Market Demand Spurred Tremendous Growth for Building Performance Institute in 2010
Malta, NY, January 10, 2011 - Responding to explosive demand for
nationally recognized credentials in the residential energy efficiency
retrofit industry, the Building Performance Institute, Inc. (BPI)
experienced tremendous growth in 2010. A confluence of factors has
contributed to establishing BPI as the nation's premier home
performance credentialing, quality assurance and standards setting
organization:
• BPI
Certified Professionals are now located in all 50 states and five
foreign countries, with western states seeing the most aggressive
growth of over 400 percent in 2010
• The number of contracting companies earning
BPI Accredited Contractor status doubled for the second year in a row
• Intense demand for training increased BPI's
nationwide network of affiliate training organizations 78 percent --to
242 training organizations
• Over 100 utility, state and local incentive programs now call for BPI credentials
BPI earned accreditation from the American National Standards
Institute (ANSI) as a developer of American National Standards for the
residential energy efficiency retrofit community
• Revenues jumped 78 percent in 2010 to
approximately $4.7 million after experiencing a 98 percent growth in
2009
• BPI completed the development of a $500,000
IT infrastructure to handle the processing of exams and the servicing
of thousands of newly credentialed professionals and accredited
contracting companies
• BPI donated the results of a $50,000
project --to convene industry experts and develop a set of Standard
Work Specifications --to a major Department of Energy (DOE) 2010
initiative that included developing federal Workforce Guidelines for
Home Energy Upgrades
• Staff expanded from 23 to 37 employees in
three locations over the past year: Malta, NY, Washington, DC and San
Francisco, CA
BPI Chairman David Hepinstall commented on BPI's growth: "Those of us
who have dedicated many years of our lives and large portions of our
careers to building a viable building energy retrofit industry are
especially gratified to see the growth of professional credentialing in
recent years, and how BPI has stepped up to meet this increased demand.
The growth of the energy efficient buildings sector will continue to
present new challenges to our industry to maintain standards for
building performance work and for training and BPI is well prepared and
positioned to meet those challenges in the years to
come."
Raising the Bar in Quality Assurance
Rapid success can lead to bottle necks in processing and quality
assurance --BPI is meeting and exceeding the challenge. The
organization maintains a rigorous third-party Quality Assurance Program
for its network of Accredited Contractors, is establishing a Quality
Assurance Task Force on Affiliate Field Proctoring to maintain strict
examination standards, and has substantially reduced processing time
for candidate exam results. By the end of September processing time
from receiving exams to mailing of certificates was reduced to two
weeks and continues to fall.
In July, BPI achieved accreditation from ANSI as a developer of
American National Standards --a formidable undertaking and major step
in becoming the national source for technical standards in the
residential energy efficiency retrofit community. ANSI accreditation
provides third-party verification of the openness, balance, consensus
and due process BPI offers all stakeholders in establishing standards
for residential energy efficiency retrofit work.
"ANSI accreditation helps ensure that consistency is applied throughout
the credentialing process and in conformance with requirements
throughout the industry," said Larry Zarker, CEO of BPI. "We are
pleased to meet these ANSI obligations with our standards initiatives
and to contribute to the overarching ANSI governance programs as a
member of the standards community."
BPI's Standards Management Board has approved titles and scopes for the
development of 10 new standards covering residential retrofit work in
2011. The drafting of each standard will be overseen by the Standards
Technical Committee, a group of 13 volunteer industry experts.
BPI is developing policies and procedures to come into conformance with
ANSI/ISO 17024 requirements for each of its personnel certifications by
early 2012. BPI is currently undergoing a public comment period
following ANSI procedures to publish its Home Energy Auditing standard
as an American National Standard.
BPI Certified Professionals
By the end of 2010 BPI had issued 20,236 certifications nationwide,
10,637 of which were earned in the past year alone. This is 229 percent
of the total certifications issued in 2009 and 110 percent of the total
certifications issued from 2001 - 2009. Initial projections to reach
8,400 certifications in 2010 had to be revised upward to accommodate
demand. Certifications are now represented in all 50 states, Washington
D.C., Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Australia, South Korea and in
three Canadian provinces. Five new states or territories gained
certification representation, up 10.4 percent from the previous year.
