The Department of Energy worked with the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) and industry stakeholders to develop the Better Buildings Workforce Guidelines, voluntary national guidelines to improve the quality and consistency of commercial building workforce credentials for four key energy-related jobs: Building Energy Auditor, Building Commissioning Professional, Building Operations Professional and Energy Manager. The products of this work were Job Task Analyses (JTAs) for each of the positions, and certification schemes so that industry now has voluntary national guidelines from which to develop high quality and nationally recognized training and certification programs, helping to address challenges found in the energy efficiency workforce with quality, consistency, and scalability across certification and certificate programs.

CBEI’s role was to build on this work and create a competency model for these four job titles. The goal of the competency model is to articulate and classify the competencies required for engagement and advancement of talented individuals needed to implement energy retrofit projects and operate energy efficient buildings. The model is intended to help match job requirements with industry-recognized skills, and reveal gaps in competencies in the industry to enhance the expansion of the energy retrofit market. It will also support the growth of the energy retrofit workforce by guiding the development of new education and training programs, or modifying the existing programs to address the missing components.