How This Works
Results
After working to improve the energy rating industry at the highest levels, we realized the industry needs new ideas and a professional alternative to RESNET®.
When we created the BSI home energy rating system, we re-imagined the energy rating industry to deliver these results:
- Greater consistency in training
- Greater consistency in Energy Rating Index (ERI) outputs
- Greater confidence that homes certified actually earned it
- Dramatic reduction in inadvertent operator error
- More transparency through the entire system
- More collaboration on quality management with stakeholders
After years of research and root cause analysis, we understood that to deliver greater consistency in training…
We had to drop Training Providers. The only way to deliver consistent training is to have a single source.
To deliver greater consistency in ERI outputs…
We had to drop Software Providers. The only way to have consistency in software is to have a single calculation engine.
To have greater confidence that homes earn the certification…
We had to drop “Rating” Providers. The only way to have consistency in quality management is to have a single source.
Once we broke the shackles of controlled thinking, the freedom to imagine what could be was unleashed.
We took our decades of experience in quality management, leveraged our membership in the American Society for Quality (the ANSI partner for Quality Standards in the US) and built a new business model for the industry.
You’ll find out how it works below.
Or you can fill out this form and contact us directly for more information.
Quality Council
The guiding imperatives of our independent Quality Council are:
- Create awareness of need & opportunity for improvement
- Make quality improvement part of every job description
We know that “quality” has 3 distinct meanings.
First, it means conform to requirements.
Second, it means seek to understand causes of errors and mistakes and use quality tools to prevent reoccurrence.
Third, it means to use improvement tools to create waste-eliminating change. After prevention implementation.
The Building Science Institute, Ltd. Co. (BSI) establishes their roles and responsibilities in Policy 01 “Quality Council”.
They safeguard the integrity of our Quality Management and Home Certification programs.
They review and approve all the policies, processes, and procedures of our Quality Management System.
These industry experts select projects for improvement. They then review improvement progress. And recognize improvement teams at BSI and our client Verification Organization.
We use the results to spread the word on the power of our collaborative efforts.
We also revise the reward system to reinforce the rate of improvements.
The Quality Council maintains momentum through the Standardize-Do-Check-Act and Plan-Do-Check-Act cycles.
Click here to see the industry experts who serve on our independent Quality Council.
Training & Certification
As trained educators with decades of experience in workforce development, we know the only reliable way to know whether someone is capable to do the job or not is to put them up against the job they trained for.
We based our training program on what the different roles need to know and need to know how to do.
We based their certification on competency assessments on their job performance. Not computer games or stress-inducing standardized tests for information regurgitation.
The BSI training and certification system is in Process 002 “Training & Certification System”. We deliver it through the BSI brand Building Science Education. That process explains how we grant certifications to people.
We know that people who only work in the field don’t need to know how to perform energy modeling.
We know that people who only perform energy modeling don’t need to know how to perform fieldwork.
We know that people who do both, need to know both.
They all need to know where their work fits into the chain of work.
Energy Code Compliance Field Verifiers need to know how to perform field verifications, tests, and data collection needed by…
Energy Code Software Analysts who need to know how to create energy models for energy code compliance (Prescriptive, Performance, ERI).
Energy Code Compliance Specialists need to know how to perform both roles.
ENERGY STAR Field Verifiers Level 1 need to know how to perform the verifications and tests required for the ENERGY STAR Single Family New Construction program, plus perform the role of Energy Code Compliance Field Verifiers.
ENERGY STAR Field Verifiers Level 2 need to know how to perform the verifications and tests required for the ENERGY STAR Multi Family New Construction program, plus the role of ENERGY STAR Field Verifier Level 1.
ENERGY STAR Software Analysts Level 1 need to know how to create energy models to the ENERGY STAR Single Family New Construction program specifications, plus the role of Energy Code Software Analysts whilst…
ENERGY STAR Software Analysts Level 2 need to know how to create energy models to the ENERGY STAR Multi Family New Construction program, plus the role of ENERGY STAR Software Analyst Level 1.
ENERGY STAR Verifiers Level 1 need to know how to perform the roles of ENERGY STAR Field Verifiers Level 1 and ENERGY STAR Software Analysts Level 1.
ENERGY STAR Verifiers Level 2 need to know how to perform the roles of ENERGY STAR Field Verifiers Level 2 and ENERGY STAR Software Analysts Level 2.
Zero Energy Ready Home Verifiers Level 1 need to know how to perform the field and software verification of the Zero Energy Ready Home program, Single Family.
Zero Energy Ready Home Verifiers Level 2 need to know how to perform the field and software verification of the Zero Energy Ready Home program, Multifamily, plus the capabilities of the Zero Energy Ready Home Verifier Level 1.
BSI Quality Assessors and Verification Organization Quality Assessment Designees (their internal quality team, if they have one) need to know how to perform quality assessments aligned with ISO 19011-2018, ISO 17020-2012, ENERGY STAR Single and Multi Family QA program requirements, and conformance with ANSI 301, 310, 380, and QH-12.
