James Petersen began his career in engineering in 1986, and founded Petersen Engineering, Inc. six years later. Passionate about energy and the environment, James has expanded his expertise from his roots in HVAC and plumbing design to include building science, enclosure design and integrated design. A broad view of buildings, energy, and the environment has significantly changed James’ practice, and the success of the sustainable design movement has created new opportunities and has elevated his role on projects as the mechanical engineer.
Petersen Engineering looks at buildings holistically. “Any project we do we approach as an educated advocate for the owner, asking how can we design systems that will use as little energy as possible, as efficiently as possible and how can this be done while maintaining maximum durability, maximum adaptability, and as comfortable and healthy as possible,” explains Petersen.

Their engineers are building experts with a specialty and focus on the mechanical systems for buildings. The first thing Petersen analyzes is how to reduce the energy needs of a building. “Most buildings are drafty and under-insulated with grossly over-sized heating and cooling systems, creating an incredible amount of energy waste,” says Petersen. “With good design a reasonable target for buildings, new or renovated, is to use 50% to 70% less energy.”

Petersen is a trailblazer in pushing the importance and viability of sustainable building design, along the way mastering the art of the kind of cross-collaboration required to get all of the players in a build team to prioritize efficient building techniques and materials. By constantly making the low-waste argument and professionally proving the superiority of mechanical systems that do this well, Petersen often can influence other sectors of a structure that they don’t typically have sway over. By promoting efficiency in respectful and practical ways, Petersen is able to offer engineering solutions that satisfy everyone’s objectives

Petersen was instrumental in helping to form a NH Chapter of the US Green Building Council. Petersen was also been active in helping organize a conference in Boston this past spring for the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association. Additionally, Petersen is a Board member of the local Tidewater Waldorf School and has spearheaded that school’s waste reduction/composting program. He also served as a volunteer on the NH Code Review Board for 4 years helping to oversee common sense building and land use codes for the state of NH, and has worked as a volunteer educator for years at the Boston Architectural Center giving classes on energy efficiency techniques in engineering and applied ethics in engineering.

Green Dreams: Making good on a long-held goal, Petersen recently purchased a historic building in Portsmouth on Maplewood Avenue. The plan now is to completely renovate the space, with the goal of preserving its unique character while making it as green and energy-efficient as possible. Petersen intends for this project to showcase their commitment to both preservation and sustainability, sharing all aspects of the project locally and regionally through open houses, presentations, industry tradeshows, case studies and publications. From their new space, Petersen and his team hope to continue their efforts in helping businesses and organizations build high-quality, efficient, green buildings, all the while helping to educate their customers about how to best reduce their buildings’ energy use.