Treehugger: B.Public Designs Panelized Passive House Prefabs Building systems that prioritize sustainability and a reduced carbon footprint.

By Lloyd Alter Published May 6, 2021 Fact checked by Haley Mast

A hundred years ago, if you wanted a house, you could order it from Sears. They had good basic designs with everything people wanted in an affordable package. Colin Davies, author and professor of Architectural Theory at London Metropolitan University, wrote in "The Prefabricated Home": "Sears Roebuck never claimed to make any contribution to the progress of modern architecture. Its houses were indistinguishable from their ordinary site-built neighbors and its pattern books included all the popular, traditional styles."

Edie Dillman, CEO of B.Public Prefab, is trying to do exactly that. Her company supplies thick super-insulated wall panels that can be assembled into houses and low-rise multifamily buildings, but she also offers stock plans that architects, builders, and the public can use as starting points.

She explains to Treehugger why she does this: "I grew up in Chicago, surrounded by Sears homes. We just need good housing, We need houses that are well designed that people can live in. So why do we reinvent the wheel in design as well as how we assemble it?

Not everyone needs or can afford an architect, which is why Treehugger has shown many examples of stock plans and prefab packages. As Dillman notes, people say "I can't spend $50,000 and eight months for a two-bedroom house."

The plans are a great starting point for discussion and can be modified as required. Unlike Sears, B.Public doesn't include everything and the kitchen sink—just the enclosure, the panel system. The client then has a local contractor do the approvals, site work, and interior finishing; the plans get your attention and speed up the process.

The panels themselves are seriously high performance, with insulation values for walls of R-35 through R-52. They are wood-frame with dense-pack cellulose insulation, smart vapor control, and exterior sheathing. "The panelized building blocks of Floor, Wall, and Top (roof) components work together to create an envelope ready to be finished with interior and exterior finishes and cladding." Add the right windows and ventilation equipment and they would easily pass the Passive House standards.

They are all made from materials with low embodied carbon, addressing the crisis of climate change:

"We believe that architects, developers, builders have a professional mandate and responsibility to the earth and our environment. Status quo building practices must be replaced immediately with practical solutions that reduce the carbon footprint. To address increasing environmental shifts and disasters, the housing we create must be resilient, scalable, rapidly developed and support an evolving landscape."

They really do look like building blocks or as they describe them, "lego-like components" that "work together to create an envelope that is ready to be finished with interior and exterior cladding and surfaces, allowing for aesthetic and regionally appropriate treatments, finishes, and roof customization." This image shows them assembled into tiny cottages up to apartment buildings.

Architects like the panel system, but Dillman says "we're also attracting consumers with simple forms and likable shapes, designs that we understand as "homes," very recognizable for our human souls." Having these plans as a place to start also speeds up the design process.

As Davies concluded in his book, "The Prefabricated Home":

"Prefabrication does not necessarily imply either mass production or standardization. In fact, non of the three therms necessarily implies the other two. Standardization is not essential and mind-numbing monotony is not inevitable. On the other hand, standardization is not necessarily a bad thing; people like standard products that are tried and tested and available from stock. .... Offering customers a choice is one thing; asking them to design the whole building from scratch is quite another."

This is why what Dillman and her partners—Charlotte Lagarde and Jonah Stanford—have done is so clever: B.Public isn't selling a product that is really all that different than what a number of panel fabricators do. They don't even build the panels themselves but subcontract them. They have instead built a set of design tools and catalog of pieces that can be put together into a design quickly on a computer and then quickly on a site with everything fitting together nicely.

They have developed a foundation and other details that builders and architects can use, described in Passivehouse Accelerator as "a soup-to-nut service that included education, along with our offering of specific pre-manufactured building components and designs. Because, as they say on the website: "To design rapidly and know that performance will not be sacrificed is liberating."

B.Public is truly a 21st-century company: it is not a builder, it is not an architect, it is not even a panel manufacturer. It is all about an idea that removes a layer of complexity in dealing with panelized prefabrication, and about an ideal.

As Dillman explains: "B.PUBLIC is a woman-owned Public Benefit Corporation based in Santa Fe, NM. Our public benefit purposes are Housing Sustainability & Environmental Responsibility: Providing communities with building systems that prioritize sustainability, reduced carbon footprint, and resilience for equitable development." And that is a very good idea indeed.

. . .

Full Article Here.

