Online Green Courses and Modules

High Performance Building Online Courses

Learn how to implement cost-effective green building techniques and boost your production efficiency by taking the online courses, High Performance Building for Building Professionals and Advanced High Performance Building: Project Management.

Both courses are available in a full course format or as individual modules, and reference the newly revised ICC/ASHRAE 700-2015 National Green Building Standard™ (NGBS). Earn continuing education credit towards a NAHB designation or get AIA continuing education credit.

To learn more about NAHB Continuing Education Credit and AIA credit, please click on each individual course link below for more details.

Modules:

• High Performance Building as a Business Strategy – This one-hour module reviews how to overcome the perception that high performance building costs too much and that the added benefits do not justify the costs. It also addresses how to discuss the return on investment (ROI) with the customer.
• Operation, Maintenance and Building Owner Education – This one-hour module specifically addresses the areas of operation, maintenance and owner education, including the content of building owners’ manuals for single-family and multifamily dwellings, building owner training for single- and two-family structures and additional considerations for multi-unit buildings.
• Site and Lot Design and Development – This one-hour module covers strategies and tactics for both site and lot development with emphasis on four key areas: site and lot selection; project team, mission statement and goals; site and lot design and site and lot development and construction.
• Resource Efficiency – This one-hour module discusses smart material selection and maintenance reduction of recyclable materials.
• Building Science and the Whole House – This one-hour module emphasizes a whole-house approach to build homes that are more environmentally sustainable and energy efficient. It explores key building science principles: heat transfer, moisture movement, air pressure and climate zone considerations.
• Energy Efficiency – Parts A and B – This two-hour module covers how to achieve an energy-efficient building envelope through various conservation, consumption and alternative energy strategies. It explains performance benchmarks and the options for testing and achieving compliance with the NGBS.
• Indoor Environmental Quality – This one-hour module covers indoor environmental quality strategies such as the reduction or elimination of potential sources of pollutants, control of pollutants, filtration of pollutants and mitigation of radon.
• Water Efficiency - This one-hour module covers water efficiency strategies that can enable building industry professionals to respond to the vitally important environmental concern around limited water resources.
• Green Remodeling – Parts A and B – This two-hour module explores the challenges and considerations of green remodeling projects and reviews how the NGBS uniquely approaches these projects.
• Marketing Green and High Performance Projects – This one-hour module covers important aspects of marketing green and high performance projects including tailoring marketing activities to successfully attract targeted clients, using tactics that successfully and responsibly sell a green and high performance product and aligning aspects of your company with its sustainability and green commitment to distinguish yourself in the marketplace.

Modules:

• Incorporating Green and High Performance Program Criteria – In this 1.25-hour module, understand the importance of including effective planning and coordination throughout the life-cycle of a green building project.
• Project Management Processes and Tools – This 1.5-hour module explores the tenants of a project management system such as defining goals, creating processes to meet the goals, creating benchmarks, maintaining a schedule, containing costs and measuring outcomes. Understanding such attributes are especially critical to a project that is seeking certification to a green building program.
• Incorporating High Performance Practices into Project Management – Parts A and B – This 2.5-hour module reviews how to use green building certification tools and processes, such as the NGBS, as planning tools and checklists throughout the project to meet the client’s goals and attain certification.
• Decreasing the Potential for Liabilities Associated with Green and High Performance Building – This 1.5-hour module will help green builders, remodelers and other building industry professionals learn how to decrease their risk through proper messaging, effective documentation and detailed planning.