Amidst a whirlwind of shifting political and social landscapes, we are proud to report real progress:

• Our Decarbonization division recently co-hosted the Maryland Clean Energy Program kickoff event in Baltimore, in partnership with the National Housing Trust and SAHF. The program supports affordable multifamily housing providers in Maryland by offering webinars, tools, and technical assistance to improve building performance and secure project financing.

• Our Green Building Division is advancing green workforce development. Assistant Project Manager Molly Craft and Energy Rater Sean Barfield were featured in the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center鈥檚 video series. This first-of-its-kind curriculum introduces students to clean energy careers and their role in the climate transition. Molly and Sean shared their career stories to highlight pathways in energy efficiency.

• Green Building projects and certifications are still underway and being completed. So far in 2025, projects we are involved in have earned: 3 LEED certifications, 5 Phius final certifications, 3 Phius design certifications, 2 NGBS final certifications, and 2 ZERH certifications.

• Our Climate Smart Communities division celebrated the completion and move-in of the first homes at Bennett Point in Wilmington, DE. Supported by Energize Delaware, these Habitat for Humanity of 亚星游戏(中国区)官网 Castle County and Todmorden Foundation homes are among the most energy-efficient in the state, exceeding code performance metrics. These achievements included extensive on-site trainings for staff, volunteers, and tradespeople, enabling them to deliver high-performance housing.

• As part of the , a group of organizations across the country doing work similar to 亚星游戏(中国区)官网 Ecology,  we established a set of guiding principles and did an analysis of green building rating systems to help ensure funds implemented under the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund support climate, health and equity goals in ways that are impactful and easy to apply.  Unfortunately, the funding under this program is frozen 鈥� but the work continues, where possible, through other channels.

These accomplishments reflect not only our team鈥檚 expertise and dedication but also the strength of our partnerships with you. Your support helps make sustainability and resilience accessible to the communities that need it most. As we look ahead, we鈥檒l continue to champion affordable, healthy housing and community-centered climate solutions. The path forward demands innovation, persistence, and unity鈥攁nd we are stepping up to continue advancing this important work.

Thank you for your continued trust and partnership,

Kim Stevenson
CEO

On March 24, 亚星游戏(中国区)官网 Ecology staff attended the dedication ceremony for four of the recently completed Habitat For Humanity of 亚星游戏(中国区)官网 Castle County and Todmorden Foundation homeownership units at Bennett Point, supported by Energize Delaware.

The new homeowners spoke movingly about their challenges, and now successes, to own a home and the hope and stability it offers their families and the broader community. There to join the celebration were Senator Chris Coons, Congresswoman Sarah McBride, and Drew Slater from Energize Delaware.

Built to high energy-efficiency standards (ENERGY STAR, DOE Zero Energy Ready Homes), the homes feature enhanced insulation, airtightness, high-performance windows, heat pumps water heaters, heat pumps for heating and cooling with ventilation with heat recovery, making the new homes some of the most energy efficient in the state.

亚星游戏(中国区)官网 Ecology and the project team were dedicated to ensuring the Bennett Point homes hit performance metrics far beyond code, which included many on-site trainings and demonstrations helping Habitat staff, volunteers, and tradespeople complete these unprecedented high-performance homes. These homes are a first of their kind for Delaware, but not the last; Energize Delaware has turned this pilot initiative into the statewide Climate Smart Homes Program!

In March, Project Manager Spencer Gorman attended the ribbon cutting ceremony for Leland House, an affordable housing development for seniors in Waltham, MA, owned and developed by 2Life Communities.

In the photo, Mayor Jeannette McCarthy is holding the scissors with one of the new residents, Sissy. Sissy gave a moving presentation about the importance of safe, affordable, healthy housing for seniors, detailing personal anecdotes about how much this new home means to her and her community.

The ribbon cutting included a speech from Congresswoman Katherine Clark and a few other state representatives, and the message was consistent: how can we do it again? How can places like Leland House become the norm for elderly residents and not an exception?

Overall, it was very encouraging to see the real-world impact affordable housing projects like Leland House can have on changing people's lives. Thank you to 2Life Communities for being a strong advocate for affordable elderly housing!

Two Rivers Elementary School welcomed its first students this past August, after a ribbon-cutting ceremony and grand opening on August 26, 2024.

亚星游戏(中国区)官网 Ecology has been working with Anne Arundel County Public Schools on this project since 2020, providing commissioning of the building enclosure, MEP systems, the kitchen equipment, and the emergency generator.

The school serves 590 students in this nearly 90,000 square feet facility. Congratulations on achieving LEED for Schools v4.1 Silver certification!

