Skilled Trades: The Missing Ingredient to Carbon Neutral

The technologies needed to achieve carbon neutrality in the built environment are available today. Unfortunately, lack of proper installation and commissioning, followed by incomplete operation and maintenance of complex building energy systems often prevent the full benefits of these systems from being realized. Contractors are provided design specifications that are often unrealistic for field use, given usual training levels. Building operators are not meaningfully engaged in the design process, or they lack the training necessary to optimize new systems. Training too often consists of simply providing user manuals. At the same time, our trades workforce is aging with many more professionals nearing retirement than entering the field. There is an acute shortage of skilled trades workers. The trades workforce is much less diverse than the workforce as a whole. This panel focuses on ongoing efforts in Boston, Massachusetts, to create a new occupational ecosystem of more diverse clean energy workers.