About - GreenHome Institute

About The

GreenHome Institute

The mission of the GreenHome Institute is to empower people to make healthier and more sustainable choices in the renovation and construction of the places we live.

We work towards achieving our mission through three primary activities: Education and Training. GHI trains persons seeking certification as LEED Green Raters / Green Associates and Accredited Professionals, DOE Home Energy Score Assessors, GHI GreenHome professionals, and Inspectors. We offer weekly free continuing education opportunities that fulfill requirements for many professionals. GHI has educated thousands of professionals and homeowners on residential green building topics, strategies, concepts, and programs through our educational services. Project Consultation Service. Our services guide consumers and housing professionals through new construction and renovation residential projects by helping to ensure their home/multi-unit dwelling is healthy, energy efficient, and eligible for sustainable certification through LEED, GreenStar, Enterprise Green Communities, and other green programs. GHI has certified thousands of housing units through LEED, GreenStar, and Enterprise Green Communities Programs. Public Policy. GHI also understands that the promotion of sustainable housing is achievable through legislative and public policy evolution. Therefore, we strive to connect with legislators and policy makers to encourage the adoption of legislation that lead to the development of sustainable housing. GHI began in 2000 and has since become a LEED for Homes Provider since 2005, Enterprise Green Building Technical Assistance Partners since 2008, USGBC Education Partners, and DOE Home Energy Partners since 2014. Over the last decade, we have worked with multiple cities on home energy programs. GHI is a small but mighty team, comprised of three staff members and 15 volunteer board members from around the US representing residential housing professionals and industry representatives. Additionally, we have nearly 300 individual and company members around the globe interested in advancing residential green building. Our work is supported through fees earned through training, project management, and certification services. Additionally, we receive additional funding through donations, memberships, and sponsorships. We need your support to keep doing this important work! With housing topping the list of the most important community needs throughout the nation and world, it is important to build healthier and safer homes for everyone to live. Please consider a gift to the GreenHome Institute for GHI 2024 Year End Fundraiser. We appreciate your support!

Our Current
Board of Directors

Our Current
Board of
Directors

Meet the GHI Staff & Support

Brendan Molony, Vice President

Board member of Bike Friendly Kalamazoo

February 23, 2022 / 0 Comments / in Green Home Institute / by Brett Little

Brendan Molony is a graduate of Aquinas College with a bachelor’s degree in sustainable business and for the last six years has led the sustainability program at Bronson Healthcare Group. Brendan has a passion to drive organizational and community development while taking into account the people, planet, and financial success. Focusing on waste reduction, mobility, green building design, local/healthy food, green cleaning, and smarter purchasing, Brendan has helped Bronson become one of the top 50 Green hospitals in the United States as rated by the Becker Review, while also saving the organization over $2million annually. Brendan has served as past chair of the Michigan Health and Hospital Association’s Green Healthcare Committee, is also a founding board member of Bike Friendly Kalamazoo, and board president of the South West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum. He currently serves on the board of Community Homeworks as secretary and the Vine Neighborhood Association as vice president. When not working on sustainability issues, you can find Brendan running on trails throughout Kalamazoo.

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Meghan Cruse, Secretary

Marketing professional for Doyle Homes

Meghan Cruse is a residential Real Estate Agent, Farmer Florist, and Marketing professional for Doyle Homes in Howell, Michigan, as well as a wife, and mother of two. Since completing her graduate degree in Construction Management, she has committed to becoming an expert in designing for health and wellness, and obtaining her Living Future Accreditation As an entrepreneur at heart, her mind and schedule are often busy, but she still finds a way to embody a wellness-first lifestyle that focuses on family, sustainable living, and locally grown meals. She hopes to share her passion for living her values with the masses and to create impactful change across the residential construction industry.

