Tim O'Brien Homes founder and CEO Tim O'Brien talks with Green Builder Media's Sara Gutterman about certifying every home he builds to third-party energy and green standards, and about the air sealing and indoor air quality work behind that commitment. He argues high-performance building should be the industry norm rather than a niche.
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Sara Gutterman: Hi, I'm Sarah. I'm here with Tim O'Brien, founder and CEO of Tim O'Brien homes. Thank you for being here for my Front Lines of Climate Action interview series. I am particularly excited about interviewing you today, Tim, because you are one of our industry's leaders. I think people really watch and emulate what you do in your design and construction practices within Tim O'Brien homes, and you know, you're constantly raising the bar on yourselves and therefore the industry and exploring the frontiers of sustainability.
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Sara Gutterman: And I want to talk about that. But first, tell us about your origin story. How did you get into green building?
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Tim O'Brien: Well, first, thank you for that. And second would be is I've learned so much from this industry and specifically opportunities to participate with people that are like minded, like you and those others that support Green Builder media. So that's really where a lot of my education comes from, is really the network that we've been able to create in this space.
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Tim O'Brien: So appreciate you and Ron being able to bring that group together. How I got involved in this is I'm a civil engineer by background. So I've always the building science has always been of interest to me. And so I learned building science from Joe Seabrook when I worked for a public builder. He was their main consultant. It was it was something that I just really rang true for me.
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Tim O'Brien: So as we continue down this path, finding ways to build better homes, there was a program that came up. I believe it was certain teed at that time had the energy efficient guarantee for homes. And so we started explore that path. We got involved in Energy Star at that point, and that just added a whole nother level of the building science component for our product or the product.
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Tim O'Brien: Actually, the company I was working for at that time, and that's what really kind of got me more dialed in to the energy efficiency component of home building. And that was probably in the early, early 2000, 2002. And then when we started our company in 2007, two more Brian homes, that learning that we had, the understanding that we were building homes that were value based, energy efficient with third party certification, making that more of the norm for our particular geographic area we operate in that we can make that really part of our business plan in our identity as a company.
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Tim O'Brien: So in 2007, we started Tim Brian Homes. We made that commitment that every home that we built is going to have a third party energy certification of third party green certification. And at the end of 2024, we have built 2752 homes under that model.
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Sara Gutterman: So what's your true north like? What really is your main motivation for building green homes?
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Tim O'Brien: It's really the fact that it doesn't need to be a unique segment in the market. I feel that it should be something that everybody should have an opportunity to to get into. It should be something that's part of the mainstream building industry. I think it should be more of the norm for the industry versus at that time. It was more of an exception, and I think it's becoming more of a norm as the public builders get more into it.
00:03:34:24 - 00:04:07:03
Tim O'Brien: Now. There's great builders like thrive that have been doing it for years as well. But there's still a component, a big component of the marketplace that just really focuses on. And you still have to have good design, you still have the good products, but that's all they focus on, right? So we want to bring in a good holistic, whole house system functionality to our homes that provide not only a good competitive, upfront first cost of ownership, but look at that operation side of ownership.
00:04:07:03 - 00:04:28:14
Tim O'Brien: What is it cost to operate and maintain it. That's really the total cost of home ownership and more. So as we build tighter and tighter homes, indoor air quality becomes something of an advantage for us because we want healthier homes for our occupants. As our customers live in these tighter homes, we want to make sure that they're comfortable.
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Tim O'Brien: And so not only are we able to lower the operating costs, we can make the homes more comfortable, more even heating, more even cooling, good air distribution and just good overall general comfort. And that's what we see from our customers in the comments that they have.
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Sara Gutterman: Reflecting on the transformation that you've seen in the industry over the last two decades since you have had Tim Orion Homes or since your inception, talk about some of the biggest changes that you have witnessed that are positive and that really speak to that true North that you just described.
