BOARD OF DIRECTORS

President - Greta TjeLTveit

Greta Tjeltveit (pronounced “Chelt-vayt”) began work in the construction industry after attaining her degree in architecture at the University of Washington in 2015. She started as a construction crew lead with Habitat for Humanity of Seattle/King County, leading volunteers in daily construction tasks. She then became a rater/verifier in multiple regional and national certification programs, including Phius, where she found her passion for building science.

Greta is now a building science consultant at 4EA Building Science whose focus is on the design, review, and performance testing of building enclosures that often closely align with passive building concepts. She helped verify some of the first Phius-certified multifamily apartment buildings in Washington State and continues to champion passive building throughout the region.

Vice President - Josh Salinger

Joshua Salinger is founder and principal of Birdsmouth Design-Build in Portland, OR. Birdsmouth is a residential Design-Build firm focused on addressing climate change through the built environment through zero energy new homes and deep energy retrofits. He is an instructor for both Earth Advantage’s Sustainable Homes Professional program and PHIUS’ Certified Passive House Builder training program. He also sits on the technical committee of ZERO Coalition. Additionally, he is an EEBA Zero Energy Home Professional, an ‘Expert Member’ on Green Building Advisor and occasionally contributes content to Fine Homebuilding magazine.

Treasurer - Sara jones

Sara Jones has worked to strengthen the Passive House standard in North America as Chief Operations Officer of Small Planet Supply, a multi-national company that imports and distributes Passive House components in both the United States and Canada. In 2015, she became a founding member of CertiPHIers Cooperative, an internationally accredited building certification company which verifies that projects are built to the International Passive House Standard. As Treasurer, Sara brings with her knowledge in business management and administration. Sara lives in Olympia, Washington and in her free time enjoys spending time outdoors with her husband and rescue mutts Ziggy & Rosie.

Secretary - Sushruta Chandramouli

Sushruta entered the world of passive building and building science after graduating from Reed College with a major in biophysics. He applies his building science knowledge as a CPHC at Hinge Build Group and his penchant for details as a production drafter and lead in the offshoot high performance prefab company Resilient Framing Systems. He enjoys playing a South Indian stringed instrument called the veena in his free time with his family.

Albert Rooks

Albert Rooks has worked to establish and strengthen the Passive House Standard in North America. In 2010, he founded Small Planet Supply Inc., a company that imports and distributes passive house components.  The company currently has branch offices in Tumwater Washington and Vancouver BC. In 2015, he co-founded CertiPhiers Cooperative with Tad Everhart. CertiPhiers is an internationally accredited building certification company that verifies projects are built to the International Passive House Standard.

Alex Boetzel

Alex is Head of Residential Innovations at Earth Advantage and applies his 30 years of experience in sustainable design and construction to research and training, helping to make the benefits of high-performance building available to everyone.

Alex has deep knowledge of building science and its real-world applications and is an expert in low-carbon building assemblies and systems.

Since 2006 Alex has made meaningful contributions to some of the first LEED for Home, Passive House, and Zero Energy projects in the Pacific Northwest, including the first commercial Living Building in Oregon and ZE multifamily projects in the Pacific Northwest.

Edward Louie

Edward Louie works at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory as a Building Energy Efficiency Research Engineer. Edward loves building science and high-performance buildings that are affordable. Outside of work he has been working on an off-grid, PV-powered, all-electric, heat pump everything, super energy efficient tiny house on wheels which was on the 2021 Go Zero Energy Tour. The tiny house is built with SIPs with an additional 1-inch layer of exterior continuous insulation and a continuous rain-screen drainage mat. It has triple-pane tilt turn windows imported from Poland and is heated and cooled with a 42 SEER 15 HSFP ductless heat pump. Edward's hobbies are cooking, cycling, hiking, photography, and archery.  Feel free to reach out to me about all things related to building energy efficiency, safety, and resiliency.

Dan Whitmore

Dan Whitmore has worked in construction since 1987 as a carpenter, builder, and consultant with additional stints as a designer and FEMA Inspector. Since 2009 he has consulted on and/or built more than twenty passive house projects. As an instructor for PHIUS, co-developer of the PHIUS Certified Builder Training program, Chair of the Passive House Alliance US (PHAUS) and a founding Board Member of Passive House Northwest, his calling card sometimes says ‘Passive Obsessive’.

Julie Kriegh

Dr. Kriegh brings to her teaching unique depth and breadth of both professional practice and academic experience. In addition to leading Kriegh Architecture Studios | Research + Design, she is an affiliate educator in the College of Built Environments in the departments of Architecture and Construction Management. Dr. Kriegh’s research has encompassed collecting and analyzing both qualitative and quantitative data on the motivations that foster pro-environmental action. Her teaching highlights novel/sustainable construction materials, methods, and concepts. As an architect, she is engaged with high-performance design and construction practices (prefabrication) as well as community engagement. She uses the Passive House PHPP energy modeling and Vectorworks CAD software for project delivery.

Nathan Sikes

As the Cascadia Windows Technical Representative, Nathan is a deeply passionate about sustainability in construction. He believes society must prioritize long-term solutions and energy-efficient products. His focus is on fiberglass windows, recognizing their significance in reducing energy loss. Cascadia windows stand out with their durability and performance. He invites discussions on fenestration products to explore energy efficiency in different contexts. The inadequacy of current energy codes concerns him, particularly the double standard in calculating energy performance for projects with fiberglass windows. He advocates for change to create a more equitable framework. Leveraging his expertise as a Senior Building Envelope Consultant, he is committed to promoting sustainable and energy-efficient building practices.

Mike Fowler

Mike Fowler is an architect at Mithun in Seattle, WA with over 25 years of experience. He has been involved in numerous projects, including managing the Multifamily New Construction and the Residential New Construction energy efficiency financial incentive programs at Puget Sound Energy. Mike has authored and submitted an energy budget code proposal that sets an energy use budget for eleven occupancy types, establishes a road map to achieve 70% energy use reduction by 2030. Recently, Mike co-founded the Council on Airtightness Performance Excellence with the goal to become a regional resource for policy, design, and construction practice.

Sarah Nuamah

Sarah Nuamah is highly motivated and enthusiastic, with a deep passion for energy efficiency and sustainable practices. She has an insatiable curiosity that fuels her analytical mind, and is fascinated with understanding the factors influencing how people are influenced by their surrounding environments. She has worked with Energy Performance Scores in residential new construction buildings and continues to foster her interest in the dynamics of occupants and their homes through designing and commissioning HRVs/ERVs with Small Planet Supply. Her commitment to promoting greener building practices and dedication to combining innovation, social impact, and environmental consciousness inspires her work in the industry.

Scott Kosmecki

Scott has been deeply involved with the Passive House community since becoming a Certified Passive House Consultant in 2012. He is the founder and manager of Hinge Build Group, LLC, a design-build firm that specializes in bringing high-performance building projects to market.  Hinge focuses on building to Passive House standards while incorporating foam-free building techniques with locally sourced materials.

With a masters degree in architecture from the University of Oregon, and almost 20 years as a contractor, Scott has helped many clients as well as other builders & architects achieve both design & efficiency goals while staying on budget.

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