A Professional Home for Quality Management in Residential Energy Ratings
Building Science Institute (BSI) exists to solve a structural problem in the residential energy rating industry:
the gap between professional standards and the systems designed to support them.
For decades, highly capable professionals have delivered energy ratings, code compliance, and certification services inside oversight frameworks that were fragmented, inconsistent, and increasingly difficult to defend—despite best intentions across the industry.
BSI was founded to address that gap through system design, not rhetoric.
Why We Exist
BSI was created around a simple premise:
When certifications are relied upon by regulators, builders, lenders, and capital markets, the systems behind them must be as professional as the people doing the work.
That means:
• Consistent outcomes from consistent inputs
• Transparent, auditable decision logic
• Oversight that prevents avoidable risk instead of redistributing it
• Quality management aligned with recognized national and international standards
Rather than asking professionals to work around system limitations, BSI was designed to remove those limitations upstream.
What Makes BSI Different
BSI is a national Home Certification Organization recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy, including recognition for ENERGY STAR® and Efficient New Homes programs.
But recognition alone was not the goal.
Our system is intentionally built around a small number of structural decisions:
• One nationally maintained calculation engine
All ERI calculations are grounded in OS-ERI, developed and maintained by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), ensuring consistency and traceability.
• Integrated modeling, inspection, and QA
In partnership with HouseRater, BSI supports an end-to-end system that reduces interpretive variance and manual reconciliation.
• Standards-based quality management
Oversight is aligned with ANSI, ISO, DOE, and EPA expectations—so QA outcomes are defensible without requiring discretionary interpretation.
• Pre-certification verification discipline
Documentation and as-built conditions are reconciled before certification issuance, reducing downstream audit and compliance risk.
BSI is a national Home Certification Organization recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy, including recognition for ENERGY STAR® and Efficient New Homes programs.
But recognition alone was not the goal.
Our system is intentionally built around a small number of structural decisions:
• One nationally maintained calculation engine
All ERI calculations are grounded in OS-ERI, developed and maintained by the National Laboratory of the Rockies, ensuring consistency and traceability.
• Integrated modeling, inspection, and QA
In partnership with HouseRater, BSI supports an end-to-end system that reduces interpretive variance and manual reconciliation.
• Standards-based quality management
Oversight is aligned with ANSI, ISO, DOE, and EPA expectations—so QA outcomes are defensible without requiring discretionary interpretation.
• Pre-certification verification discipline
Documentation and as-built conditions are reconciled before certification issuance, reducing downstream audit and compliance risk.
These are governance decisions—not feature choices.
How We Work
BSI does not operate as a traditional “provider network.”
Instead, we function as a professional quality management body, with clear separation between:
• certification oversight
• software tools
• training and support
• governance and appeals
This structure allows:
• predictable application of standards
• consistent treatment across jurisdictions
• reduced friction between field professionals and oversight
• quieter, more professional transitions for organizations choosing to work with us
Selectivity is intentional. Not every applicant is a fit, and disclosure—not exclusion—is the primary tool for managing risk.
Who We Serve
BSI works with organizations that value:
• documentation discipline
• operational consistency
• professional accountability
• long-term credibility over short-term convenience
Our clients include:
• independent rating companies
• multi-state operators
What they share is not size or geography—but a commitment to defensible, repeatable work.
Our Philosophy
BSI does not assume failure.
We assume scale.
As certification systems intersect more directly with regulatory frameworks, capital markets, and public trust, verification discipline must increase with use.
Quality management is not about adding rules.
It is about designing systems that make the right outcome the easiest outcome.
A Deliberate Alternative
BSI was not built to replace existing programs or discredit past work.
It was built to offer a structurally different option—one designed to reduce ambiguity, protect professionals, and strengthen confidence in energy-based certifications as their downstream uses expand.
That option now exists.
