Robby Schwarz, Author at BUILDTank Inc.

#24 -2023 Ross Trethewey Principal Te2 Engineering. Making HVAC design understandable.

November 20, 2023

Ross Trethewey thinks Zero to 360 and is the founder of TE2 Engineering. TE2 is a full-service engineering design and consultation firm that specializes in high performance HVAC design, renewable energy design and MEP design. Thanks to Travis Brungart and Joe Cook at Catalyst Construction, I met Ross at the BS and Beer Building Science…

#23-2023 DOE’s Building America Solution Center and the Building Science Advisor

November 5, 2023

The Building America Solution Center grew out of the Department of Energy’s Building America Program. A Program that has been a source of innovations in residential building energy efficiency and performance for over 25 years. The Building America Program leverages cutting-edge building science research to develop the solutions and best practices needed to advance energy efficiency…

#22-2023 Todd Usher Addison Homes – Builder, Professor, Energy Rater

October 22, 2023

Todd Usher is the Founder of Addison Homes a South Carolina home building company specializing in building healthy, high-performance homes that emphasize increased comfort and durability, better indoor air quality, greater energy efficiency, and the use of sustainable materials with lower embodied carbon. How does he do this, he partners with the Department of Energy’s…

#21 -2003 Bill Spohn President and CEO of TruTech Tools

October 9, 2023

Bill Spohn is the President and CEO of TruTech Tools and much more. He is an entrepreneur who is willing to listen, learn, and cooperate with an eye towards bettering the world in small and large ways and in any way he can. He is involved in so many interesting thinks that we jumped straight…

#20 -2003 Matt Everson Defining the damage, a builder’s guide to Insurance scope of loss reports.

September 21, 2023

A Scope of Loss Report is the insurance industry term for an estimate of the rebuilding cost of a lost house due to a severe event like fire, hurricane, or tornado. It does not reflect the cost of the house that will be rebuilt. It reflects rebuilding the specific house that was lost, exactly as…

#19 -2003 Steve Baczek bridging between architecture and sound building science.

September 10, 2023

Steve Baczek is a nationally recognized architect, who has been designing and developing custom residential structures for over 28 years. After architecture school he had the opportunity to work with Joe Lstiburek and Betsy Pettit at Building Science Corporation. But since then, he has really honed his unique perspective, knowledge, and ability to be a…

#18 -2003 United Policy Holders, Marshall Fire, Natural Disasters, and the disaster of dealing with insurance.

August 28, 2023

Amy Bach, Executive director of United Policy Holders and Lisa Hughes Marshall Fire Survivor and Marshall Fire Local Liaison for United Policy Holders are my guests on this buildCAST. We discuss the impact of fire specifically, but natural disaster and the destruction of home, its impacts on people and the insurance nightmare that they face.…

#17 -2023 Dr. Diana Fisler at the crossroads of building technology innovation and market adoption

August 13, 2023

Dr. Diana Fisler is an experienced building materials scientist turned Entrepreneur who is Interested in the interface between early building technology innovation and corporations that bring these technologies to market. She’s running her own research in this space as the CEO of EcoSnap, a technology she is bringing to market that speeds up and lowers…

2023 – #16 Craig Maierhofer Vice President of Business Development at Alpen High Performance Products AKA All things High- Performance Windows

August 7, 2023

Alpen High-Performance Products is an American window and door manufacturer that designs and builds some of the most energy efficient window and door products in North America and the world. Alpen’s core products draw on a 30 plus year history of industry leadership in advanced, high-performance window and glass manufacturing. They are an innovative company…

#15 – 2023 – Pamela Brookstein, if you are not talking about it, you’re giving it away.

July 17, 2023

If you’re not talking about it, if you’re not Marketing it, and most importantly if you’re not helping the consumer connect with it on an emotional level or a level where they can clearly understand the benefit to them, then you’re simply giving it giving it away. Pamela Brookstein manages the Value for High Performing…

Our expectations of the performance of houses has changes faster than how we build to achieve that performance. So, at the beginning of a conversation in the construction industry, when I hear, “I have been building for 30 year” I think to myself, there are only two outcomes from this conversation. First, the person is putting up a guard and will not be receptive to an applied building science approach. You know, houses have to breath or your telling me to tighten up the house and then pouch a hole in it for ventilation. On the other hand, the person may have amazing insights and experiences to share.

When I step back, I realize that I’ve almost been working in this industry for 30 years. With an emphasis on sustainable High-performance building I still struggle to integrate what I do into mainstream building, yet I tend to learn something new everyday that takes me one step closer. Having these difficult yet enlightening conversation is often were I learn the most.

At BuildTank, our mission is to use what we learn by applying building science in the field to affect meaningful change in the construction industry. This BUILDcast is the next step. By having broad conversations with the players in the industry we will learn something new from their story that will move us forward toward taking sustainable buildings to mainstream building.