Certificates

Green Homes Certificate

• Are you interested in working toward healthier, smarter homes?
• Would you like to better understand effective energy and water use?
• Curious about successful case studies of green homes and housing developments?

We have created a way for you to learn about sustainable building tools and strategies. Our certificate program is geared toward anyone interested in or working in residential remodeling or new construction. It provides an accelerated evening program with the critical knowledge you need to respond to emerging trends in residential building.

This Green Homes Certificate is offered by the Department of Construction Management's Institute for the Built Environment and has been developed in response to a growing need for specially trained professionals able to respond to a changing industry and culture.

Benefits

Earning our Green Homes Certificate will:

• Update you on environmentally sustainable construction from the Rocky Mountain region's leading university in construction management education.
• Help you integrate environmental concerns with career satisfaction. Facilitate learning from faculty members at Colorado State University and regional experts in the industry.
• Enhance your career in a convenient one evening per week educational setting.

Who Should Attend

If you work in the design and construction industries and are seeking to further your career, this certificate will greatly increase your competency and ability to contribute and advance. This program is also appropriate for individuals such as homeowners who are looking to remodel or build their own home and are interested in applying sustainable building principles in their personal lives.

Program Outline

• Introduction to residential green building in Colorado
• Site & home design: first steps toward a Green Home
• Energy efficient envelope: the backbone of a Green Home
• High performance HVAC systems
• Renewable Energy Systems
• Indoor Environmental Quality
• Field trip: home performance testing demonstrations; Green Homes visits
• Sustainable & healthy building materials/products
• Natural home building techniques
• Design charrette
• Construction waste recycling, deconstruction, remodeling
• Economics of green building
• Rating systems: LEED-Homes, Built Green, Energy-Star

View the program curriculum (PDF) for more information about program format and material.

Faculty

Colorado State University faculty and regionally recognized guest speakers bring breadth and depth of professional experience to the classroom. Colorado State University is a national leader in providing construction management education.

• Brian Dunbar is the lead instructor of the Green Homes Certificate Program. He is the Director of the CSU Institute for the Built Environment (IBE), coordinating the graduate emphasis in Sustainable Building and researching healthy, sustainable buildings. Brian is a LEED-NC and LEED-CI Accredited Professional and is a national faculty member with U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).
• Paul Kriescher is a Principal of Lightly Treading Energy & Design, a Colorado based company formed in 1997, that works to better the energy efficiency, safety, environmental impact, and comfort of homes and small commercial buildings. As a part of his work, Kriescher and his staff perform energy audits, ratings and design consulting, and engineering to identify energy-saving measures in new and existing buildings. He has served on the board of the Colorado Renewable Energy Society and is currently on the Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver's Plan Review committee, the Advisory Board of the Colorado Earth Expo, and the Denver Home Builders Association's Energy & Environmental Affairs committee.
  
  Kriescher also holds a Master of Science in Energy Analysis and Policy from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

Guest instructors include:

• Sue Reilly, Enermodal Engineering
• Rich Moore, Residential Energy Conservation Consultation & Training
• Shelley Kawamura, Institute for the Built Environment
• Mark Eatherton, Advanced Hydronics
• Jeff Scott, SolSource, Inc.
• Matt Baker, Environment Colorado
• David Adamson, EcoBuild, Inc.
• Kari Bremer, Natural & Green Design
• Katherine Wagenschutz, CTG Energetics
• Adam Stenftenagel, Sustainably Built, LLC
• David Johnston, What's Working
• Kristen Shewfelt, Architectural Energy Corporation