Healthy Indoors
13
fort in Western Massachusetts that is soon to launch
in partnership with the Center for EcoTechnology,
Berkshire Healthcare Services, the local weather-
ization agency, and utilities. Further, we are planning
to convene a multi-state dialog with a range of key
stakeholders to share program experiences. We will
collaborate to build understanding of workable busi-
ness models to support an integrated home visit that
addresses both IAQ and energy improvement oppor-
tunities, focusing on issues related to asthma and
COPD-related illnesses.
E4TheFuture looks forward to working with stake-
holders to help explore and advance the opportuni-
ties, and address the barriers, of integrating home
performance contractor services with IAQ and health
program efforts. We are seeking to leverage funds
across the two industries to create a win-win-win for
home occupants: improving health, increasing com-
fort, and reducing energy bills.
Julie Michals is director of clean energy valuation
at E4TheFuture, a Boston-area nonprofit that sup-
ports efforts to advance clean energy policies and
innovative programs, including efforts to understand
how residential EE programs impact health and can
be better coordinated. Julie joined E4TheFuture in
2016 after working for the Northeast Energy Efficien-
cy Partnerships, Inc. where she directed the Regional
EM&V Forum, with a focus on developing standard-
ized approaches to evaluate and report EE impacts.
Please visit www.E4TheFuture.org to learn more.
ficiency and health industry players can support re-
search to further demonstrate the value of efficiency
programs and their co-benefits. To date, research has
focused primarily on weatherization and low-income
programs. Looking more broadly at efficiency invest-
ments in market-based homes will help to reveal and
clarify important benefits of efficiency.
Another focus that emerged from our Occupant
Health Benefits paper is that a burgeoning set of in-
novative, integrated efficiency and health programs
and tools are making strides to illustrate the strong
link between efficiency and occupant health benefits.
Some are national in scope, others are at the state,
county or city level. Among these initiatives are vary-
ing program elements, funding mechanisms, stake-
holder participants, and scope of health impacts eval-
uations. Examples of ventures/organizations on the
ground or under way include:
• Washington Opportunity Council Weatherization
Plus Health program;
• National Center for Healthy Housing (NCHH);
• Green & Healthy Homes Initiative (GHHI) and its
partnership with the
• Building Performance Institute's Healthy Home
Evaluator certification;
• Energy Efficiency For All (EEFA) and its Network
for Energy, Water, and Health in Affordable Build-
ings (NEWHAB) Initiative;
• Health Care Without Harm;
• NeighborWorks and its state chapters/programs;
and
• the One Touch program
Most recently, E4TheFuture is supporting a pilot ef-
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