By Molly Cox
The Residential Green Building Committee met on September 12th, 2016, featuring a guest presentation from Mike Davis, Senior Program Officer at (Local Initiatives Support Corporation) in Boston. Mike is also on the board of USGBC MA! LISC works across a plethora of fields, promoting affordable housing, economic development, energy savings, and safety for low-income neighborhoods across the country. While LISC has been around since the ‘80’s, Mike spoke to us about a recent initiative he is working on in MA (See presentation attached below).
One of the programs Mike manages includes the Green Retrofit Initiative in MA, which started in 2010, with the mission of working with building owners of multifamily housing units, and providing the funding they need. The program is funded by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Barr Foundation (LISC was only 1 of 12 organizations to get the grant from HUD). In partnership with New Ecology, an organization that promotes environmental quality in buildings, LISC was able to rehabilitate buildings to increase energy savings for residents, and establish a healthy living environment. So far, the Initiative has helped 50 multifamily affordable housing owners in MA, and this number will continue to grow. Mike showed us some examples of electric and gas usage savings as well, and we saw at least 20% across the board in savings for residents.
With their recent MA Clean Energy Center grant, LISC wants to prioritize energy audits for projects that are nearing their time for rehabilitation. With this grant, they hope to join the efforts of all players involved, including owners, lenders, utilities, state agencies, to ensure they are all taking advantage of the potential savings. Retrocommissioning is also a priority to ensure the maintenance of renewable energy systems is readily available, once they are installed. The end goal with this initiative is to inspire and promote positive policy on the state level.
We then moved onto our Committee updates, and reflected on the legislative session that recently ended, and look forward to the next 2-year session. We also reviewed our initiatives within the Committee, including an exciting resource Bill and Dana are compiling for homeowners. We are planning a service event on November 19th with YouthBuild Boston, stay tuned for more details!
Some events coming up include the Green Building Showcase on September 22nd, 2016 (Register HERE), and GreenBuild in Los Angeles starting October 5th (Register HERE). Come join us for our next Committee meeting on October 3rd!
Global Head of Sustainability, Superior Essex
Sustainability Director, Steven Winter Associates
PE | Associate, LeMessurier
Vice President, AEW’s Architecture & Engineering group
Interior Designer, Jacobs, Boston
Senior Vice President, Market Transformation and Development U.S. Green Building Council
AIA LEED AP BD+C | Senior Associate, Gensler Boston 
LEED Fellow, WELL AP | Founder and Principal, Ecoworks Studio
AIA, LEED AP BD+C, WELL AP
LEED AP BD+C | Environmental Sustainability Manager, Armstrong World Industries
Assistant Professor of Exposure Science | Director of the Healthy Buildings program
Managing Director, Harvard University Office for Sustainability
Principal & Director of Certifications and Consulting, Epsten Group, Inc.
Vice President of Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility, Jamestown
Director of Sustainability Programs, DASNY | LEED AP BD+C
Associate Principal, BuroHappold Engineering
Senior Vice President, Sustainability at Kilroy Realty Corporation
Co-Founder, Facilitator at The Laurentia Project | LEED AP BD+C, LFA
Vice President of Sustainable Development, Shaw
Founder and President, Board of the Healthy Building Network
Building Technology Director, Kingspan North America
LEED® AP ID+C, BD+C, USGBC Faculty, WELL® AP, WELL Faculty and Fitwel Ambassador
Workplace Strategy Expert and Researcher, EYP
Principal, Integrated Ecostrategy
Senior Vice President, International WELL Building Institute
Principal, Bruner/Cott
Architect, Associate, and Sustainability Design Leader, Stantec Architecture and Engineering
FAIA, LEED Fellow, Long Green Specs
Products & Materials Specialist, BuildingGreen
Director of Acquisitions and Development
Director of Restorative Enterprise, Interface
Sustainability Manager, Consigli Construction Company