Efficiency Maine offerings (offered twice)
Room 303
Andy Meyer, Efficiency Maine
Efficiency Maine offers thousands of dollars in rebates and loans for energy saving investments including EVs, heat pumps, weatherization and heat pump water heaters. Learn what they are, how to access them and web-based tools including: the contractor locator, cost of home heating calculator and cost of water heating calculator and EV charging station locator.

Driving an EV in Maine
Room 304
Chuck Hayward, ReVision Energy
Lily McVetty, Efficiency Maine
Electric vehicles (EVs) are fun to drive, cost less to operate, are cleaner for the environment, and can be more convenient than gas cars. Come to this session to learn about EVs, charging, and financial incentives that can help you make the switch.

Landscaping to Protect Your Home
Room 305
Helen Watts, Criterium Engineering
Landscaping affects your home. Done well, and maintained, it helps show off your home, helps it dry out, stay cool in the summer. Ignored? It grows moss on the roof and funnels water toward the foundations. Let’s talk shrubbery!

Solar and batteries for retrofitting and new construction
Student Lounge
Chris Jones, ReVision Energy
Whether you have an existing home or are drawing up plans to build your dream home, come learn how to prep your home for solar, battery storage and the all-electric household model. Modern technology makes it cost-effective and sensible to build a 100% solar-powered home, with no utility bills and a minimal carbon footprint.

Small Homes Are BIG
Room 303
Chris Lee and Jeff Bowman, Backyard ADUs
Small homes and accessory dwelling units (ADUs) are on the rise! Reduced energy costs, a lower carbon footprint, and an affordable home for family are only a few of the benefits.

Designing homes for all
Room 304
Jill Johanning, Alpha One
This session will be an introduction to the design options for key parts of the home to allow people of all abilities to remain safe in their home and welcome more friends and family. Participants will gain a better understanding of possible access solutions to consider in changing or renovating their current home, or in new construction to improve access.

Permaculture & Regenerative Food Systems
Room 305
Jesse Watson, Midcoast Permaculture Design
In this presentation we will introduce the design philosophy called permaculture. We will discuss the design process, observation of patterns, how to heal ecosystems, grow perennial food crops and adapt to climate change using the landscapes around us.

The Pretty Good House
Student Lounge
Emily Mottram, Mottram Architecture / co-author, Pretty Good House
Have you heard about the building standard that's not a standard? Learn how to create energy efficient, healthy, sustainable homes with an emphasis on making the concepts and technical details accessible to builders and designers of all levels of development. One of the co-authors of the Pretty Good House book will go through the essential elements of what makes a Pretty Good House and share how it can help make low-carbon energy efficiency more accessible to contractors, designers, and clients.

Tips to improve home air quality
Room 303
Christy Crocker, Maine Indoor Air Quality Council
Learn easy, practical measures you can take in your own home to reduce your exposure to common indoor pollutants such as mold, radon, particulate matter, and more.

Retrofit with confidence: Planning, training, and execution
Room 304
Randy Rand, Dori Lam, passivhausMAINE
Gain the confidence to tackle your own retrofit projects with passivhausMAINE. Learn about available training resources, as well as the basic logistics of planning and executing a retrofit project.

Landscaping for Wildlife
Room 305
Deb Perkins, First Light Wildlife Habitats
How to cultivate wildlife habitat in your garden, backyard, and beyond!

Heat Pumps in Maine – The way life should be
Student Lounge
Matt Tilas, Mitsubishi Electric
Everything you wanted to know about how heat pumps work, what to expect from them for heating, cooling, comfort and operational costs and debunking some common myths.

You can have a comfortable and efficient home!
Room 303
Colin McCullough, All-Around Home Performance
With rising costs of heating and electricity it's hard to know the best ways to save energy in the home and stay comfortable in the winter and the summer! Come learn more from a home energy auditor about what you can do to save money in your home and be more comfortable year-round, and bring your questions about what options make the most sense and will save the most money!

Building Science 101
Room 304
Dan Kolbert, Kolbert Building
Steve Konstantino, Performance Building Supply
The founders of the Portland area’s monthly Building Science Discussion Group will share some of the basics behind modern building science, followed by a Q&A. Bring your questions, or just come to soak it all in!

Pre-fab construction for high performance homes
Room 305
Parlin Meyer, BrightBuilt Home
Jason Reynolds, GO Logic
Alison Keay, Unity Homes
Planning to build a new high-performance home? Learn about the off-site building process from three companies that have pioneered the use of modular and panelized methods for building homes that are energy efficient, healthy, comfortable and durable.

Planting for climate resilience
Student Lounge
Andrea Berry, Wild Seed Project
In addition to helping to sustain vital pollinators, birds and other wildlife, native plantings offer countless other benefits that are indispensable in the age of climate change. When created and maintained with ecologically attuned landscaping practices, they can minimize flooding and storm water runoff, shade and cool cities, survive droughts, and facilitate carbon storage more effectively than the landscapes dominated by turf and mulch that blanket so many of our communities. Join Andrea Berry from the Wild Seed Project to learn about the actions you can take to make your corner of the world more biodiverse and resilient to the effects of climate change.

Efficiency Maine offerings (offered twice)
Room 303
Andy Meyer, Efficiency Maine
Efficiency Maine offers thousands of dollars in rebates and loans for energy saving investments including EVs, heat pumps, weatherization and heat pump water heaters. Learn what they are, how to access them and web-based tools including: the contractor locator, cost of home heating calculator and cost of water heating calculator and EV charging station locator.

Prepare Your House for Heat Pumps with Weatherization
Room 304
Richard Burbank, Evergreen Home Performance
Heat pumps are an efficient heating and cooling system for your home, but you can maximize their impact as a whole-house heating solution with weatherization. Learn how to prepare your home for heat pumps through sealing and insulation to keep every part of your home cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

Healing the earth and its climate with Living Soil
Room 305
Spero Latchis, Living Soil Company
How does a healthy soil ecosystem quickly cool the earth? Sequester carbon? Filter, and Clean our water? Grow healthy plants, and healthy food? Reset the rain cycle? Nature’s simple, easy solutions are right under our feet, in the soil.

Plants, Ticks, Bugs, and Worms: Why Worry About Invasive Species
Student Lounge
Gary Fish, Maine Dept. of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry
Maine State Horticulturalist Gary Fish shines a light on Maine's most unique and interesting invasive species, along with resources for gardeners to help them slow their spread.