GPRO's Ten Year Anniversary
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FUNDAMentals beta class participants talk about the curriculum.
Summer 2020 marks the ten-year anniversary of Urban Green’s flagship educational program, GPRO. Sustainability and high-performance building looked a lot different a decade ago than it does today. New York City had just implemented its own Energy Code, we were promoting CFLs as the most efficient lightbulbs and conventional projects were just starting to require plastic coverings on newly delivered ductwork.
Urban Green saw an opportunity to reach the trades and offer training that filled the green gap, and to convince tradespeople that they should care about sustainability. Our first partnerships were with the United Association, Plumbers Local Union 1, IBEW Local Union 3 and 32BJ SEIU (whose 1,000 Green Supers program integrated the newly-launched GPRO into its required training). We remain grateful to the leaders of these union training programs who contributed their knowledge to the GPRO content, acted as master trainers and facilitated GPRO training at the international level. They remain our greatest supporters to this day.
Fast forward to July 2020: over 15,000 students have taken GPRO courses in more than 70 cities in the U.S. and Canada. While GPRO still trains union members, our diverse audience now includes building owners, contractors, sustainability professionals, designers, consultants, project managers, students—and even a few urban farmers. All of these different perspectives contribute to useful and interesting conversations about building efficiency.
We decided to take a quick look down memory lane to see how far we’ve come in ten years. Ellen Honigstock, Education Director, and Chris Anjesky, Managing Director, reflected on how they’ve seen GPRO grow since its inception.
What did 2010 GPRO look like?
GPRO launched with the delivery partner model that is similar to we use now—but at the time, in order to reach contractors and building owners, we focused on partnering with USGBC chapters, which were considered the centers of green building in larger cities.
Fundamentals of Building Green was the first offering, and it focused on the benefits of building sustainably. It also serves as the first part of all GPRO trade-specific courses. Initially we had consultants writing the curriculum, but then Honigstock took over this function and continues to drive our content to this day.
What have been the biggest changes to GPRO during the past 10 years?
“We never used to talk about carbon, which is the central focus now,” Honigstock said. “We have also updated our courses to be much more actionable—focusing on what participants can do in their job or building. Instead of teaching to the exam, we’re now getting students to think about the action items and identifying the next steps about how to implement them.”
As our partner base has grown, curriculum has also been adapted to fit region-specific climate issues and case studies. Working with partners like USGBC LA and the University of Miami to customize materials has allowed for detailed discussion on pertinent environmental challenges like droughts, hurricanes and resiliency.
marketing, outreach and course delivery plans were also discussed at the beta.
What do you think GPRO will look like in 10 years?
“We’ll have many online options,” said Anjesky. “And they’ll be more modular, taking deeper dives into relevant topics like heat pumps, air sealing or Net Zero and Passive House techniques. We’ll also be in many more markets than we are today.”
Honigstock agreed, with stricter energy codes and carbon goals being implemented throughout North America, future industry professionals will need to understand carbon as a metric in addition to energy. She added that GPRO will continue to offer innovative technical courses for audiences who are already familiar with high-performance practices and more in-depth content for those who are newer to these ideas.
Thank you to Jimmie Costello, Chris Anjesky and Ellen Honigstock for contributing to this post. And a huge thank you to our GPRO community for your support—our program could not have grown without your commitment to sustainability and high-performance building practices. We cannot wait to see what the next ten years brings!