Quality Management System
As the professional Quality Management organization, we hold ourselves and our clients to the American Society for Quality Code of Ethics through our Policy 02 “Code of Ethics”. The same code applies to everyone in our system.
We don’t just talk about it…we put it in our legally enforceable contracts, along with all our policies, processes, and procedures that create our Quality Management System.
We established our scope of operations through Policy 03 “Scope of Operations”.
We established our non-discrimination and anti-harassment Policy 04 “Anti-Discrimination & Anti-Harassment” to maintain our professionalism.
We require ourselves and our clients to conform with our Policy 05 “Secondary Interests” which discloses any secondary interests that may cause a risk to impartiality and objectivity in our work.
We require ourselves and our clients act with impartiality and objectivity through Policy 06 “Impartiality & Objectivity”.
We require ourselves to publish specific information publicly through Policy 07 “Publicly Available Information”.
Professionals have their own language. That’s why BSI incorporates the professional terms and definitions from the Quality Management world into Policy 08 “Terminology”.
All our client Verification Organizations agree in our contracts to conform with our General Requirements in Policy 09 “General Requirements for Verification Organizations”.
They also agree to conform with our Structural Requirements in Policy 10 “Structural Requirements for Verification Organizations”.
And our Resource Requirements found in Policy 11 “Resource Requirements for Verification Organizations”…
And we mustn’t forget our Process Requirements in Policy 12…
You probably guessed it. It’s named “Process Requirements for Verification Organizations”.
Like all professional Quality Management Systems, these policies inform the processes that describe how the work gets done to achieve the strategic intent of policy.
Our processes are the operational level of strategy execution.
How we withdraw certifications of homes and people is in Process 001 “Ethics Compliance & Homeowner Inquiry Resolution”.
How we grant certifications of homes is in Process 005 “Quality Control Conformity Assessments for Verification Organizations”.
Our process for follow-up and closure of our conformity assessments is in Process 007 “Conformity Assessment Follow-up & Closure”.
BSI allows sampling under an internationally-recognized sampling protocol in our Process 008 “Sampling”.
Failures discovered during the sampling process have to go through a proper root cause analysis in conformance with our Process 009 “Root Cause Analysis”.
These operational processes feed into the tactical level of strategy execution, our procedures.
We require an annual field conformity assessment for Verifiers who perform fieldwork in conformance with our Procedure A “Field Conformity Assessment”.
We require an annual file conformity assessment for Verifiers who perform software analysis in conformance with our Procedure B “File Conformity Assessment”.
We also perform data quality scoring and publish our results on our website through our Procedure F “Data Quality Assessment”.
The quality teams perform these observational gap assessments through the objective lens of conformance, not the subjective lens of rating someone else’s performance.
Professionals know that, after more than 40 years of research, over 60% of a rating reflects the bias of the person doing the rating and not the person rated.
We also perform an annual conformity assessment on the Verification Organization to ensure conformance with Policies 09 through 12. We based these policies on ISO 17020 “Conformity assessment- Requirements for the operation of various types of bodies performing inspection”.
I know that’s a mouthful. Kind of like trying to eat that face-sized donut from the shop in Austin…
We designed these gap assessments to help businesses improve the quality of their business, become more resilient, ensure continued relevancy, and improve profitability.
After all, that IS the purpose of Quality Management.
Verification Organizations without Internal Quality Teams
If a Verification Organization does NOT have an internal quality team trained and credentialed by BSI…
We perform the quality management functions in our operational processes.
Our clients grant us the authority to do this through legally enforceable contracts.
Verification Organizations with Internal Quality Teams
Since we dropped Providers, we permit Verification Organizations to have an internal quality team. Our contracts compel them to perform the quality management functions in our operational processes.
BSI trains and credentials this internal team.
We work with them every month (or more often) to help them perform their role.
We assess conformance with Policies 09 through 12 through the annual conformity assessment.
They are NOT permitted to perform quality management work on other BSI clients.
They can only perform quality management work on their own company.
And we perform rigorous quality management reviews on them.
Like we do for the Verification Organizations who don’t have internal quality teams.
A little more rigorous, actually, because we hold their quality team to the same high standards we hold.
Because that’s what professionals do.
Now that you know how it all works…
Click this link to apply to become a client of BSI.
Or not.
We aren’t for everybody.
You may not be a fit for us.
We’ll never know until you apply.
If you want more information, all you had to do was fill out the form.
After all, if you want to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth…
Talk to the head of the horse, not the other end.
PLEASE NOTE: Any use of “RESNET®” or other registered trademarks by Building Science Institute, Ltd. Co. does not indicate ownership, sponsorship, or endorsement by the registered trademark owners. Any use of registered trademarks falls under informational, editorial, or comparative use.
