A new chapter for Emu is on the horizon.
Here’s a message from our Chief Emu:
It is with a heavy yet hopeful heart that I am announcing my resignation as Emu CEO, effective March 15th. I will be handing over the reigns as “Chief Emu” to my experienced Co-Founder and building science industry leader, Enrico Bonilauri. While I will be stepping back from daily operations to a more limited role on the ownership team, I’m excited to see Emu’s continued momentum and I confidently look forward to this next phase of growth for the company and our extended network (our wonderful “mob”).
This year marks 15 years that Enrico and I have been working to make Emu what you see today. Starting in 2009 as a boutique sustainable architecture firm in rural Italy, we cut our teeth as naive 20-somethings, challenging a stubborn industry in an ancient culture to change how we build for the benefit of our collective future. Once we found the international Passive House standard, we knew there was no going back. It just made sense. This advanced building science research became the backbone and benchmark of everything we did, soon guiding us to move the company to Colorado in 2016 and pivot to training and consulting as a way to help remove hurdles for our industry colleagues and help them set measurable building performance goals.
The past 8 years in the US has been scrappy, thrilling, exhausting, and incredibly rewarding. I feel like I have given all of myself to Emu’s success, and I have been incredibly fortunate to have an amazing team of Emus working with me just as tirelessly. It is time for the company to grow even more. With over 1000 alumni and over 150 projects to date, we have big plans coming.
Just in our Training program alone we are working on trade school curriculum licensing, Spanish language courses, Continuing Education, more scholarships and tuition subsidies, and better access to sales-free product research. Our traveling Passive Design/Build Boot Camp and unique Passive Pod Workshop are scheduled for an East Coast tour this Spring, West Coast this Fall, and several other Middle America stops in between.
In our Services offerings, we’ve streamlined an early-phase goal setting analysis (the Project Boost), and we are working with a group of select projects in our Pilot Program to help make certification more achievable. We were able to publish a groundbreaking study on apples-to-apples comparison of building performance standards for the residential market, and we can feel the tidal wave of policy changes already swelling.
One of the reasons I feel able and confident in initiating this new chapter of Emu’s growth is that we have the most amazing small team of hard working and dedicated staff. Enrico, of course, has been the brains behind a lot of our ambitions in hitting performance goals and helping others define their goals. Ben, our East Coast Emu, has flitted effortlessly between teaching and modeling and providing expert support to project teams, always with a contagious smile on his face. Robin, our new(ish) Training Program Administrator, joined us at the height of activity last summer and jumped right in to help organize us and our students. Craig, our “Moola Man” has provided essential support to our business operations, acting as an anchor while our team is constantly on the move. And Scott, the “Wise Emu”, who has been with us from the beginning of our adventure here in America, has consistently offered guidance and wisdom. We have some new blood on our modeling team (who we will introduce soon), we have countless trade and industry partners who have grown along side us, and we have job openings for new Emus to be welcomed to the team.
Over the next 2 months, we will be reaching out to our clients and partners and making sure that the transition is smooth, especially to those for whom I have been the primary point of contact. I will strive to be a continued resource as best I can, and I am here if anyone has questions.
Words cannot express how much the past 15 years has meant to me. I cannot wait to see Emu’s evolution, as I am looking forward to my own next chapter in life as well. For those who are curious about that – sit tight and stay in touch! And if any of you find your way to Cheyenne, Wyoming, give me a buzz.
Sincerely, 🧡 Emu Mariana
Have a sis in Cheyenne, albeit rarely do I get up that way. Interested in your sustainability emphasis in the Cowboy State. The university did just receive honors for the student work on the greenest home in america….. I had that distinction, supposedly, once upon a time in Boulder Colorado, albeit that was a design that never saw the light of day. Best of luck!