Green Fire Times: B.Public Disrupting the Home Building Industry

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“We are trying to make this technology accessible so that it can be much more widely adopted,” Dillman said. “For low-rise construction with square corners and 10-foot ceilings, we have created building blocks that will allow anyone to achieve high performance, comfort, sustainability and cost predictability. ”

With help from the Santa Fe Business Incubator, B.Public Prefab was recently launched to address the housing shortage and global climate crisis with a disruptive solution. The public-benefit (B) company offers high-performance, environmentally friendly modular building products and services. It was formed by partners CEO Edie Dillman, COO Charlotte Lagarde and Chief Technology Officer Jonah Stanford, who has been designing homes to Passive House standards since 2008. “Passive House” is a German standard for energy-efficiency that has been around for 30 years. B.Public’s prefabricated wall roof and floor panels speed construction, ensure quality craftsmanship and reduce a building’s energy consumption by up to 90 percent over its lifetime, while utilizing recycled and petroleum-free materials. The panelized components work together to create a super-insulating envelope. “Smart” vapor layers on the outside and on the interior breathe. The company offers licensed home designs with a complete set of construction drawings for single or multi-family homes, studios, eco-cabins and townhomes for infill or off-grid. B.Public provides technical assistance to homeowners, architects, builders and developers. “We are trying to make this technology accessible so that it can be much more widely adopted,” Dillman said. “For low-rise construction with square corners and 10-foot ceilings, we have created building blocks that will allow anyone to achieve high performance, comfort, sustainability and cost predictability. The innovative homes only cost 5 to 8 percent more than conventional construction. “We have lowered the barrier for builders and developers to be able to reach standards that only custom houses could aspire to achieve until now,” Dillman said. “Builders are key to serving clients and we are dedicated to supporting our local trades.” In January, after an installation crew of three erected and weathered a home near Angel Fire, New Mexico, in about a week, the B.Public team hosted local builders to tour the project. A growing list of clients are placing orders for the pre-fab panels.

Passive House Accelerator - Annual Publication Feature article

“IF EVER THERE WERE A TIME TO ADDRESS THE HOUSING SHORTAGE, CLIMATE CRISIS, AND REDUCTION IN SKILLED LABOR WITH A COORDINATED, DISRUPTIVE SOLUTION, NOW IS THE TIME.

That is the raison d’être behind B.Public, a recently launched, Santa Fe, New Mexico-based public-benefit corporation designed to change the status quo in building by offering prefabricated, high-performance, environmentally friendly building products and services. It was formed by Edie Dillman, Jonah Stanford, and Charlotte Lagarde, a trio of partners with complementary skills gleaned from a broad array of creative and innovative sectors."

Passive House Accelerator - Prefab Summit

B.PUBLIC is pleased to be a part of a great series presented by the Passive House Accelerator.

Tune into the second Passive House PREFAB Summit for more off-site companies and a deeper dive into the nuts and bolts of building with prefab. What happens inside the factory? How do those panels get craned into place and attached on site? How does prefab affect the design workflow process? From large to small, each of six companies will describe its products and process. The event promises to be jam packed, covering everything from producing affordable housing to women’s opportunities in construction. Plus, there will be some surprise special guests.

Here’s the lineup for Summit II:

Ilka Cassidy from Holzraum System (and the link for single-family passive homes to Blueprint Robotics),
Paul Grahovac from Build SMART,
Tomaz Stich from Stich Consulting & Design,
Travis Toole from Build with Nature,
Alan Gibson from GO Logic, and
Edie Dillman from B.PUBLIC
David Arnott from TAG Panels
Graham Finch from RDH Building Science

Monday, December 14: 4–6pm Pacific/7–9pm Eastern.

Thank you to VaproShield and RDH Building Science, our joint Summit Sponsors.

"Angels Return" who would't love that headline?

New Mexico Angels resume looking for investment prospects

Jonah Stanford and Edie Dillman of B.PUBLIC Prefab. The Santa Fe-based startup will seek a $100,000 investment at an upcoming investors roundtable, owner Dillman said.

By Teya Vitu, Business Editor

A new energy has emerged for the New Mexico Angels, eager to once again invest in startup companies with high-growth potential.

The organization of more than 50 investors had been on hiatus since the start of the coronavirus pandemic as its president stepped down. But new President Drew Tulchin has an elaborate action plan for the group.

The Angels since 2008 have funded 62 companies, most in New Mexico, for more than $13.5 million, with that total stretching to $20 million since the organization’s inception in 1999.

