Unless you have your own company, most of us in the building industry have been laid off.  I was laid off in the early 1990’s and decided to start my own company rather than work for someone else.  Before getting laid off, however, I was exposed to blower door testing and energy modeling through a state of Colorado funded technical assistance program.  I then worked for that State program for a while before becoming a certified energy Rater and home inspector.

My new business fully embraced the idea of being able to offer an Energy Improvement mortgage (EIM) to existing home buyers and an Energy efficient mortgage (EEM) for new construction home buyers. It became apparent very quickly that I would not be able to sustain and grow a business on the back of a mortgage product that realtors and mortgage lenders would not embrace so I pivoted with the industry writlarge to working primarily with builders. Energy related mortgages never fully died, and the golden grail has been, to figure out how to more directly adapted the mortgage Principal, Interest, Taxes, and Insurance equation (PITI) to include Energy (PITI+E)

Fast forward 30 plus years and let me introduce you to Don Worthington, a mortgage lender with Primary Residential Mortgages who is specializing in bringing back the energy efficient mortgage (EEM) and the improvement mortgage (EIM) through the LOWTILITY mortgage product. LOWTILITY is a home loan designed around the true cost of home ownership that does not ignore operational cost, or the additional costs, that traditionally always occur, to make a newly acquired home livable and comfortable.

Don Worthington on LinkedIn

LOWTILITY Energy Efficient Mortgages

Green Builder Media Frontlines of Climate Action: TurningUtility Bills Into Buying Power

Primary Residential Mortgage, Inc

Unless you have your own company, most of us in the building industry have been laid off.  I was laid off in the early 1990’s and decided to start my own company rather than work for someone else.  Before getting laid off, however, I was exposed to blower door testing and energy modeling through a state of Colorado funded technical assistance program.  I then worked for that State program for a while before becoming a certified energy Rater and home inspector.

 My new business fully embraced the idea of being able to offer an Energy Improvement mortgage (EIM) to existing home buyers and an Energy efficient mortgage (EEM) for new construction home buyers. It became apparent very quickly that I would not be able to sustain and grow a business on the back of a mortgage product that realtors and mortgage lenders would not embrace so I pivoted with the industry writ large to working primarily with builders. Energy related mortgages never fully died, and the golden grail has been, to figure out how to more directly adapted the mortgage Principal, Interest, Taxes, and Insurance equation (PITI) to include Energy (PITI+E)

 Fast forward 30 plus years and let me introduce you to Don Worthington, a mortgage lender with Primary Residential Mortgages who is specializing in bringing back the energy efficient mortgage (EEM) and the improvement mortgage (EIM) through the LOWTILITY mortgage product. LOWTILITY is a home loan designed around the true cost of home ownership that does not ignore operational cost, or the additional costs, that traditionally always occur, to make a newly acquired home livable and comfortable.

Don Worthington on LinkedIn

LOWTILITY Energy Efficient Mortgages

Primary Residential Mortgage, Inc

Green Builder Media Frontlines of Climate Action: TurningUtility Bills Into Buying Power

Kelly Grace is an accomplished architect based out of Washington DC, and the Managing Principal of Travis Price Architects, an award-winning architecture firm, widely applauded for their visionary aesthetics, informed by ecology, mythology, and technology.   

Kelly is known to many as the “NONTOXARCHITECT” on social media, where she shares her advice on material selections, design details, indoor air quality, water filtration, biohacking, EMF mitigation, moisture control, and much more.  She is dedicated to designing healthy buildings, using non-toxic products, to promote wellness habits and optimal living.  

Kelly is also a Founding Member of the Healthy Building Alliance, an up-and-coming platform to connect healthy building professionals; architects, builders, engineers, homeowners, consultants, and product manufacturers, to provide a network of resources and educational tools, based on proven building biology and building science principles. 

Kelly Davis Grace on LinkedIn

Travis Price Architect

Healthy Building Alliance

Indoor airPLUS

Vibrant Air ERV

2030 I-Code Development Committees & Process

Adam Berry, Building Codes Advisor with the Colorado Energy Office spoke with me about Colorados path to its 3rd statewide code.  Following plumbing and electrical the state energy code is a significant step for a home rule state where building codes are normally adopted, amended, and enforced at a jurisdictional level.

 In this case, through legislation Colorado has adopted a new Model Low Energy and Carbon Code (MLECC) which becomes the States mandatory minimum standard for new and renovated buildings after July 1, 2026. After that date, all cities and counties in Colorado must adopt the LECCwhenever they update any local building codes. Amendments to the adopted code are only allowed to make the code more efficient than the LECC.

Currently the State has jurisdictions that have no codes, and are likely to stay that way, and jurisdictions that are currently adopting the 2021 or 2024 IECC before the July 2026 implementation date so they don’t have to adopt the LECC. There are also some jurisdictions moving straight to the LECC, so in reality it is currently all over the place with a plan to get unified over time.

 The Low Energy and Carbon Code is Based on the 2024 IECC with amendments to prioritize energy efficiency, fuel neutrality, and pre-electrification or electric ready requirements, such as EV and PV readiness, to address affordability, lower utility bills, and reduce carbon emissions.

