Creating Green Technology Career Pathways for Building Energy Modelers

By Hannah Maryanski Kiszla

SEI is pleased to announce the publication of “Recommendations for Building Energy Modeling Education in California,” a report prepared by SEI for Southern California Edison, in cooperation with the California Building Energy Modeling (CalBEM) collaborative, a building energy modeling (BEM) stakeholder collective and an annual statewide event hosted by Southern California Edison on behalf of the California Investor-Owned Utilities. 

Building energy modeling is key to realizing building energy savings and is relied upon for California energy code compliance, high-performance building design, energy efficiency retrofits, and more. These different projects create demand for trained building energy modelers. Recognizing the importance of training this workforce, CalBEM partnered with SEI to research current BEM education offerings, identify essential knowledge, skills, and abilities for building energy modelers, and provide recommendations for future BEM education directions.

Through CalBEM and SEI’s extensive network of college and industry partners, SEI interviewed faculty and industry experts in BEM and its related disciplines. Subject matter experts also provided critical input, as did representatives from the International Building Performance Simulation Association USA (IBPSA-USA), CalBEM Working Group 2, Southern California Edison, and the California Association of Building Energy Consultants (CABEC). 

These interviews, and additional research, informed the following recommendations for the future of BEM education and training:

1. Inspire pursuit of BEM careers and participation in BEM educational programming by raising awareness of BEM as a green career among high school and college students. Example actions include:
   1. Engage with career counselors and career centers, trusted sources that can expose college students to BEM.
   2. Collaborate with existing STEM school outreach programs to introduce high school students to BEM.
   3. As a best practice, encourage faculty who teach BEM to help their students make connections to BEM careers by sharing information about BEM continuing education, career pathways, and certifications.

 

1. Support targeted BEM education in fields that come into contact with BEM, including promoting curriculum ideating and sharing, institutionalizing BEM education, and integrating BEM instruction into current curricula. Example actions include:
   1. Further integrate BEM into training for architects, contractors, developers, and engineers to grow awareness of BEM, its value proposition, and design capabilities among the broader building workforce. Existing BEM education and training programs that take this approach can serve as models.
   2. Facilitate communication among BEM faculty at different colleges and universities to promote discussion and sharing of BEM education resources.
   3. Provide grants and support to instructors so that they can document and/or create curriculum with the intent of sharing it and increasing the number and quality of BEM educational programs. SEI has used this model successfully in the Energize Colleges program.

 

1. Promote existing professional credentials among energy modelers, such as the Certified Energy Analyst and Building Energy Modeling Professional credentials, and advocate for employers to lean on these certifications to standardize competency among hired energy modelers.

Are you interested in partnering on BEM education and training? Learn more about CalBEM here, or get in touch at [email protected]. Reach out to SEI at [email protected].

Read the full report and watch a 5-minute summary of the report presented at the 2021 CalBEM Symposium.