Top Green Building Educational Resources - Organizations Consistently Hosting Live, Online, Public Events

Posted by: Rate It Green Team

If you’re looking to attend a green building webinar or online training, or you would like to know about in-person green building or related events, there are a handful of leading US organizations that stand out more and consistently offer educational content, a good deal of which is free.  We’re pleased to give a loud shout out to these organizations to thank them for their hard work to share information more widely, here and through listings on our open green building calendar.  We try to keep up as we note events, and individuals and organizations are also welcome to post events!   

Top organizations that seem to have the most full green building calendars are listed below, and we’ve starred several organizations that consistently offer free educational content.  Please shout if we’ve missed an organization - there might easily be groups hosting events we’re not aware of.  

The purpose here is to point people in the direction of resources which regularly provide educational opportunities and that are open to the public.  There are also of course many organizations that host a smaller number of signature events each year, and we’d be happy to list those recurring great local or regional events separately.  We didn’t focus here on libraries of on demand content - we can list those out as well at some point.  Always feel welcome to point out great resources.  
 

California:

*Pacific Gas & Energy (PEG&E) Learning Center: PG&E offers a wealth (400+ including recordings) of online and in-person energy and green building related educational classes and longer trainings, including on-demand content, all free. Content is both consumer and profesional facing. 

*Southern California Edison: SCE maintains an excellent calendar of free consumer facing and trade professional classes and trainings, online and in person. SCE operates two in-person educational centers, in Irwindale and Tulare. SCE also provides both consumer and professional content. 

*Tri-County Regional Energy Network (3C-REN): 3C-REN offers a great variety of free online and in-person courses, for both consumers and trade professionals, including for real estate professionals.  The organization primarily serves California’s San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, but space permitting others are welcome and the lessons go beyond California’s borders. 

USGBC California: USGBC California was recently created by combining several regional California USGBC chapters.  This combined entity is hosting an active calendar of events and trainings, some of which are free of charge, which can be unusual for a USGBC chapter. 
 

Connecticut:

BuildGreen CT: BuildGreen CT combines the efforts and memberships of 4 formerly separate Connecticut green building related organizations. Since its relaunch as a new entity in 2023, the organization has been hosting a consistent roster of hosted and community partner events. 

Georgia:

Southface Institute: Southface offers more technical trainings on a regular basis, online and in-person, and there are consumer facing educational opportunities as well. Most events have a fee, but fees seem lower for consumer-facing content than for professional, technical training.  
 

Illinois:

Illinois Green Alliance: Illinois Green Alliance consistently lists a range of events, some hosted and some presented by aligned or partner organizations. Hosted events are often free or lower cost, which is not as common for other USGBC affiliates. 

Massachusetts: 

Built Environment Plus - Formerly known as USGBC Massachusetts, Built Environment Plus is a USGBC chapter which offers many of its own online and in-person opportunities to learn and connect, Most programs are fee-based and some training program investments are more significant, but Massachusetts businesses with fewer than 100 employees can apply for funding for employees to attend events, as long as the application is submitted 21 or more days prior to the event.  

*MassSave: Mass Save’s free online training roster currently hosts events on energy codes, stretch codes, and energy modeling. The organization is sponsored by a collaboration of Massachusetts' utilities and energy efficiency service providers. Many of MassSave's services are consumer facing, but the trainings seem more technical. 

NESEA: The Northeast Sustainable Energy Association, or NESEA, maintains a full calendar of hosted events, including a now-annual set of Pro Green Building Tours, and regional and aligned organizational events. 

Michigan:

*GreenHome Institute: GreenHome Institute (GHI) consistently offers a robust set of online courses that are free or can be part of a credential-earning program.  GHI hosts some in-person opportunities as well, such as green building tours and trainings.  GHI is one of the few organizations aside from a great set of California utilities that truly makes the consumer or DIY individual feel welcome in addition to industry professionals.  

Missouri:

Missouri Gateway Green Building Council: The Missouri Gateway USGBC chapter hosts and lists several events a month, many of which are free.   

New York:

Building Energy Exchange (BEEx); BEEx hosts online and in-person events throughout the year, many of which are specifically New York-focused, and many of which are free.          

Greening USA: GreeningUSA hosts regular free brown bag lunches on a variety of green building and sustainable topics, many of which are virtual (See their Facebook page for upcoming events) as well as a Sustainability Academy.  GreeningUSA also does a good job of making all feel welcome. 

Urban Green Council: A USGBC chapter, Urban Green offers a range of online and in-person events, sometimes focusing on the organization’s home city of New York, but often enough more widely applicable. Most events seem to have some kind of a fee. 

Pennsylvania:

Green Building Alliance (GBA): A USGBC chapter, Green Building Alliance offers a varied calendar of webinars, in-person events, trainings and green building tours. Most events seem to require some fee (GBA distinguishes between free and non-free events better than most, before you decide to click through.)

Green Building United: An aligned chapter of the USGBC, Green Building Alliance offers events, usually with some fee, with some consistency not as full a calendar as some of the other organizations listed. The organization hosts a signature regional symposium annually. 

Texas:

*Austin Energy Green Building: Austin Energy Green Building is a community-owned utility which seems to offer several free events a month. 

 

There are also some top national or non-geographically specific organizations which consistently offer online and/or in-person green building educational opportunities:

*Passive House Accelerator: Passive House Accelerator maintains a robust calendar of hosted and partner and aligned organization events, some of which are free.  

*US Department of Energy - Better Buildings Initiative: The Better Buildings Initiative aims to enable residential and commercial energy efficiency, resilience and renewable energy, though the free hosted and aligned calendar events have typically been commercial in nature. 

United States Green Building Council (USGBC) - USGBC offers a wealth of educational and training opportunities. Some are free, but most have a fee which varies. USGBC offers events targeted to specific geographic areas, aligned with state and local organization chapters, as well as more general topics that are national or global/universal in nature. 


Let us know who we should add to this list!