Our Role

Building Science Institute, Ltd. Co. is a US Environmental Protection Agency-recognized Home Certification Organization for ENERGY STAR®. We are also recognized by the US Department of Energy as a Home Certification Organization for the Zero Energy Ready Home program. As such, BSI has 2 jobs to do.

Our primary job is to maintain the integrity of these federal programs. We do that through the Quality Managment System established for our home energy rating system.

The public trust in these federal certification programs is essential.

The homebuyer must be able to trust the label on their home. That label means they have purchased a home that is energy efficient, comfortable, durable, with better indoor air quality. The builder used sustainable and resilient construction practices and technology.

The builder must be able to trust the people who do the verification work. Those verifiers will hold them accountable so they face reduced risks to their reputation and wallet.

The American taxpayers must be able to trust these homes have earned the label. This means the home had to meet rigorous quality standards before the builder gets tax credits.

If we fail to do our primary job, we don’t just embarrass ourselves and our fans…

We would let the whole country down.

We choose to not do that.

Instead, we use our system of policies, processes, and procedures. This helps those who do the energy models and field verifications do their jobs better.

We use evidence-based training and competency-based certification for those who do the work. This provides confidence the people who do the work are qualified and competent.

HouseRater performs over 400 data validation checks with immediate feedback to the user. HouseRater does this during their work so they make fewer mistakes. This provides them an opportunity to correct those mistakes and learn BEFORE they submit the file to us for certification review.

This gives us confidence the verification work was actually done. Confidence supported through required photographs and documentation from the field.

All this data resides in HouseRater. The software performs extra data validation checks. These allow our team to use their time effectively and efficiently during the human review of the file BEFORE we certify the home.

It’s hard to drive forward 90 miles an hour down the road while staring out the rear windshield…

Which is why we perform all our quality management work BEFORE we certify the home.

In 1995, the US DOE created the Voluntary Home Energy Rating System Guidelines. They stated “Home Energy Rating System or HERS means the materials and procedures needed to operate a home energy rating program including but not limited to: marketing materials, training, publications, rating tool, quality control, data base collection and maintenance, agreements, data collection sheets, home owner reports, and other related materials and services.”

Since then, technology has come a long way baby.

BSI and HouseRater are the leaders of the new home energy rating systems.

Because we have another job to do…

Our secondary job is to help our clients build better businesses that help them live fuller, richer, more meaningful lives.

To help their employees, we developed career paths through our certification levels.

To help the business leaders, we built a tribe of like-minded folks who are eager to help each other.

Our clients work together with genuine care and commitment. Together, they think through business challenges and building science problems.

We provide them the framework they need to build better businesses through the business templates we developed.

We also developed a task-based training manual for them to use for the required on-the-job training they must do.

And we build relationships with other organizations who share our values and vision.

These relationships provide our clients more resources that can help them grow their businesses.

And if that weren’t enough, we provide business mentorship and coaching.

But none of that matters if we fail to do Job #1: maintain the integrity of the federal programs.

Without that trust, none of this matters.

The labels would be meaningless to the homebuyers…

The builders would face much higher risks…

The American taxpayers would be betrayed. Their hard-earned dollars would be wasted to support fraudulent certification schemes.

BSI chooses to take a stand for integrity. We choose to be the lighthouse that shines the way for new home energy rating systems that deliver on their promise. We choose to work collaboratively across related industries and with other organizations…

To make our little corner of the world just a little bit better.