Our Goal: 1,000 Green Supers in One Year

This program is a cooperative effort between property managers, 32BJ members, union staff, and our city’s greenest superintendents. Property managers send their supers to a rigorous 40-hour core course that covers all aspects of green building operations and maintenance. Upon satisfactorily completing both written and field tests each super will be awarded green building certifications by the Building Performance Institute.

In the first year, the Fund will provide 100 green building classes and provide 4,500 total hours of instruction, resulting in 1,000 green supers in New York City. We will provide NYC with a professional building service workforce capable of reducing energy use, conserving water, saving money, improving our health, and cleaning our environment.

Program Curriculum

The 40 hour core course is comprised of the following 10 units plus certification tests.

1. Building Science — Covers the fundamentals of building science and examines a whole building approach to operations and maintenance. Topics in this class will include the Laws of Thermodynamics, air movement, sensible and latent heat, heating degree days, energy measurement, heat transfer, and relative humidity.

2. Building Envelope — Covers the core area of the building’s envelope and explores ways to keep conditioned air from escaping to the outside environment. Topics in this class include air barriers, vapor barriers, thermal barriers, air sealing, insulation, pressure boundaries, and compartmentalization.

3. Lighting, Electricity, and Plug Loads — Covers all aspects of electricity, lighting, and appliances. Topics in this class will include electrical science, lighting types, lighting retrofits, lighting audits, motion sensors, and appliance maintenance and purchasing.

4. HVAC — Covers the essentials of running a building’s heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system. Topics in this class include combustion science, combustion efficiency, controls, distribution, and steam.

5. Field Exercise (HVAC): Mechanical Room and Roof — Onsite visit to a building’s machine room and roof where instructors will teach supers how to perform steady state efficiency tests, maintain rooftop ventilation equipment, and properly log the daily use of the building’s mechanical systems.

6. Indoor Environmental Quality — Covers the indoor atmosphere of a building. Topics will include green cleaning, volatile organic compounds, moisture, mold, asbestos, and pest control.

7. Water Conservation — Covers the essentials of water use and water conservation strategies. Topics include water metrics analysis, domestic hot water optimization, low flow appliances, and leak detection and repair.

8. Field Exercise: Hallway, Lobby, Apartment — Onsite exercise where supers learn how to evaluate the building’s envelope, audit a building’s lighting, and address wasted energy in a variety of locations throughout the building.

9. Quantifying Energy Usage — Covers energy usage and benchmarking. Topics in this class will be analyzing energy bills, determining base usage, and building metrics. The culmination of this class will be for each student to perform a basic benchmark of their building.

10. Green Building Work Plan and Communications — Provides strategies and techniques for supers to develop a green building work plan and communicate effectively with building owners, tenants, and staff on the green measures that they are taking. Topics of this course will be on generating tenant buy-in, presenting a green business plan to management, and performing cost benefit analysis for owners.

Sign-up Today

If you are a property management firm, a building owner, or a 32BJ resident manager, superintendent, or handyperson please contact us and we will help coordinate your participation in our program.

(212) 388-3220
1000supers@32bjfunds.com

1,000 Green Building Supers Learn more about participating in the 1,000 Green Supers iniative.

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