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Brad Keuning, Treasurer

Assistant Professor of Accounting at Aquinas College

February 23, 2022 / 0 Comments / in Green Home Institute / by Brett Little

Brad Keuning is Assistant Professor of Accounting at Aquinas College, bringing nearly twenty years of industry experience into the classroom. Prior to Aquinas, Brad held various accounting and finance roles at Ernst & Young, General Electric and Herman Miller. For the last six years, Brad has served on the Board of Directors and Finance Committee for the West Michigan Environmental Action Council (WMEAC), holding the role of Treasurer for the last three. Brad is originally from Holland and lives in the Grand Rapids area with his wife and three school-aged children. Among other things, the family enjoys spending time outdoors at their cabin up-north. Brad is committed to protecting the environment for his children and generations to come. Brad’s current term at GHI is June 2020 – May 2022

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Debbie Coleman, Vice President

Architect – Sun Plans Inc.

February 23, 2022 / 0 Comments / in Green Home Institute / by Brett Little

A GreenHome Institute member since 2018 she is as a licensed architect for over 30 years. Debbie has designed hundreds of low-energy passive solar homes for clients across the United States and Canada in many climate zones. She obtained a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Arizona and has been a licensed architect for over 30 years. In 2002, she founded Sun Plans Inc. which specializes in internet-based, sun-inspired, passive solar home design. Debbie authored The Sun-Inspired House: home designs warmed and brightened by the sun which is available in the ever-expanding eBook from Sun Plans with over 150 house designs. Her design philosophies incorporate Passive Solar Design Strategies; Guidelines for Home Building developed by NREL and are continuously evolving to adapt to the ever-changing low-energy construction methods and climate changes as well as other housing and energy technologies related to green building. She believes in efficiency first and building as small as possible as prerequisites to good house design. Her work has been published in Solar Today, Mother Earth News, Fine Homebuilding, Home Power, and Home Energy. In December 2022, she presented The Basics of Passive Solar Home Design webinar for GHI. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNEBqgmYx6I) As a member of the American Institute of Architects, she understands architects, but with her typical services, her services align well with designers, draftsmen, engineers, and builders. Debbie has worked in construction, been the general contractor on her previous home, and coordinated a renovation on her current home. She is a LEED-GA and an active member of the American Solar Energy Society where she serves on the board of directors, the solar buildings technical committee, and the committee for the National Solar Tour that showcases many forms of sustainable living and buildings across all 50 states. Debbie is passionate about how the sun can warm and brighten the interior of homes but enjoys being outside more than inside. She works very hard at connecting the two by bringing in the outdoors with careful attention to window placement which varies with each climate, piece of land, and family preferences with custom designs. Debbie has lived in a variety of places with cold, moderate, warm, humid, and dry climates. She enjoys traveling and exploring new places from the mountains to the sea, and being with others who share her love of the sun.

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Julie Roth, CGHP

Energy Manager City Of Ann Arbor

Julie Roth is the Energy Manager for the City of Ann Arbor's Office of Sustainability and Innovations. She leads a team whose work focuses on the creation, implementation, and management of programs to facilitate community-wide adoption of solar, building electrification, and energy efficiency; networked geothermal; commercial and residential building benchmarking; and greenhouse gas accounting. She has been recognized as a Crain's Detroit 2023 Leader in Energy, and has received awards from the Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association and the Sierra Club for her work on renewables. She is also a GreenHome Institute Certified GreenHome Professional. Learn more at www.a2gov.org/sustainability.

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Madeline Walker Miller

Founder and CEO of NexTiles

February 23, 2022 / 0 Comments / in Green Home Institute / by Brett Little

Madeline Walker Miller is the Founder and CEO of NexTiles, a Detroit-based textile recycling company that converts textile waste into building insulation. Her professional background focuses on reducing textile waste and its harmful impacts to our natural environment. Her company specializes in creating secondary uses for textiles and engaging more Detroiters in creating circular economy solutions. She is an alumna of Spelman College and earned a master’s degree in Coastal Zone Management from the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. Madeline’s passion lies in empowering young Black people and people of color to embrace environmentally sustainable behaviors. In her spare time, she enjoys family outings and playing with her boxer, Maximus. Learn more about Madeline here.

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GHI is also supported by our hundreds of members who allow us to do what we do. Go here to learn more about each one and get connected to collaborate and expand residential green building.