About

Project profiles supercharge the search experience and reveal how to achieve net zero energy. Explore Project Data to view the trends and data on all high-performance buildings featured on Connects.

Connects is an interactive and engaging discovery tool that has powerful search-filtering to ensure that users looking for specific building related expertise find the right person to contact. Professionals and Companies elevate their profile rankings by linking to proven experience via project profiles. 

This is what makes Connects unique. The search results reward companies and individual professionals with proven high-performance project experience. This is accomplished by connecting project profiles directly to the people and companies that made it possible.

For the search user, results are ranked by relevant industry and project experience, and once they discover a potential collaborator, they are always guided to contact a selected professional directly.

Connects hosts three different profile types:

Professional: Individual professionals have personal profiles which showcase their full career and project experience. The page showcases to users why a given professional has the proven experience to make their project possible. With connected companies and projects, a professional is able to give context and aggregate data to showcase their impact.

Company: Company Profiles seek to showcase the breath of embodied employee knowledge and intellectual property that makes up their total experience. Both linked professionals and linked projects aggregate to provide total years of experience and organizational project impact.

Project: Project Profiles are the backbone of the site and prove the expertise of the professionals under their connected companies. These profiles capture the relevant high-performance project stats and are to be connected to the professionals and companies that made it possible. Project profiles are shared and can be edited by any Pro on the site.

Who Can Join?

Architects, Contractors, Developers, Engineers, Sub-contractors, and Energy / Sustainability consultants who work on commercial and large residential buildings are welcomed to join. 

Companies, professionals, and projects can be located anywhere in the United States, with sorting and filtering functions provided to help facilitate relevant connections.

User accounts and professional profiles are free to create. All professional profiles require site admin approval before going live and come with the full ability to edit, publish, and connect project and company profiles.

Company Profiles require a user account with an approved professional profile to create.

What is a high-performance Building?

High-performance (HP) buildings are healthy, durable, long-lasting structures that operate with less energy, use fewer natural resources, and require less maintenance than traditional buildings, and they adapt easily to new uses for the future.

Learn more about HP Buildings and their benefits with the High-Performance Building Procurement Toolkit.

What is Net Zero or Net Zero Ready?

A Net Zero Energy building generates as much energy as it consumes on a net annual basis. To achieve zero energy a project first reduces energy use through efficiency measures and optimizes for renewables. Once Net Zero Energy Ready, the project requires renewable energy on-site and/or off-site to offset the remaining energy use.

• Net Zero (Achieving) The project is highly efficient AND ≥100% of the building energy is offset with on-site and/or off-site renewable energy, on a cumulative annual basis. Energy consumption and renewable energy generation must be based on measured data.
• Net Zero (Targeting) Designed to be highly efficient and PLANS TO offset ≥100% of the building energy with on-site and/or off-site renewable energy, on a cumulative annual basis, when the project is completed.
• Net Zero Ready Designed to be highly efficient and DOES NOT offset ≥100% of the building energy with on-site and/or off-site renewable energy, on a cumulative annual basis.

What requirements must a project meet to be included?

There are three requirements that every project must meet to be eligible for a project profile:

• It is a commercial or large residential building.
  • If residential, it should be over 15,000 GSF or include over 15 units.
• It is all-electric during normal operation
  • All electric for building heating operation means that electricity is used for heating during “normal operation” when systems are operating as intended and ambient temperature is above the ASHRAE 99% design condition. (Special use buildings such as health care facilities and laboratories are given more leeway and may be included if the building relies primarily on heat pumps for building heating and through efficiency and electrification achieve ≥90% fossil fuel reduction vs. the ASRHAE 90.1 baseline.)
• It is ultra energy efficient
  • The project meets or exceeds an established net zero ready standard (e.g. MA Stretch Code, Passive House) or is ultra energy efficient as defined by a percent reduction from the ASHRAE 90.1 baseline according to one of the following:
    • Passive House
    • MA Stretch Energy Code
    • 2010: 25% below App G baseline EUI
    • 2013: 18% below App G baseline EUI
    • 2016: 5% below App G PEI
    • 2019: 0% below App G PEI
    • 2022: 0% below App G PEI
  • Note: to maintain consistency for all buildings, the metrics utilized are based on site Energy Use Intensity (EUI) or site Performance Energy Index (PEI), not cost or carbon. Both on-site and off-site renewable energy must be excluded from these metrics. To confirm compliance with PEI, follow the formulas in the Performance Rating Method in Section 4 of ASHRAE 90.1-2016, 2019 or 2022, replacing all energy cost metrics with site energy metrics. The Building Performance Factor (BPF) remains unchanged.

What is the difference between a user account and a professional profile?

A user account is your private access to the Built Environment Connects site, and is the first step towards providing you the ability to create/edit profiles and profile connections. User accounts are primarily intended for Architects, Contractors, Developers, Engineers, Sub-contractors, and Energy / Sustainability consultants who work on commercial and large residential buildings.

A professional profile is your public face, a page created to display your work and connections as a high-performance building professional. An approved professional profile unlocks your ability to create/edit profile connections and create/edit company and project profiles.

What if I want create/edit access without publishing a professional profile?

User accounts can be created for individuals who will create/edit connections and profiles on a company's behalf, but do not identify as a “Professional” contact themselves. These user accounts require more direct approval from site admin staff before site edit access is granted. Interested individuals can make a request by emailing connects@builtenvironmentplus.org.

Who can edit project profiles?

Anyone with an approved professional profile or staff approved user account can edit project profiles. This includes everything from updating media and text content to connecting and disconnecting professional and company profiles. All revisions are logged to allow others to see when the page was last updated.

Who can edit company profiles?

Anyone with an approved professional profile or staff approved user account can edit company profiles. This includes everything from updating media and text content to connecting and disconnecting professional and project profiles. All revisions are logged to allow others to see when the page was last updated.

Who can edit professional profiles?

Only the user account associated with that professional profile. If you see something on another user’s profile that needs to be addressed, please use the feedback link at the bottom of the page.