People, Our Planet, & Water Green Breakfast

By Allison Maynard, Communications Associate


Next week join us for free breakfast and a conversation about water efficiency and the role of sustainable plumbing! We’ll also discuss testing and standards, environmental technologies, product transparency, and contributions to LEED certification.

Objectives:

  • Define water efficiency
  • Explain why additional testing may be needed beyond that required to meet the WaterSense specification for toilets
  • Distinguish between reducing the volume of water used in a building and reducing flow rates
  • Select technologies for use in designing bathrooms which contribute toward LEED points and meet long-term sustainability goals.

This is a LEED CE course, GBCI: 0920001630

Register here to join!

 

A Positively Electric Energy Conference!

By Allison Maynard, Communications Associate



Last Friday the USGBC MA Chapter co-sponsored the Northeastern University Energy Conference with the Northeastern University Energy System Society (NU-ESS). Following several stellar tracks of workshops and panels throughout the day, including some of Boston's best and most accomplished energy, engineering and design professionals, the USGBC MA Annual Halloween Party thrown by the Emerging Professionals committee was a huge hit with conference goers. The President of NU-ESS, Vinoth Sekar, donned a green Hulk mask. Joe Ranahan, the Energy Manager for Northeastern University's campus spoke extensively on a panel about the great strides the campus has achieved in their efforts to reduce energy consumption on campus. In the last decade, the energy consumption has risen only slightly even though the square footage of conditioned space is up 3.5 million square feet.

Professor Kowalski, Director of the Masters program in Energy Systems said, “These guys did a great job putting this conference together” and distributed certificates to the organizers.

The turnout was over the anticipated amount at 250+. Conference coordinators from NU Energy Systems Society are aiming to accommodate three times as many attendees next year following the success of their​ first annual conference.

 

 

How the Paris Climate Talks Could Bring the Green Building Movement to the Developing World

By Derek Newberry, Advocacy Fellow

In an interview this morning with Earth & Environment Publishing, USGBC National President Roger Platt discussed how green buildings might be addressed at the upcoming climate talks in Paris. He also explained how introducing green building techniques to the developing world brings unique challenges and opportunities.

Platt detailed the key message about green buildings that he thinks needs to be delivered, both at the climate talks in Paris, and to policymakers beyond that. “We believe that green buildings [and] green construction provide tremendous economic benefits, but also address the carbon emissions impacts of buildings by making them radically more energy-efficient, water-efficient, reducing their impacts on buidoversity degradation. Generally, [they create both] high environmental performance and high economic performance.”

Platt emphasized how the United Nations itself recognized that buildings are the lowest cost, highest impact way to reduce carbon emissions. “A new generation of buildings will both create economic opportunity, and also have a tremendous impact in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.” The developing world is where this new generation of buildings will rise up, so we need to ensure that the wave of infrastructure growth is on the path to energy efficiency.

It's clear that this high-impact solution of green buildings should a priority issue at the Paris climate talks–but it cannot be approached the same way in the industrialized and the developing world. 

The policymakers of the developing world often perceive environmental initiatives as a luxury. These nations are appropriately addressing much more basic needs for their citizens, and tackling pressing humanitarian, political and economic struggles. However, as these countries are beginning to create new industries and build up their infrastructure, they need to understand the economic and health benefits of green buildings. Basic housing that is healthy, safe, and very low-cost is already a priority in the developing world–and Roger Platt sees green buildings as meeting that need very clearly.

In fact, some of the biggest developing countries are setting an example by embracing green buildings in a big way. Although more than 150 countries and territories have adopted LEED, Brazil, China and India are in the top 5 countries for LEED worldwide, showing the power of the emerging green economy. The prioritzation of green buildings by the “BRICS” emerging-market cohort is a crucial step in the advance of this movement, especially as these countries often label themselves as the representatives of the developing world. Their leadership could encourage many other impoverished and economically emerging nations to join in this movement, and start off their infrastructure growth on the right (energy-efficient) foot. 

As the leader of the green building industry, there are lessons from the US that can be applied abroad. Roger Platt explained how green buildings can grow both in countries that are government-dominated, and in those that emphasize the role of businesses. In the US, the government led by example through their widespread policy of having third-party certified green buildings. Recently, the Indian and New Delhi governments are looking to follow this same model.

While our government has pushed energy-efficient policies and broadly use LEED-certified buildings, the private sector is also a major part of the solution. This industry-led approach (including the real-estate, construction, architecture, engineering, and manufacturing industries, to name a few), is a necessary complement to government policies.

Although the US has been a tremendous forerunner on these policies, through the efforts of USGBC and the ever-growing green building industry, the developing world needs more education and support to make green buildings part of their policy plans and one of their private sector priorities.