BPI Accredited Contractors
The number of contracting companies achieving BPI Accredited Contractor
status grew from 300 to 663 since December 2009. Thirteen new states
gained accreditation representation in the past year (54 percent
growth). This elite group of firms has taken the extra step in home
performance contracting. They've made a commitment to offer their
clients solutions based on house-as-a-system building science, backed
up by BPI's third-party quality assurance program and BPI-certified
technicians.
BPI is working to provide added value and support to BPI Accredited Contractors in 2011. Each company will receive:
• Listings on a consumer zip code search map showing accredited contractor specialty certifications
• Guidance on implementing a Quality
Management System (QMS) to simplify and improve contractor business
processes and reduce risk
• Technical home performance Field Guides
developed for BPI by Saturn Resource Management with support from DOE's
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
• Invitations to attend free webinars on business development, marketing and QMS processes
• A detailed Contractor Resource Manual and free marketing materials
Affiliate Training Organizations
BPI's certification success is rooted in the coast-to-coast network of
affiliate training organizations that provide the curricula, training
and proctored exams that support BPI certifications. The number of BPI
affiliates grew from 136 to 242 during 2010, a 78 percent increase. Six
new states gained affiliate representation in the past year (15 percent
growth), predominantly in the western part of the country. The national
network includes private companies, not-for-profit organizations and 48
community colleges.
Proctors administering BPI exams are fast approaching the 1,000 mark.
To maintain consistency and strict levels of quality control across
disparate markets, BPI is currently building a Quality Assurance Task
Force on Affiliate Field Proctoring. New proctoring guidelines
and requirements will be developed based on field evaluations.
Evaluations will include a candidate survey, randomly observed QA
inspections during the proctoring process (5 percent goal), and mystery
shopping of affiliate proctor services. BPI will also add a resource to
its website to provide direct feedback on current exam experiences.
Coordination with Residential Energy Efficiency Retrofit Incentive Programs
BPI is proud that its credentials or quality assurance protocols are
referenced in more than 100 federal, state, local government or utility
energy efficiency incentive programs. BPI credentials help
protect such programs from undue risk, providing assurance of a highly
qualified workforce applying nationally recognized standards and
achieving verifiable results in retrofit work.
At the federal level, BPI Accredited Contractors or an equivalent
credential was specified for conducting work under the GOLD STAR
portion of the proposed HOME STAR program (a.k.a. 'Cash for Caulkers')
considered by Congress in 2010. BPI certification credentials or an
equivalent are also required in proposed 25E tax credit legislation and
in the DOE's Home Energy Score Pilot Program.
Last February BPI provided key support to Vice President Biden's
Recovery Thru Retrofit Program by initiating the development of
Standard Work Specifications for sealing the attic plane and other
areas, drawing on earlier work by Masco WellHome, Conservation Services
Group and Advanced Energy. BPI also worked closely with federal
agencies, Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) practitioners and
trainers, home performance contractors, building scientists and other
stakeholders to help DOE develop its preliminary national guidelines,
Workforce Guidelines for Home Energy Upgrades.
Technology Services
In 2010 BPI completed the development of a $500,000 IT infrastructure
to handle the processing of exams and the servicing of thousands of new
credentialed professionals and accredited contracting companies. These
changes have allowed BPI to realize significant efficiency gains across
key business processes through the reduction, and in most cases,
elimination of manual administrator processing time for the
Certification, Accreditation, and Affiliate Development teams.
About the Building Performance Institute
BPI offers the following:
• National standards to ensure top quality,
consistent protocols are being followed throughout the home performance
and weatherization workforce
• Certification of individuals in building analyst,
heating, AC/heat pump, shell/envelope and multi-family designations
• Accreditation of contracting companies committed to delivering quality home performance improvements
• Quality assurance to verify conformance with BPI Standards and provide feedback for continuing improvement
• Affiliation of training organizations that deliver BPI services in their market
For more information on BPI, visit www.bpi.org.
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