Charlie Stephens, Thimble Creek Team Member

Charlie Stephens

Charlie is a consultant and advisor to people who wish to create high performance, sustainable homes and small commercial buildings. He recently completed 17 years of service at the Oregon Department of Energy as a senior policy analyst. His focus areas were residential energy efficiency and renewable energy applications, new technology development, sustainable building and community development, and energy policy for the State of Oregon.

In 1999 he created the State's Sustainable Building Tax Credit Program, and was a design team member for a significant number of sustainable building projects. In 2001, he began the Department's work on high performance homes, designed to generate as much energy annually as they use.

Charlie has advised hundreds of Oregonians on how to make their new or existing homes more energy efficient as well as on the types of systems and building methods most suitable for their situations and climate. Discussions included lighting, appliances, foundations, structure, insulation methods, windows, siting, drainage, materials and heating, cooling, domestic hot water, and ventilation systems. He has also served as a consultant to HVAC and appliance manufacturers and distributors, contractors, architects and designers, builders, appliance retailers and utility program staff.

Charlie has presented widely on the topics of sustainable building and development, energy efficiency strategies, new technologies, advanced HVAC and domestic hot water systems, renewable energy systems and energy policy. Venues have included conferences, green building workshops, citizens groups, energy round tables, the classroom and many others.

Charlie is well versed in The Natural Step sustainability framework, and collaborated with other members of the Oregon sustainable building and development community to apply the Natural Step system conditions to the building process. The resulting white paper has been a guide for many projects completed or underway now in Oregon. He has consulted with a number of other states to help them implement sustainable building incentive programs similar to those that are so successful in Oregon today.

As a Senior Policy Analyst for the Oregon Department of Energy, Charlie represented the energy interests of the State of Oregon in a host of local, state, regional and national energy efficiency forums, coordinating program activities with those of others. He was the sustainability lead for the Department, and one of two residential energy specialists.

He also served as a lead technical specialist for the State's Residential Energy Code, and was responsible for developing code upgrades and assisting code officials around the state in interpreting and applying energy code provisions. He is a past member of the U.S. Secretary of Energy's Advisory Committee on Appliance Energy Efficiency Standards.