About the Author
David M. Epley is the green building and sustainability division manager at the District of Columbia Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) where he established and currently manages the nationally recognized Green Building Program. The division is responsible for the enforcement, development, outreach and education of the District’s pioneering green building regulations throughout the construction process, including the DC Green Construction Code, the DC Energy Conservation Code, all solar-related regulations and the DC Green Building Act. In addition to existing regulations, the division is pioneering a code-based voluntary net-zero energy building program for residential and commercial buildings. In 2018, the division was recognized as “Energy Institution of the Year” for the greater Washington region by the Association of Energy Engineers and in 2015 the division won the national ICC Standard Bearers Award.
Prior to working at DCRA, Epley was the program director for energy performance in the Enterprise Green Communities Program at Enterprise Community Partners, a national affordable housing non-profit. At Enterprise he managed the green communities certification, verification and energy benchmarking programs. Before Enterprise, he was a Solar America Cities Fellow at the city of Pittsburgh, Pa., and owned a home energy audit company in Knoxville, Tenn. He holds a master’s degree in sustainable design from Carnegie Mellon University and a bachelor's degree in environmental studies from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.