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Tim O'Brien: Just in general, our industry is kind of slow to take on new technologies. So some of the things that I felt have been really advantageous to us, it's honestly been our energy rater. That relationship has been super beneficial for us. We've been able to innovate more economically with insulation in the right areas, where the higher concentration of air loss is or air infiltration is really focused on dialing in those areas.
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Tim O'Brien: Tighter experiment with different types of insulated products, exterior wall sheathing, obviously cavity insulation, blowing in insulation and able to also dial in our HVAC system better with the help of not only our energy rater, but our HVAC providers. So I think just, you know, on a local level, just those relationships that we've had, those consistent relationships. We've had one HVAC provider since we started the company, one Energy rater since we started the company.
00:06:13:10 - 00:06:43:26
Tim O'Brien: But as I look at some of the other technologies that we've implored into our homes, besides insulation and Erik's change have really been that indoor air quality piece identification, especially in areas like the kitchen. And, you know, we still have people that like their gas ranges and so be able to have monitors that help them determine when they need to run a fan or when we need to turn automatically turn a fan on for them to make sure that any of those are truly getting out of the home.
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Tim O'Brien: So that's been some of the neat stuff that we've we've looked at. I think some of the other things are obviously related to renewables, but our particular clientele, that's a little bit of a stretch for them. So we're always making sure that we set them up for future add ons, so when they're ready for it, they can. It's a lot easier for them to add it into their home.
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Tim O'Brien: We design it into the home as much as we may encourage it. Build. People kind of want to focus on the bright, shiny object pieces of the home, and that's kind of the market that we work with in, but making sure that we set them up for future expansion of their energy sources and their ability to to take advantage of, at least on the solar side.
00:07:29:23 - 00:07:48:25
Tim O'Brien: So but a lot of the things that we've been able to experiment with, we found some really good solutions that work well, and we found some other ones that may not be as economical, but at least we had the opportunity to check in with them and have our energy rate or work to model some of those different options for us.
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Tim O'Brien: Because for us, we really want to deliver that value product. And in order for us to make it more of the mainstream, make it more of the norm, we really have to demonstrate, especially in our Milwaukee market. We really have to demonstrate that economic benefit first to the customer, the experience, all the comfort and other things that go with it once they've been in the home.
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Tim O'Brien: But it's hard to sell them on that until they're in it.
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Sara Gutterman: If you had to pick 1 or 2 products that you're most excited about today that enhances value and comfort and cost reduction to your home buyers, what would that 1 or 2 products be for?
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Tim O'Brien: For us, Sarah really focuses on air sealant. The Aero Barrier Aero Seal have been really good products for us. We don't use the Aero Barry a lot, but Aero Seal has been a great product for sealing our HVAC system to make sure that we deliver that condition air directly to the source, but also to that we pull more efficiently the return air really out of the HVAC system rather than out of the wall cavities, the building cavities, which then starts sucking in things from underneath the wall system and such.
00:08:55:10 - 00:09:25:29
Tim O'Brien: And it really helps to provide for more greater longevity in the furnace equipment than it is pulling in the debris and dirt and particles from other parts of the home. But I think the air sealant has really been the big one for us because it's, you know, it's more of a strategic piece. It's not very expensive to do, but if we could put it in the right areas and we can lower that air changes per hour in the home down to about 1.25 is where we're on an average.
00:09:26:01 - 00:09:37:19
Tim O'Brien: It really helps to create a greater energy efficient environment for our customer, and then we augment that with that proper ventilation that brings in that appropriate amount of air exchange.
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Sara Gutterman: What innovations do you think will have the greatest impact on homes and buildings in the next two decades?
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Tim O'Brien: I think the more that we can, you know, what we find is that people, although they're excited about the equipment that they have in the house, the the energy recovery ventilator, some of the some of the air quality monitoring pieces, and the people still struggle to understand how to properly maintain them, how to properly use them. I feel that the world of AI is going to be able to make a big impact on controls in a home, and to be able to notify the the homeowner or notify their service provider of service needs, and basically try to take some of that thought that needs to go into how do I take care of this?
