Engineers, architects, real estate developers, building contractors, and other professionals are enrolling in a young program offered through the Institute for Extended Learning here that prepares students to advise their employers and clients on strategies and tools for sustainable building.

The Sustainable Building Advisor (SBA) Certificate Program is a specialized nine-month training course—with classes held about twice a month from September to May—that gives students tools to help employers or clients implement sustainable building practices.

Sustainable, in this context, means that a building project will provide optimal human comfort, leave the smallest possible environmental footprint, and be economically feasible, says James Wavada, the program's lead instructor. Plus, he says, for a project to be truly sustainable, all those who design, build, maintain, or use a home or other building must work toward the same goals to meet the original commitment to be green, an aspect of sustainable building that Wavada calls "integrated design."

"Persons who complete this course become the green specialists at their employing firms or can serve as consultants to other firms," says Wavada, who also works for the Washington state Department of Ecology as an environmental planner in Spokane.

"This training walks you through an entirely new approach to design from concept to commissioning and explains how to design your project to be sustainable and how to shepherd the design and construction process to completion," Wavada says. The idea, he says, is that when "you cut the ribbon to open, (it) bears a close resemblance to what you envisioned before a single nail was driven."

Throughout the course, experts in different fields related to sustainable building present proven techniques in design, construction, and operation. Each unit includes hands-on exercises completed in small groups that reinforce technical concepts. Field trips are made to projects that provide students with opportunities to test concepts in the real world.

Recently, this year's class of 18 followed David Hales, a building science and energy specialist for Washington State University's extension energy program, around an Energy Star home in Liberty Lake as he tested its energy efficiency. The two units of study for January were "indoor environmental quality and health," and "healthy, energy-efficient buildings."

The students watched as Hales tested for air leakage, to see how airtight the home is, by doing a "blower-door test," blowing air through a seal placed across the jamb of the open front door to find where air from outside seeped into the home elsewhere. The students took turns using an infrared temperature gun to observe surface temperature differences on walls, windows, doors, and electrical outlets, which they also found were perceptibly cooler to the touch.

The SBA program is endorsed by the U.S. Green Building Council, a nonprofit organization of leaders from across the building industry. The cost to enroll in the SBA program is $1,950, with a class-size limit of 25 students. Registration for the 2009-2010 class begins June 1.

Wavada says the program won't teach anyone how to be an architect, an engineer, or a heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) contractor, "but it will teach you what elements make for a green design, what type of HVAC choices you should make for a green building, what you should be striving to do with materials selection."

The SBA program here had 22 participants in 2006-2007, with 12 graduates, and six people became nationally certified sustainable building advisors. SBA program students who receive passing scores on their written papers and other work are eligible to take the national sustainable building advisory program certification exam, which some students opt not to take.

The 2007-2008 class had 28 participants and produced 23 graduates, nine of whom became nationally certified SBAs. Though enrollment is down this year at 18, Wavada says he expects it to grow because of the demand he sees being stimulated at the state and federal levels with initiatives focused on green jobs and energy efficiency.

"This course is an excellent preparation for this new approach to design and construction of our built environment," he says. "I can't imagine it won't help with enrollment, even in tough economic times. I'd like to see maybe some state and federal scholarships being offered as training options."

Program graduate Eric Petersen, managing director of Coeur d'Alene-based Construction Watch LLC, which provides design and construction consulting, says the course is valuable training. Petersen, a 43-year-old architect who was in the program's 2007-2008 class, has 17 years of experience in the industry.

"There is a lot of information and misinformation out there about 'green building'—what it means, what it is, and how to be 'green,'" says Petersen. "The program does an excellent job of getting to the basics of what it means to be sustainable—not just green. There is a subtle difference in the words and what they mean."

The program teaches the most essential and necessary elements of what building a sustainable building involves and also provides more detailed technical information that allows a student to understand the "real numbers" and "math," and not the marketing hype, he says.

David Braun, an instructor in SCC's architectural technology program and a graduate of the program, says he will use what he learned in the program to help his own students "prepare to enter a work force that is far more green than ever before."

Completing the SBA program "validates me as something of an expert in sustainable building practices," to the benefit of his students, says Braun, who's been an architectural instructor at the college for 10 years.

Petersen says that before his company begins designing a project, it interviews its clients to discuss their needs, goals, budget, and program requirements.

"By being a certified SBA, I am able to discuss the concepts with our clients, help them identify what is important to them in building a sustainable building, as well as dispel myths of green building," Petersen says.

The first SBA program was developed in 1998 by Seattle Central Community College and Seattle City Light. Currently, there are 21 SBA program locations in the U.S., with most being in Washington and Oregon.

The classes, while not on field trips, are conducted at CenterPlace at Mirabeau, in Spokane Valley, at 2426 N. Discovery Place. The Institute for Extended Learning, which serves almost 5,800 students annually and is part of Community Colleges of Spokane, offers a variety of community and educational services, emphasizing adult literacy, business and industry training, worker retraining, and noncredit community education.