Become a Green Certified Professional Remodeler

Ron Cowgill could tell from the headlines and industry chatter that a wave of green building was on the horizon. As a remodeler with an upscale clientele on Chicago’s north shore, he could also tell from the questions his clients asked.

So as the Chicago chapter president of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI), Cowgill agreed to host classes for NARI’s Green Certified Professional designation. In the process, he earned the GCP certification. Now he’s convinced that more remodelers should enroll in the NARI program.

“Even if you think you know a lot about construction and remodeling, the stuff you’ll learn here will open your eyes to a new way of doing things—a new way to look at your projects and a new way to complete them, start to finish,” says Cowgill, president of the Glenview, Ill.-based firm D/R Services Unlimited Inc. “And then you’ve got the credential, which will help separate you as a true professional in the field.”

Implementing green operations
Cowgill learned that making wholesale changes to green business operations can be challenging. So he focuses on greening one aspect of his business at a time, emphasizing that particular practice until his workers get the hang of it, then moves on to the next thing. One of his first changes was transitioning to spray-in insulation.

“The hardest part is getting the guys to understand why you need to work a little differently—why we’re framing a little differently, why we’re using a different type of insulation. At first, it’s ‘Why bother? We’ve been doing it this way 30 years.’ But once they start seeing it, they understand,” says Cowgill.

Getting certified
NARI’s 12-week green education course costs $495 for NARI members and $695 for non-members, and covers topics such as building science, indoor air quality, renewable energy and deconstruction—the recycling of building materials removed during demolition. Classes meet one night each week, usually for about two hours. Local chapters like Cowgill’s offer courses in person, and NARI also offers its courses online via webinar. The online courses run quarterly; local chapters offer the classes once a year.

Because different green technologies are more popular in different regions, in-person classes can provide a more tailored approach. For example, solar energy is a greater concern in Mississippi than in Minnesota, while a sealed building envelope that doesn’t allow heat to escape is more valuable in colder northern states.

In new construction projects, green certification is more commonly associated with projects themselves than with builders. But because remodeling jobs are so varied, NARI’s approach is to ensure that its GCPs are experts who can apply green principles to any job.

“If you’re doing a kitchen or a bath, it’s very difficult to set criteria such that a project can be certified green—they’re very individual projects, and there’s very little testing you can do in order to see that a project meets the standards,” says Dan Taddei, director of education and certification at NARI. “We’ve always taught and certified individuals, and that’s what we’re doing here: teaching people to integrate sustainable building science and energy-efficiency concepts into their remodeling projects so that the projects are built to last, to be energy efficient and to be healthful.”

Cowgill says that not every customer asks for a green project, but many of the techniques covered in the class have become standard practice at his business, and don’t increase a project’s time or cost. So as demand for green remodeling grows, Cowgill points to his certification. In cases where the clients don’t mention green, Cowgill is doing eco-friendly work regardless, because he’s learned it’s the most effective way to do the job.