BPC Green Builders (Building Performance Cooperative)

About us

BPC Green Builders, operating today as Building Performance Cooperative, is a Newtown, Connecticut-based custom green home builder and deep-energy-retrofit contractor incorporated in 1998 by brothers Mike and Chris Trolle, making it one of the very first companies in Connecticut to specialize in high-performance, sustainable green homes — a sustainability commitment now over 25 years old. Mike Trolle, whose background was in commercial real estate rather than construction, learned green building by attending building-science conferences around the country and completed the company's first project, an American Lung Association 'Health House' in Roxbury, CT in 2000 — the first of its kind in Connecticut and the northeastern US, which drew a half-page feature in the New York Times. Chris Trolle, a licensed mechanical engineer, joined in 2000, becoming a certified Home Energy Rating System (HERS) rater before moving into full-time project management of new custom homes and deep energy retrofits.

BPC's own account of its history describes steadily adopting each new, more rigorous certification standard as it emerged: a USGBC LEED for Homes pilot-program certification in 2006, one of the first DOE Zero Energy Ready Home certifications in 2011, and one of the first PHIUS-certified Passive Houses in Connecticut in 2013. The company now describes its design philosophy as 'Edgecraft' — treating rigorous building science (vapour, thermal, and air barriers; mechanical systems engineered for genuine comfort; healthy, durable material selection) and fine craftsmanship as two halves of the same discipline, rather than separate concerns. BPC's own summary of its portfolio cites around 70 completed high-performance custom-home projects across Connecticut and adjoining New York State, split between new construction and deep energy renovations of existing homes.

BPC's project awards span nearly two decades: six-time winner of the U.S. Department of Energy's National Housing Innovation Award (2013, 2014, 2015 Grand Prize, 2017, 2020, and 2021); multiple LEED Platinum, Gold, and Silver certifications going back to 2007 (among the first LEED-certified homes in the country during that program's pilot phase); the USGBC's national Outstanding Single-Family Project award in 2015 for a Taft School faculty residence (Connecticut's first LEED v4 Platinum home); multiple Connecticut Zero Energy Challenge awards; and the Peter Harding Service Award in 2020 recognizing the company's long history of near-zero and net-zero energy home building. In its own words, BPC's focus has more recently shifted toward embodied carbon, moving toward building materials with lower embodied carbon and, where possible, natural, plant-based materials that act as long-term carbon sinks.

In 2023, BPC converted into a worker-owned cooperative, with employees eligible to become member-owners after two years of employment — a structural commitment to social sustainability alongside its environmental record. The company is a member of the U.S. Green Building Council, Northeast Sustainable Energy Association, Passive House Alliance, PHIUS, the Home Builders Association of Connecticut, and the Home Builders & Remodelers Association of Fairfield County. BPC is based at 3 Simm Lane, Suite 3A, Newtown, CT 06470, and can be reached at (203) 563-9909 or info@bpcgb.com. The company maintains Facebook and Instagram profiles.