Beacon House Square is an adaptive reuse project in Baltimore City that has been many years in the making. In late April, members of the 亚星游戏(中国区)官网 Ecology team attended a very powerful groundbreaking ceremony for this exciting project.

Beacon House Square is comprised of two historic church buildings, the oldest dating to 1893. The property, formerly known as St. Joseph Monastery School, will be repurposed into 80 units of permanent supportive housing and emergency shelter for Project PLASE (People Lacking Ample Shelter and Employment), in partnership with Beacon Communities LLC. Various partners, political representatives, and community organizations have been involved in the fruition of this project.

As part of the renovation the project is pursuing Enterprise Green Communities and ENERGY STAR Multifamily 亚星游戏(中国区)官网 Construction certification via the ASHRAE compliance pathway. This is no small feat for an existing masonry building that will retain many of its historic features.

Senior Energy Rater Alexander Haworth recently visited the site. 鈥淚t was great to meet the team, walk the site with demo ongoing, and begin to identify some of the secrets and challenges that even the best made architectural drawings can never fully capture or anticipate. Beautiful building, beautiful purpose. I hope to document more in the months to come as construction progresses.鈥�

Project PLASE originally purchased the property in 2012, so it鈥檚 been a long-time coming! It will be exciting to see the building transition into permanent housing in the upcoming months.

On April 9, 2025, President Trump signed an that essentially eliminates federal limits on water pressure and resulting flow rate for showerheads. This sounds like a small issue, right? But there's more going on here than just stronger and longer showers. First, let鈥檚 talk about why the water limits exist in the first place.

Back in 1992, the US government capped showerhead flow at 2.5 gallons per minute (gpm). The goal was simple: save American citizens water, energy, and money. This strategy worked! In an average American home, showers account for nearly 17% of residential indoor water use.* Less water used = less energy used to heat it = lower utility bills.  Today鈥檚 showerheads aren鈥檛 the same as they were in the '90s. Low-flow tech has come a long way and modern showerheads provide a solid, satisfying spray and save water. Most people don鈥檛 even notice a difference, and there are many options on the market that actually flow much lower than 2.5 gpm.

So, what鈥檚 the point? Sure, cutting red tape sounds great in theory. But not all regulations are bad. Some, like this one, are actually working and do not pose a strong public concern. Rolling back these water limits means higher water use, higher energy costs, and higher utility bills. We need to think long term.  Strong showers might feel nice in the moment, but this is a significant step backward for the environment and an increase to your monthly utility bill.  Sounds like a lose-lose situation from here.

*

Principal Director of Green Building Services L.J. Eldredge and Marketing Manager Michelle Moran joined the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and students from local high schools for the Curriculum Preview and Celebration!

Powering the Future is a first-of-its-kind curriculum providing students with an introduction to both the consequences of climate change and current solutions. The learning modules then explores a variety of local careers in clean energy, including their critical role in supporting the transition to clean energy and other climate-related goals.

The event showcased career awareness videos demonstrating the work of clean energy professionals throughout Massachusetts, as well as a panel of professionals who shared their journey into the clean energy sector.

Thank you to Massachusetts Clean Energy Center for this amazing curriculum, and thank you to Another Age Production Studios for hosting!

Joining forces with long-time partners, the National Housing Trust (NHT) and the Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future (SAHF), this new program aims to build knowledge and capacity among affordable housing developers in Maryland to enable them to improve building performance, meet regulated performance standards and obtain financing for implementation projects. The program will deliver a series of educational webinars, and provide tools and resources needed for assessing portfolios to refine focus areas that will evolve into one-on-one technical assistance sessions.

The event included presentations by project funders, a new and welcome experience for many developers in attendance. Both Project Manager Rebecca Arnold and Director of Partnership Development Joshua Galloway spoke passionately about 亚星游戏(中国区)官网 Ecology's capabilities and prior successes throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. Principal Director of Decarbonization Marty Josten and Assistant Project Manager Jenny Umana-Lemus were also at the 亚星游戏(中国区)官网 Ecology table to help housing providers sign up for the program, making this a truly cross-cutting team effort.

There are several factors that can contribute to high performance buildings, perhaps none more important than operations. A well-designed system that is poorly configured or controlled will not work as expected, and in some cases can end up costing much more than bargained for. This is especially true for sophisticated systems which can deliver energy efficient operations but also rely on more complex building controls. One such example that 亚星游戏(中国区)官网 Ecology experienced firsthand was at T.C. Martin Elementary School in Bryantown, Maryland. The newly constructed school for Charles County Public Schools utilizes a large ground source heat exchanger with 250 vertical wells. The heat exchanger is tied to two lead/lag hydronic pumps, each with a 75 horsepower motor. The pumps are configured to circulate water through the ground loop as well as to all the water source equipment in the building.