Only four of those investments have been to Santa Fe companies: Meow Wolf, TheRetailPlanet.com, Verde and Vizzia Technologies. Tulchin, a Santa Fe resident, wants to see that change. He was the chief financial officer at Meow Wolf when it secured Angels funding.

Two Santa Fe companies will take part Nov. 20 in a virtual New Mexico Investors Roundtable put on by the New Mexico Angels and ABQid, which assists startup entrepreneurs. This will be the first roundtable in what Tulchin hopes will be a quarterly workshop session between investors and entrepreneurs.

“[Entrepreneurs] will present challenges, puzzles and barriers,” Tulchin said. “Angels will workshop a solution. Sometimes money isn’t the biggest thing.”

Santa Fe-based B.PUBLIC Prefab will seek a $100,000 investment at the roundtable, owner Edie Dillman said.

B.PUBLIC designs and supplies prefabricated building construction panels with sustainably harvested wood framing and insulation made of 86 percent recycled newspaper, Dillman said.

“We’re taking on strategic investors,” she said. “Our investors are [looking] for a better built environment.”

The company launched in January, and Dillman is seeking a first round of seed funding.

“We’re not interested in the traditional venture capital,” Dillman said. “It’s not about big returns for investors. But it’s still a good return.”

Santa Fe-based Parting Stone, which compresses cremated remains into rounded stones, was invited to take part in the New Mexico Angels workshop. Founder and CEO Justin Crowe seeks “resources and connections.”

“As a manufacturing company based in New Mexico, we are looking for people with experience in manufacturing,” Crowe said. “We are looking for a strategy to hire a large amount of staff quickly.”

Crowe launched Parting Stone in October 2019 in a garage with three people and now has 12 employees in a 3,000-square-foot facility. He predicts he will have more than 100 employees by 2024.

Crowe still considers Parting Stone a startup, with previous investor funding of $500,000 in August 2019 and $100,000 in October from the Arrowhead Innovation Fund in Las Cruces.

“We’re always looking for new partnership opportunities,” Crowe said.

Tulchin is an investor and adviser for both Parting Stone and B.PUBLIC as well as the former vice president of business development at Electric Playhouse and a similar position at Build With Robots, both in Albuquerque.

“Drew is the third president to take the reins since the NM Angels’ inception 20 years ago,” New Mexico Angels board Chairman Sherman McCorkle said in a news release. “He’s a seasoned, successful investor and entrepreneur.”

Predecessor John Chavez held the post for 12 years.

Angel investors are one option for cash-strapped entrepreneurs, who typically aren’t attractive for bank loans and rely on their own money or “the three F’s,” defined by Tulchin as “friends, families and fools.”

“Angels are called angels because they come in very early and help a startup to fly,” Tulchin said. “A loan is difficult for a startup to get. An angel is known for early money; a venture capitalist is more concerned about maximum return. An angel is more about building a relationship, an investor that wants to help startup companies. In New Mexico, we have more angels than VCs.”

Angels tend toward tech or manufacturing rather than restaurants and retail. This fits the definition Tulchin supplies of the sweet spot for angel investors.

“A startup with high-growth potential that can provide a return on investment,” Tulchin said. “Industry disruptors that are doing something new and different.”

Tulchin wants to bring more investors into the New Mexico Angels organization and fund many more startup companies.

“We want to see more happening,” he said. “We want to double or triple our volume, the number of business we help. We would like increased transparency from all the stakeholders and maximize collaborations. We also have to work with our banks. We need to be the experts to help everyone to do more capital raising for startup businesses. We want to build a big tent that everyone can shelter under.”

Tulchin is an advocate for working with other entities that support businesses, such as the New Mexico Finance Authority, Small Business Development Center and the state Economic Development Department. He wants to team up with venture capitalists, the Arrowhead Innovation Fund and nonbank lenders like DreamSpring and the small-business development and training organization WESST. “I often hear, ‘We didn’t know about that,’ ” Tulchin said. “We have a bunch of excellent organizations. We need entrepreneurs to understand the resources available to them. The right resources for the right need.”

Tulchin believes banks can be brought into the equation, even with much more stringent post-2008 lending restrictions that often leave startup entrepreneurs in the dark.

“We want to help entrepreneurs and bankers help each other,” Tulchin said. “Sometimes they are not used to each other’s language. We can help both achieve their goals.”

What does Tulchin look for in a startup company seeking investment?

“I would love to see an innovative idea, a team of people rather than one person, a team that would like to learn, that doesn’t think it has all the answers,” he said. “Another is a willingness to listen to customers.”

