Architects, engineers, and contractors are great at designing and building high-performance buildings (LEED Certified Buildings). The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is delivering these types buildings at a record-breaking pace. However, when it comes to operating these high-performance buildings, the middle-skills workforce have difficulty operating and maintaining their performance as designed. Too many building operators today are unplugging building automation systems or abandoning critical systems because they areunsure or unaware of the how high-performance buildings operate.  Most of these facilities managers usually have a high school degree, GED, and maybe a two-year community college degree. The Green Building Tech Program is the first of its kind in the Boston Public Schools system. The program is designed specifically for career technical education high schools. We need to focus our education efforts on the next generation green building operators to strengthen and maintain Boston’s thriving, healthy and innovative economy.

This winning project was one of five amazing finalists to become this year's Legacy Project. The Green Building Tech Program proved to hit the following five criteria most effectively and thus was chosen:

• Serves low-income and inner city groups
• Is of an appropriate size
• Is Greenbuild oriented
• Is community supported
• Has an educational aspect