Our Story

​Taitem Engineering, PC, is an employee-owned engineering firm specializing in design​,​ commissioning, and sustainability consulting​ for high-performance buildings​. Founded in 1989, our clients include public and private entities, and our projects include buildings in all sectors including commercial, education, multifamily, industrial, and healthcare.

Taitem has a unique combination of field-tested experience and deep expertise in building science. Our staff has planned, modeled, designed, commissioned, tested, and verified a variety of buildings that have achieved zero energy status. Taitem is one of only a few New York firms that is qualified as a consultant to NYSERDA in the areas of energy code enablement to promote net-zero energy construction in several building types and net-zero energy design and construction. Taitem was on a team that implemented a deep energy retrofit in the initial round of Retrofit NY projects. This work has made Taitem a leader in New York’s efforts to dramatically reduce its carbon emissions.

“Taitem” stands for “technology as if the earth mattered,” reflecting our commitment to the environment.

Taitem’s expertise in the energy efficiency market extends through design, research, green building, and energy studies, encompassing thirty years of creative thinking rooted in practical applications. Taitem has led over 20 energy research projects, and its findings have been published nationally in peer-reviewed journals.

Our main office is in Ithaca, New York, with remote staff in Massachusetts, Nebraska, and New York’s North Country. Taitem’s staff includes nine licensed professional engineers, and other highly qualified engineers and analysts whose nationally recognized credentials include Certified Energy Manager, Certified M&V Professional, Certified Commissioning Professional, High-Performance Building Design Professionals, Building Energy Modeling Professionals, and LEED.

Our mission

To apply technology thoughtfully for the benefit of the Earth and for the living beings that depend on it.

Our core values

HONESTY & INTEGRITY

We uphold the highest professional ethical standards; treat our co-workers, clients, and prospective clients with respect and kindness; and communicate with openness, kindness, and conviction.

PLANET EARTH

We strive to be a leader in engineering and building science—areas that will improve the environment and people’s lives; aim for excellence, setting high goals and working to achieve them; and continue to learn and grow, applying new knowledge to our work and adapting to a changing world.

COMMUNITY

We provide a stable, caring, sustainable workplace;  encourage cooperation and inclusion; and by being a successful, thriving business support other organizations that share or could benefit from our values and expertise.

Anti-racism statement

Taitem acknowledges the systemic racism inherent in our society that creates barriers to equity and justice in all aspects of life. We commit to addressing the barriers that we, as an employer, provider of services, and buyer of goods and services, can influence. This means changing our organizational systems, frameworks, policies and practices, and attitudes with the goal of creating a more equitable, inclusive workplace.

Taitem strives to accomplish this goal by:

  • committing to ongoing education, self-reflection, and community action by Taitem and its employees.
  • continuous active anti-racist work. We understand that anti-racist work is a process by which we, as an organization and individually, identify and eliminate racism by changing our existing systems, organizational structures, policies and practices, and attitudes that perpetuate systemic racism. Examples of anti-racist work are employee bias training, a commitment to recruiting and hiring from outside our immediate and established circle of contacts, and participating in complementary anti-racist initiatives in our community.
  • Supporting a Justice, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, which is tasked with actively identifying and eliminating racist and other discriminatory systems, organizational structures, policies and practices, and attitudes, so that power is redistributed and shared equitably.

Taitem will be held accountable internally by its President, Vice President, and partners and externally through the B-Corp certification process.

Taitem is a certified B-Corporation

What is a B-Corp?