Santa Fe New Mexican | November 10, 2020

Teya Vitu,Business Editor

NAPHN Live - Free event featuring Jonah Stanford of B.PUBLIC

Your multifamily project design directives clearly prioritize environmental impact reduction, but at what cost? and what is the best indicator to measure? This presentation addresses pressing questions like:
– What’s the construction cost-difference between site-built-code construction and prefabricated Passive House construction?
– How would the two approaches impact our project’s Carbon Footprint?
– What are the impacts of adding a lot of PV instead of pursuing Passive House?
– Why is there so little difference in HERS score between Code and Passive House construction?
– How would these decisions impact mortgages and utilities expenses?

Hosted By: Passive House Rocky Mountains, a Chapter of NAPHN

Presented by: Jonah Stanford, Principal, Needbased & CTO, B.Public Prefab

2 PM EST – 1 PM CT – Noon MT – 11 AM PT

1 AIA LU

Learning Objectives:

1. Layout reasonable comparisons of construction approaches for a community to understand the impacts of their decision to pursue prefabricated Passive House construction vs. typical site built code construction.
2. Reflect complicated carbon calculations into context for client understanding.
3. Describe the proportional carbon impacts of our design decisions when pursuing sustainable development.
4. Outline the impacts to a project’s total carbon footprint by measuring embodied carbon compared to carbon emissions.
5. Be able to convey a lot of complex data to a large group of people.

REGISTER HERE

B.PUBLIC joins Friends of Architecture Santa Fe for PechaKucha

VOL. 7 PROFIT · Wednesday, July 22 @ 6 PM

Join emcee, architect, and FASF President Anthony Guida, for a multi-faceted consideration of this contentious word—Profit. Our presenters—ranging from heritage developer to nectar nomad, drystone mason, nonprofit architecture firm, manufacturer, urban planner, and creative director—share how they have invested and reaped the rewards. They will also challenge the current definition of profit and argue its significance, reframing the paradigm of wealth.

Edie Dillman of B.PUBLIC speaks to the theme of “Profit” without measuring the social, environmental impacts of how those profits were made is not the full picture. How do we flip that? How do we look at reduction—in wasted materials, harmful products, energy consumption, as the true measure of our success? This is where our power is—flipping our harmful and rigid business practices to carbon positive solutions that prove that profit and growth can be sustainable for generations to come. When buildings account for 39% of our carbon emission—11% in materials and 28% in the energy they consume—we must evolve the way we build for good, and we are.

B.Public Wins Team Fund Support

Images from left: A houseplan created by B. Public that prioritizes sustainability, reduced carbon footprint, and resilience for equitable development; Black Mesa Winery LLC; and Bicycle Technologies International (BTI). 

Announcing RDC's 2020 TEAM Fund Recipients
 

The RDC’s Technology and Manufacturing Fund (TEAM) is a no-interest loan fund available to technology-based and manufacturing companies in the RDC's seven county service area. The fund supports growth-oriented companies who are on track to add jobs, grow revenues, and attract additional funding.
 
The recipients below represent a range of businesses innovating in their industries, including green building, super foods, vineyards and breweries, live streaming services, and more, all of which will help grow our economy. Look for more information about these growth companies in future newsletters.
 
The 2020 TEAM Fund Awardees are:

Apogee Spirulina, LLC - A spirulina algae company dedicated to cultivating the highest grade protein and nutrient-rich super food found on the American market. Funds will be used to purchase a weighing and filling machine and sealer equipment.
 
Bicycle Technologies International (BTI) – A distributor of bicycle parts, tools, and accessories. Funds will be used to buy a wheel lacing machine that will allow the company to add lower cost, higher volume wheels to their dealer catalog. 
 
Black Mesa Winery, LLC - Velarde, NM, producer of hard ciders and wine beverages sourced from the local area's grape vineyards and apple orchards. Funds will be used to purchase equipment to increase the manufacturing production and distribution of the hard cider products.
 
Green Theme Technologies Inc (GTT) - Chemical and process technology for finishing textiles, including durable water-repellant treatment that uses no water or harmful chemicals and has no waste stream. Funds will be used to purchase equipment to scale-up and process debug.
 
Leaf & Hive, LLC - Micro-brewery and tasting room located in Santa Fe specializing in a honey-fermented, probiotic, alcoholic beverage. Funds will be used to purchase a mobile draft station/bar for festivals and other large events or gatherings, curating a unique drinking experience for customers.

