Get Ye to the NESEA BuildingEnergy10 Conference -- An Interview with Jamie Wolf.

The following interview was conducted by the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA) with Jamie Wolf, Certified Passive House Consultant, owner of Wolfworks, and long time member of NESEA, and has been reprinted here with the permission of Mr. Wolf.  We urge you to visit the BuildingEnergy10 Conference website, and would point out that "Early Bird" Registration (which cuts the cost of attendance by $100) ends February 8.
 
Some 4,000 renewable energy and green building experts will bring their cutting edge thinking to Boston in March for the BuildingEnergy10 Conference and Tradeshow, the annual event organized by the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA). Now in its 35th year, BuildingEnergy is the oldest and largest regional building energy and renewable energy event in the country, with participants coming from across the Northeast – from Maine to Washington, DC.

Today, we’re talking to longtime NESEA member Jamie Wolf, owner and principal of Wolfworks. This is the second in our ongoing series of conversations with BE10 leaders.

Q: What makes BE10 such an important conference?

A: We've been doing this since the 70's. Think about that! There is simply no community more experienced and qualified to tell it like it is. It's in the NESEA community's DNA to scrutinize what needs to work, what's working, and to be unabashed about what isn't. We don't have time for wishful thinking. We need to know, and know now, what's working and how. We depend on each other to cut to the chase and describe just what we know, and don't, and where it’s all leading. If I want to gauge the credibility of anyone working in any aspect of the sustainability profession in the Northeast, I ask if they're a member of NESEA, and tell them I hope to meet them at BE10.

Q: Who should attend BE10, and why?

A: Let's be frank. If your practice is related to sustainability and you work in the Northeast, this is where you belong. The diversity of that practice is part of what makes NESEA unique. We've recognized that sustainability engages whole systems and should be a collaboration among many disciplines. We recognize that the fundamental currency is energy and the breadth and scale of our interests are defined by that awareness. I expect to meet and learn from practicing architects, engineers, builders and developers, people working in policy and government, advocates, product manufacturers, facility managers – the list goes on and on. It needs to be said that no matter where you are in the arc of your career, the Building Energy Conference is the place to begin and continue, year after year, to build the understanding and develop the relationships that will assure you advance and are practicing the state of your art.

Q: What have you learned from past BuildingEnergy shows?

A: Wow. Nearly everything that matters in the development of my practice. Regardless of where your education was formed or what your discipline is, it is incomplete without the ongoing and ever-changing experience and information you get at this conference. It’s time for us all to bring our best game to the extraordinary challenges we are facing in the 21st Century. That level of performance is just not possible if we are not keeping pace with the innovative ideas, practices, and technologies that are the focus and purpose of Building Energy, and have been for over three decades.

Q: What are you looking forward to this year?

A: For the past five years I have worked with a growing collaborative of conference planners dedicated to exploring what we have come to call "Whole Systems in Action". While much of BuildingEnergy quite appropriately focuses on the down and dirty technical necessities of sustainable practice, our interest is in the broader and deeper systems-based thinking that integrates all that horsepower. Our track is structured to engage the sequence of our session audiences in a cohesive conversation with itself and our presenters. We'll be exploring how communities lead change, the wisdom of groups engaged in change, meta-patterns of sustainability, open source practice, new economies, and how we operate as a community of practice. Big ideas and big thinking for a better world!

Q: Is there a project, product or technology you are particularly excited to learn more about?

A: Personally, I have recently become a Certified Passive House Consultant, so I will be looking through that lens at the presentations and technologies on display and scrutinizing their capacities to deliver exceptionally low energy use in new and existing buildings. In our Whole Systems in Action track I'm looking forward to the presentations of our exceptional speakers and the engrossing interaction that takes place with our audience. NESEA is always way ahead of the curve on emerging ideas and the people who are developing them, and they'll be taking the stage one after another again this year. I am never disappointed and always leave inspired and amazed!

For more information, and to register online, visit the BuildingEnergy10 website.  Thanks to Jamie Wolf and NESEA's Jo Lee for permission to reprint this article. We again urge you to visit the website for his company Wolfworks where you'll also find his excellent Future Friendly Homes blog. You can also follow Mr. Wolf on Twitter @jwolfworks.