2025 Sustainability Superhero - Master of Messaging

Jacob Deva Racusin has spent the better part of this century showing people how great it can be to think green.

Listen to Jacob Deva Racusin speak and you come away with three thoughts: He loves what he does. He loves what he’s done. And he’ll really love what he’s going to do.

And thus far, he’s done a lot.

Racusin’s 20-year career in the building industry has had a central focus on environmental responsibility. The Vermont native began in residential design/build as a craftsman in timber framing and straw-bale construction. He was an early learner and adopter of building science. And, he trained in energy modeling and mechanical system design, bringing his knowledge of energy efficiency and green building to HVAC design. 

“I started as an owner builder back in 2000,” he recalls. “My wife and I bought an abandoned farm in the mountains of northern Vermont, and I had come from a place of being really interested in sustainable agriculture. As part of that, I realized I wanted to develop a relationship with building shelters, as well as building out my skillsets there.”

Racusin’s live presentations have opened industry-wide discussion about embodied carbon in residential buildings, a topic few people even considered just a few years ago. CREDIT: Courtesy of New Frameworks Natural Design/Build

Carbon Candor

Carbon emissions and indoor air quality have been a top priority for Racusin. This is evidenced by the groups he’s joined and the research he’s promoted. 
In 2018, Racusin joined Builders for Climate Action, a “social enterprise” of builders, designers, developers, policymakers, researchers and manufacturers that strives to make building practices climate positive as quickly and intelligently as possible. He served as lead embodied carbon researcher, and was also instrumental in the creation of the Building Emissions Accounting for Materials (BEAM) tool. BEAM measures the amount of embodied carbon in homes. Racusin also developed and delivered training in the use of the tool. 

BEAM is software that enables architects, designers and builders to easily compare the carbon footprint of various building materials within a particular category, or quickly create assemblies and whole building models. BEAM quickly and easily identifies carbon hotspots and helps a user identify the best ways to reduce emissions from a project.

The tool and its target product, embodied carbon, became a focal point for environmental discussions by Racusin, and industry peers Ace McArleton and Chris Magwood. “[In roughly] 2018, Chris, Ace and I wrote an article for BuildingEnergy Magazine about embodied carbon, which was one of the first times this had been brought to the residential space,” Racusin notes. “That led to a keynote at [the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA) conference] the following year, which is really what blew open the topic of conversation within our region and our sector. And the work has very much accelerated from there.”

Most recently, he provided in-depth research on embodied carbon of mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) products for the RESNET 1550 standard development and for the Canadian federal government. RESNET 1550 is an extension of the RESNET Carbon Index, which covers operational carbon emissions. The 1550 guidelines provide a standardized method to calculate and report the embodied carbon impact of homes.

He is also a founder and current steering committee member of the Bio-Based Materials Collective, established in 2024 to build momentum among builders, designers, manufacturers, farmers, and foresters for adoption of carbon-storing materials. Racusin is engaged in code and policy development, professional training, and other initiatives supporting the transition to a “more just industry.”

Natural wonder. New Frameworks’ Casitas, made with locally sourced Vermont wood and straw, personalized interiors of natural clay and lime plaster, and sleek, non-toxic wood finishes are testaments to sustainable living.

Educational Outreach

A central part of Racusin’s working life is New Frameworks Natural Design/Build, a sustainability-embracing worker cooperative that “offers a new framework for ecological design and construction.” Racusin is the co-founder (along with McArleton) and its director of sustainability and building science. He is a key participant in the development of the company’s prefabricated straw wall panel business, and offers services in renovation, new construction, consultation, and education. 

On the education side, Racusin is an instructor at the Yestermorrow Design/Build School, where he is the former director of the school’s Natural Building Intensive Program.  About 14 years ago, he was a student there himself. He learned enough to build his own home after about six years. 

“That program was really my formal education,” Racusin says. “I had a really good mentor help teach me how to design and build. So I came into this work as an owner/builder with natural building technologies. And before I finished building the house, I realized that I really loved building and construction.”

He and others teach design and building as an integrated process through hands-on education through nearly 100 classes such as Land and Community Planning, Whole Structure Design/Build, Building Systems and Building Science, Woodworking and Craft and Tutorials.  

Throughout his career, Racusin has been an active conference speaker and educator, and in 2025 is leading the content development for the NESEA Building Energy Boston Conference.

And there are the books he’s written. “Essential Building Science: Understanding Energy and Moisture in High Performance House Design,” a step-by-step guide to making, installing and living with beautiful, all-natural earthen floors; and “The Natural Building Companion: A Comprehensive Guide to Integrative Design and Construction,” co-authored with McArleton, which helps builders understand basic principles of building science, including structural and thermal engineering, and hydrodynamics. Both are considered invaluable resources for anyone with green construction in mind.

Racusin and other members of New Frameworks Natural Design/Build work to create homes that are stylish, more efficient and carbon healthier. CREDIT: Courtesy of New Frameworks Natural Design/Build

Enjoying the Ride

Racusin has changed with the times. After the Recession’s impact on residential construction, he shifted from heavily focusing on revolutionary building science techniques—such as airtight straw-bale construction, and air fin transitions from plaster to wood—for new homes and residential buildings, to working on existing ones. “We realized we were not hitting our social or environmental goals, only building new homes for affluent clients,” he says.

He became triple-certified by the Building Performance Institute (BPI) as a building analyst, envelope professional, and healthy homes evaluator, a certified Passive House consultant (CPHC), and an Efficiency Vermont partner contractor for the Home Performance with ENERGY STAR program. This was at about the same time that New Frameworks went from simply construction to being a full-on design/build firm.

Racusin also began focusing on building enclosure and mechanical design, and energy modeling alongside some of the field verification. New Frameworks later pivoted from being a custom builder and custom service provider to manufacturing straw-insulated building panels and prefabricated ADUs and small homes. 

“With the cost escalation and housing crisis, custom construction wasn’t meeting the needs of our communities, and we were just spending a lot of time putting very few people into buildings,” Racusin says. “So I’m moving further away from that work now that we’ve transitioned into being a fabricator. I’m still working in that realm from a building science and capacity building level, and still doing a lot of outward consulting and internal consulting. But more of my work is really now shifting towards standards and policy, and the BEAM tool, now that it’s serving an ever-bigger role as the industry starts embracing the need for embodied carbon metrics and strategies and solutions.” 

Teaching the world to think green is hard work—which is why Racusin likes to chill out with an occasional jam session.

Superhero Stats

 

Some of Jacob Deva Racusin’s career accomplishments include:

 

• Co-founder and director of building science and sustainability with New Frameworks Natural Design/ Build, focusing on mechanical, water, energy and enclosure system design and quality control.

• Lead embodied carbon researcher and Building Emissions Accounting for Materials (BEAM) estimator tool trainer with Builders for Climate Action, where he is involved in embodied carbon research and development and training.

• Conducted in-depth research on embodied carbon of MEP products for the RESNET 1550 standard development, and for the Canadian federal government.

• Co-author (with Ace McArleton) of “The Natural Building Companion, A Comprehensive Guide to Integrative Design and Construction,” and author of “Essential Building Science: Understanding Energy and Moisture in High Performance House Design.” Both books are landmark publications on the fundamentals of earth-based construction.

• Director of the Building Science and Net Zero Design Certificate Program at the Yestermorrow Design/Build School, which specializes in hands-on construction education.