OneforNeptune, LLC - Manufacturer of healthy, high-protein snack foods made from sustainable seafood products.  Funds will be used to design, develop, manufacture and ship display cases to support retail expansion.
 
Phyteau, Inc. - Developer of a completely safe, new class of therapeutics for diabetes, weight-loss, obesity and related metabolic conditions.  Funds will be used to assist with international patent-related costs and fees.
 
Public PBC/B.Public Performance Prefab – A disruptive company tackling the climate crisis and housing issues through innovative solutions and building science. Funds will be used for consultation and development of Building Information Modeling (BIM) library in Revit and AutoCAD.
 
Sixth Sense Designs, LLC - A product engineering & development house and manufacturing innovation center. Funds will be used to purchase a digital height gauge and convert a CNC router to a plasma cutter.
 
Xerb – Developer of a video streaming platform built for content creators. Funds will be used to purchase additional equipment needed to keep up with the demands of high growth.
 

Upcoming Online Event 5/7/2020

KICK-ASS ENTREPRENEURS™ (KAE) Entrepreneur Story Time: B.PUBLIC (on Zoom)
REPOSTING FROM OUR FRIENDS AT KAE

Thursday, May 7, 2020 6:30 PM  7:30 PM Zoom Meeting (map)

You may have seen B.PUBLIC CEO Edie Dillman educating and inspiring at Santa Fe Innovate’s recent Wanna Be a B-Corp? event. Well, we’re in for a treat, as B.PUBLIC is not only game to share the story of why being a public benefit corp is so important to them, but Edie and her fabulous co-founder Jonah Stanford (who also happens to be her husband) will share with us more of the story behind the making of B.PUBLIC’s proprietary high-performance prefab building envelope that speeds construction and reduces energy consumption by up to 90% for the life of the building. Along with co-founder Charlotte Bervin-Lagarde, the team is gung-ho to introduce to Santa Fe and beyond a solution that incorporates materials that reduce environmental impact and deliver comfort like nothing else. 

Edie said it best in a Facebook post: “I couldn't be more excited about 2020 and inspired to lead a decidedly disruptive venture. Here's to taking risks and making the world a better place. This is the right product, the right moment, with the right partners. We have the great fortune to bring to market solutions in prefab construction with drastically reduced carbon footprint, energy use, with craft-made quality. All while creating jobs, ensuring training, engaging in the community, and developing local networks. Grateful to serve a market that is hungry for fast - smart - beautiful building solutions. We might be a start-up but we are feeling the love and are incredibly fortunate that so many are cheering us on and supporting our growth. Here's to a killer decade ahead to make a dent in the housing need and reverse our carbon bingeing.” 

Now I bet you’re as excited about B.PUBLIC as I am. Not only do they offer direct-to-consumer/developer options for those looking for a studio, home or multiple units that are beautiful, comfortable and have less impact on the environment (home plans that utilize their prefabricated system components), but they also partner with industry pros to provide prefabricated building envelope components direct to builders, architects and designers. They even offer training and introductions to design and building professionals on how to improve performance by utilizing the B.PUBLIC building envelope.

If you’re geeking out on B.PUBLIC like I am, head to their story/about us page, as it’s one of the best I’ve read in a while. And if you’re jonesing for more, the NMEDD hosted a webinar all about housing and B.PUBLIC chimes in @ minute 58 with some sweet slides and talk about solutions and tools for developing more housing for New Mexicans.

And we’ll gather to hear the story of what it’s like to build a public benefit corp based on building science on Zoom, baby. So grab yourself a drink and a bite, click the meeting link and settle in for Story Time. See ya there!

Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/98798123552?pwd=ZEtjU1hKRDBHQ3ZxNUNHYVJ6N0hYZz09

(Link above should be enough, but below in case you need 'em.)
Meeting ID: 987 9812 3552 Password: 505575

Santa Fe Innovates Incubator Launch Event

It was great fun to participate in the conversation at Santa Fe Innovates' launch event alongside Meow Wolf and Positive Energy to discuss the B-Corp movement and our choice to be a public benefit corporation with a triple-bottom-line. If you are interested in their socially-responsible startup accelerator program don't miss their great work and the first cohort for a great new program partnering with UNM, Santa Fe Business Incubator.  https://zcu.io/l4O3 

When Passive is Powerful

Lovely feature article about co-founder Jonah Stanford and the beginning of B.PUBLIC in TREND magazine.

Starts on page 88.