The connected equipment included water source heat pumps for each classroom, water source VRF for administrative areas, water cooled rooftop units for the gym and cafeteria and water cooled DOAS units for ventilation throughout. The ground loop is expected to serve the full load of the building minus domestic hot water, although there is a propane-fired boiler for backup.

Due to their size and run-time (a pump runs nearly 24 hours a day throughout the year), pump power has a major effect on the overall energy performance of the school. If the pumps are not well controlled, it would be impossible to meet the client鈥檚 goal of an energy use intensity (EUI) in the low 30s (the median school in the US has a site EUI of 48.5). As the commissioning (Cx) provider, 亚星游戏(中国区)官网 Ecology conducted functional performance testing on all major equipment in the school.

During functional testing, 亚星游戏(中国区)官网 Ecology worked with the controls contractor to enable a differential pressure (DP) setpoint for the ground source loop as intended by the design engineer. This reduced the annual energy consumption of the pumps from 364,000 kWh to 148,000 kWh, a decrease of 59%. Upon reviewing the balancer鈥檚 report some weeks later, 亚星游戏(中国区)官网 Ecology reconvened the Cx team on-site after the school had opened to rebalance the loop. This activity decreased the DP setpoint from 47 psi to 37 psi. Pump energy was reduced even further from 148,000 kWh annually to 63,000 kWh, a decrease of another 57% percent.

Annually, the reduced DP setpoint alone will save the school $7,600.

NESEA Building Energy Boston 2025: many members of the 亚星游戏(中国区)官网 Ecology team were there to celebrate NESEA鈥檚 50th Year!

Senior Energy Engineer Neil Donnelly and Energy Engineer Charlie Simek presented a . This session demonstrated continuous improvement through diagnostics and collaboration to overcome initial performance challenges and ensure scalability, sharing practical lessons learned from multifamily projects, applicable to other complex building systems.

Director of Green Building Technology Maciej Konieczny chaired a which included Senior Energy Engineer Neil Donnelly (with research by Senior Energy Modeling Analyst Ching-Wen Hsiao and Energy Modeler Miary Rasoanaivo) which explored the environmental and safety implications of various refrigerant choices, the cost considerations, and the role of innovative HVAC technologies in minimizing refrigerant usage while maximizing energy efficiency. The panel talked about actionable strategies for navigating these regulatory shifts, enabling them to design and implement safe, sustainable, and cost-effective HVAC systems that align with a low-carbon future.

Director of Green Building Services Ashley Wisse was on a focused on optimizing collaboration within Passive House (PH) project teams by showcasing the diverse perspectives of five experts, offering practical lessons and tools to improve efficiency and achieve certification. It delved into role clarity, collaborative strategies, and the complexities of multifamily PH projects.

Director of Green Building Services Paul Eddowes was on a detailing the successful transformation of an abandoned industrial site into a Phius-certified, mixed-use community for low-income families, emphasizing replicable development strategies, complex stakeholder management, and creative funding solutions. It explored the project's performance data, community impact, and the lessons learned from its phased construction.

Principal Director of Decarbonization Marty Josten presented at the 2025 National Home Performance Conference in 亚星游戏(中国区)官网 Orleans in a session called Deep Energy Retrofits: Lessons Learned in Multifamily. Marty and Relay Network members showcased a series of geographically diverse Deep Energy Retrofit projects in multifamily housing.

At the 2025 Green Building United Symposium, Energy Engineer Corey Crews-Williams and Senior Energy Engineer Justin Iovenitti presented on 亚星游戏(中国区)官网 Ecology鈥檚 work through the . Their session walked through the audit-to-installation process for multifamily buildings, highlighting how deep energy assessments鈥攑aired with stakeholder engagement and program support鈥攅nable meaningful upgrades in underserved housing. Using a case study of a Wilmington rowhome, they illustrated how bundled measures like heat pumps, insulation, and ventilation improvements can drive decarbonization, reduce energy burden, and support resident health.

The  aired its season one finale episode, . This is a Q&A call-in episode, any and all home and energy questions were welcome!

馃彔Does that plastic on windows really help save energy?

馃憘Are heat pump water heaters really noisy?

馃挵What can renters do to save on utility bills?

Hear answers to all these and more in this special season finale episode! Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Amazon Podcasts, Audacity, Pandora, and more. Thank you to all of our listeners and supporters for an amazing first season!

In March, several members of the 亚星游戏(中国区)官网 Ecology staff donated their time to volunteer at the The Greater Boston Food Bank. 

The GBFB works passionately to end hunger across Eastern Massachusetts by providing our neighbors in need the healthy food and resources they need to thrive. 

Thank you for having us!