Eric Chisholm Becomes Canada's First GPRO Master Trainer

Since 2014, GPRO’s partnership with the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) has allowed us to train hundreds of professionals in three Canadian provinces. This success would not have been possible without dedicated instructors and advocates like GPRO Master Trainer Eric Chisholm, who have been vital in educating the Canadian workforce in GPRO’s sustainable building concepts.

Eric became GPRO’s first Canadian Master Trainer in 2018, thanks to a grant from the Ontario government. With a background in mechanical engineering and over a decade of experience in sustainable building practices, Eric’s breadth of knowledge and enthusiasm made him the perfect educator to help grow GPRO in Canada. He has already led two Train-the-Trainer sessions and certified 16 new GPRO instructors at George Brown College and Sault College in Ontario. 

The new Canadian GPRO instructors are being trained just in time: Ontario’s low-carbon goals have created a demand for high-performance building skills. GPRO is meeting this demand by training building tradespeople on how they can directly reduce the carbon emissions of their buildings and projects. “To make a real dent in carbon emissions, we need excellent strategy and execution—GPRO is about bringing execution to the level we need to succeed,” Eric said. “GPRO aligns our language with our expectations. It tells us how to deliver in our jobs. Which is why GPRO fits into a low-carbon economy.” 

The Canadian construction industry employs over one million people, with at least two-thirds of these jobs having green requirements. “[The] construction workforce needs to receive the latest knowledge at their fingertips. GPRO is the mechanism that was missing, until now, to do that,” said Eric. Including tradespeople in the sustainability conversation is not only necessary, but long overdue. Eric also noted how excited his students are to finally be invited to the discussion, as more and more jobs are demanding high-performance skills. 

The impact of GPRO can be immediate. For example, one of Eric’s GPRO students felt empowered to advocate for change on their jobsite after taking the class. For months, the student had been unable to make a case to fix a leaking water system. Then, in class, Eric went over how to quantify the cost of water leakage annually. Eric recalled that within minutes, the student said, “I can take this back and finally get this approved. Now I have the information needed to advocate for the right decisions.”

Thank you to both Eric and CaGBC for your partnership with GPRO and your work supporting the high-performance building industry! We’re excited to see GPRO continue to make an impact internationally.