss how products and process can be applied to housing at any scale.

Part of what happens on the power grid starts in the homes we build. Meeting the rising demand for electricity presents a challenge, but also an opportunity to transform our homes from energy consumers into energy producers and distributors. In this session you'll hear from builders who have communities enrolled in Virtual Power Plant (VPP) programs and are deploying battery storage at scale. The session will be moderated and led by California’s largest VPP company with over 53,000 customers and 200 megawatts capacity- comparable to a medium-sized gas power plant.Learning Objectives: Understanding our electrical grid and its history.Learn how we can meet today’s and tomorrow’s growing electrical demand.Understand what role homebuilders are playing in stabilizing the grid and turning their homes from energy consumers into energy producers. Discover the benefits homebuyers are experiencing from battery storage and virtual power plant programs.Presenters: Megan Cordes, Director Sustainability and Building Science, Beazer HomesJoel Abney, Vice President of Operations, SH Residential Holdings, LLCMatt Brost, Vice President New Home Sales, SunrunChip Silverman, Senior Manager, Grid Services Business Development, SunrunLearn More and Register for the 2026 Summit: https://summit.eeba.org

Panasonic OASYS™ Concept Home Sets a New Standard for Whole Home WellnessPanasonic recently introduced its revolutionary OASYS™ Whole Home Air Quality Management Solution through the launch of the first-ever Panasonic OASYS Concept Home in Houston, TX. This milestone project, showcases how advanced HVAC technology can transform indoor environments, delivering superior comfort, energy efficiency, and wellness. The Concept Home has also earned the prestigious Indoor airPLUS certification from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), affirming its commitment to healthier indoor air and safer living conditions.The Panasonic OASYS™ system is more than a traditional HVAC setup—it’s a fully integrated air quality management solution that combines ventilation fans, energy recovery ventilators (ERVs), and HVAC units into a single, seamless system. Working in tandem with a tightly sealed building envelope, OASYS continuously delivers fresh, filtered air throughout the home, actively removing pollutants, allergens, and excess humidity.In this webinar you will learn how the Panasonic OASYS System provides:1) Uniform temp and humidity with fresh, healthy air 2) 4x air change per hour; controlled airflow 3) Its energy efficiency 4) How it is comprised of reliable and individual components (easy to install and maintain)