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Tim O'Brien: When do I replace my filter? You know, I want to I feel that we could be in a position where as the more complexity of equipment that might be built into a home to help drive down that cost of energy, to improve that level of air quality, that we're going to have systems that are going to be able to identify areas that need assistance to turn on fans, where automatically where humidity may be a little higher, or that particulate may be involved and have that be more of a whole house systems approach versus, you know, a plug in here or a plug in there or some monitor over there, just a whole house systems approach
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Tim O'Brien: and then really help that customer by taking a lot of that control out of their hands to, to so they could focus on living in their home and not have to worry about, you know, did I replace the filters? Am I getting the right amount of Erik change exchanges in my in my bedrooms or in my living space or what have you?
00:11:24:19 - 00:11:42:05
Tim O'Brien: I really think that AI is going to be able to help us do a better help our customers have better control over the systems, and reduce the amount of thought that has to keep going into maintaining them. And I think that's going to provide for a greater level of longevity.
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Sara Gutterman: I agree with you. So let's zoom out another 10,000ft. When you envision a community 20 years from now, what does that community look like?
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Tim O'Brien: I love that question because I would love to to be involved in this. But what I see, I see that community having and there's communities like this in Canada having its own energy source to operate out of, whether it's geothermal, whether it's solar, but it's more sustainable as its own community. I see it, of course, you know, having some little farmstead for for people that want to grow their own food, you know, carve out a place for that.
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Tim O'Brien: That's a nice piece to have. But I also see, you know, is there an opportunity to to maybe have a shared vehicle in the community where you could have multiple vehicles, electric vehicles that tie into the grid of that community that people can use as part of their homes, because that's vehicles sit so much more than they are driven.
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Tim O'Brien: And so if we can reduce the amount of vehicle needs that people might need and do it with electric vehicles, shared kind of vehicle system. I think that's something that will help to create a lower carbon footprint in the in the neighborhood, in the community and give people more flexibility that they may not need that second or third vehicle in their fleet, and they can use for going to school or going to the grocery store, that vehicle that is part of their HOA.
00:13:16:13 - 00:13:32:29
Tim O'Brien: But I really think sustainable energy features in a community, the consumption, the source of energy is going to come from from those communities, just like we have to have our own stormwater management in these communities, why not have their own source of energy?
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Sara Gutterman: The conversation in building industry is decidedly shifting from that zero energy to net zero carbon. And we're starting to see codes and regulations and Nancy standards. You know, the more mainstream that's taking our built environment towards decarbonization. And you are one of the first builders in the country to purchase carbon offsets. What's motivating you to take that step?
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Tim O'Brien: A big part of it is we want to learn more about, you know, the impact that we have with carbon in our homes. And I know there's especially for us, we have full finished, we have full basements. So there's a lot of concrete in our homes, which obviously increases the carbon elements of the homes. But if until we can figure out how and continue to look at the pieces that we put in our homes, how we can lower that until we can get rid of the concrete piece.
00:14:27:17 - 00:15:05:26
Tim O'Brien: I just feel it's good for us to be involved in supporting other carbon reducing efforts in, particularly in our state, in our continent. But wherever it might be, that helps globally bring that carbon element down, bring that carbon footprint down. So I look at this as us supporting future research on carbon, and also to mitigating some of the carbon exposure that we have as a country as a as, as global economy.
00:15:05:26 - 00:15:38:05
Tim O'Brien: And, and what can we do to help support that or at least bring and continue to bring attention to it is probably another way to describe it to Sarah. So I think as we as builders really start to promote our our work towards mitigating carbon, I think people will start to understand how much these structures can contribute to it, and maybe they'll get more excited about what they can do to reduce it for not only their kids, but their grandkids and their grandkids kids.