Adam Berry on LinkedInColorado’s Low Energy and Carbon Code Resources

Colorado's LECC Tools

Building and Energy Resources at the Colorado Energy Officeincluding Codes

David Heslam is the Executive Director of Earth Advantage. A nonprofit based in Portland Oregon that works to ensure the U.S. housing market recognizes the elements of a home that create climate risk and values the characteristics of a homes that provide climate solutions. David spent 15 years designing, building, and remodeling homes in Portland. His award-winning company, Coho Construction Services, became known as a local and national leader for adopting new technologies and striving for high levels of sustainability. As his company migrated to working on more existing homes, he helped found Earth Advantage and became their director, where he has become a national leader in the effort to develop and deploy energy labeling systems into the residential market. Home performance labeling system put data in the consumers hands helping them better understand what they are purchasing and the value of better performing homes. 

As you will hear toward the end of your conversation, David and I went down a rabbit hole of if the IECC requires a builder to heat or cool a house because of its hyper focus on the building thermal envelope.  I was able to find on Section R325.8 Required heating of the IRC where there is a requirement to every dwelling unit is required to maintain a room temperature of not less than 68 degrees.  There is no requirement in the IRC for cooling of a home

David Heslam on LinkedIn

Earth Advantage

The Green Building Registry

Appraisals Will Look Very Different in the Near Future—AreYou Ready?

Graham Davis is a Senior Building Performance Specialist at IBACOS, where he has dedicated the bulk of his career training and coaching large production home builders to understand how to maintain quality and achieve fewer warranty callbacks through focused attention on applied building science. Before joining IBACOS, Graham served as the Senior Technical Advisor at Habitat for Humanity International, where he launched a national building performance education network and took those skills to become the Quality Assurance Manager at John Laing Homes and Training Program Manager at Quality Built, a now defunct third party construction inspection company. I saw that Graham was honored by Pro Builder Magazine’s 2025 Young Guns & Legends award which prompted me to reconnect and have this conversation that I am sure you will enjoy.

Gramham Davis on LinkedIn

IBACOSPro Builder 2025 Young Guns & Legends Award

Chris Laumer-Giddens works for his wife Jodi at LG2 Architects. They are both Architects, but Chris’s specific interest in applied building science and high performance has shifted their work from solely providing the architecture for a project to providing performance designs including water management, air tightness, HVAC, efficiency and more. This in turn has led Chris and LG2 to a more integrated construction oversight role in the projects that he works with.  LG2 is not a traditional design build firm, but rather an architectural firm that stays involved and gets their hands dirty in the day-to day construction details to ensure that their design is executed and that the house is performing.  Chris has a ton of knowledge and experience to share and is starting to do so through Instagram and YouTube So be sure to go to the show notes to learn more.

Chris Laumer-Giddens on LinkedIn

LG Squared

LG Squared on YOUTUBE

LG Squared on  INSTAGRAM

Matt Hoots Sawtooth Design Build

In this conversation I introduce Rachel Wagner as the Impact Driver at Just Housing as that is the professional title she chose in her company, but we seem to have never specifically talked about what that meant to her in our conversation. Now reflecting I see that she is impacting the design and construction industry and driving it toward meaningful and sustaining change.  

Rachel sought opportunities to learn from some of the best building science educators in the business, internalized the message and is now pushing it back out there through standardized and repeatable methodologies which better ensures cost effective performance. She is also focusing on empowering her community through education, and like many of her mentors, she is giving insights and information away so others can succeed in their construction projects.  Please check out all the available resources on the Just Housing website. 

Thank you, Rachel, for your building science and sustainability passion and for this wonderful conversation.

Rachel Wagner on LinkedIn

Just Housing - Dig deep into the BUILD section for free details

Training Resources, for video, and more

Thought Design Blog

Building Science & Energy Management Wester Technical College in Lacrosse Wisconsin

Clint Shireman is the Manager of training and certifications at Knauf Insulation. He works with buildersand installers nationwide, teaching building science, spreading best practices, and building a respected training network. He’s also heavily involved with High-Performance Insulation Professionals, an insulation trade group that’s making good progress towards improving the quality of residential insulation work.

 Installing insulation is not easy work, but as the IECC continues to push against diminishing returns on investment we need to turn our attention away from first cost and othereconomic obstacles to better performance in our homes to figuring out how we get basic proper installation of efficiency measures like insulation. I admire Clint and am grateful for the work that he continues to do concentrating on the fundamental basics of performance.

Clint Shireman on LinkedIn

Knauf Insulation

“So, You Think You Know How Insulation Works” By Marcus Bianchi as published in Building Energy Magazine

Thermal Metric Summary Report - BSC

Knauf Online Training Center

Tips & Tricks: Why Getting Insulation Right Is SoImportant Video

Knauf Tips & Tricks: How to Install Roll Insulation video

In Part 2 Alex speaks to commissioning, what to look for in HVAC design to indicate if there is a problem, and what does it mean to design HVAC system with Heat Pumps vs Gas forced air systems.

Alex Meaney on ⁠LinkedIn⁠

⁠Mean HVAC⁠

⁠Mean HVAC Free Stuff:⁠ Articles, Vides, and more

⁠Mean HVAC BS Tools⁠ on the app store