We can only wait to see how Paris will change the game for the green building industry across the globe.

Check Out Our Webinars This Month!

By Allison Maynard, Communications Associate


Come join us for some great webinars this month! Webinars that you can check out include:

Deep Material Vetting That Won’t Chew Through Your Design Budget will be shown on 11/12/15 in Cambridge at noon. This webinar will explore the new rules surrounding product vetting, materials transparency, and toxicity screening for building materials in your projects. Our experts Chris Lee and Scott Kelly of Re:Vision Architecture also have a rare specialty in product vetting for the Living Building Challenge Red List. Chris and Scott have gotten so good that they travel around, teaching their no-more-tears research strategies and time-saving workflows to other building professionals. And now they're sharing their wisdom in this webcast.

To join this in-person webinar, register here!

Embodied Carbon: The Critical Juncture Where Sustainability Meets Building Structure will be shown on 11/18/15 in Boston at 4:30. It will dive into building life cycle assessment, analysis of embodied carbon, and many things a structural engineer can do to reduce embodied energy and embodied carbon in buildings. The focus is on how structural engineers can reduce embodied cardon in buildings, but this course has valuable information for anyone involved in sustainable building.

To join this webinar, register here!

Don't Build Here: Site Selection Strategies to Protect Our Wild Spaces will be shown on 11/18/15 in Worcester at 6pm. It will focus on selecting a sustainable site for building a LEED project. This course is great for anyone involved in sustainable buildings that wants to reduce the environmental impact from the site selection process for buildings. Participants will learn how to achieve the Sensitive Land Protection credit for the LEED v4 BD+C rating systems and how to utilize tools such as the NRCS web based soil surveys, FEMA Flood Map Service Center, and NatureServe.

To join this webinar, register here!

 

Get Ready for the Green Associate!

By Allison Maynard, Communications Associate


Are you serious about your dedication to sustainable building? Then you should definitely have your LEED Green Associate accreditation! And we'd be happy to help you prepare for your Green Associate Exam. In fact, we're hosting an exam preparation course which would be perfect for you next month! This is also the perfect opportunity because we will be transitioning to an updated version of LEED next year, and this will give you a better grasp of the updated certification information for the new version. 

Already a LEED Green Associate or Accredited Professional? Invite a friend or colleague who still needs their accreditation!

Register here!

 

The full day comprehensive course covers the following topics:

Chapter #1 – Introduction

This 1-hour chapter will explain the LEED Green Associate credentialing process and serve as an introduction to LEED, sustainability, the USGBC, the GBCI and the LEED rating system.

Chapter #2 – Location and Transportation / Sustainable Sites

This 1-hour chapter will focus on site issues such as connectivity, transportation, erosion, landscaping, and heat island effect.

Chapter #3 – Water Efficiency / Energy and Atmosphere

This 1-hour chapter will focus on water issues (plumbing efficiency, irrigation, process water, etc.) and energy and atmosphere issues (demand, efficiency, renewable energy, ozone depleting substances, etc.)

Chapter #4 – Materials and Resources

This 1-hour chapter will focus on procurement and waste diversion.

Chapter #5 – Indoor Environmental Quality

This 1-hour chapter will focus on indoor environmental quality issues such as indoor air quality, occupant comfort and green cleaning.

Chapter #6 – Innovation / Regional Priority / Certification Process

This 1-hour chapter will explain the LEED certification process and the Innovation and Regional Priority categories.

Chapter #7 – Exam Review

This 1-hour chapter will focus on exam format and registration and sample exam questions.

Chapter #8 – Exam Review

This 1-hour chapter will focus on sample exam questions.

 

NEXT WEEK: LEED v4 Master Class!

By Allison Maynard, Communications Associate


You may be a LEED AP, but how much time have you spent learning about Environmental Product Declarations, Life Cycle Assessment and Building Envelope Commissioning? Where are you digging into the versions of LEED specifically designed for Data Centers, Warehouses, and Hotels? These are just a few of the new things in LEED version 4, the first top to bottom update of the LEED Rating system since it was introduced in 2000 by the USGBC.

To help you prepare for this update, we're offering a LEED v4 Master Class that will take a deep dive into LEED. The class is designed to provide the information needed for high level architects, engineers, and designers to use the updated v4 system and to ask any questions on the subject during instruction.

We'll cover all the improvements to the LEED BD&C and IDC ratings systems including new credits, reference standards, and adaptations. This session assumes some familiarity with LEED and green building concepts so LEED AP status or equivalent is recommended for attendees. 

Register and find more information here!

 

Gerding Edlen – People, Planet, Prosperity

By Allison Maynard, Communications Associate


At our Chapter we love to celebrate and share the wonderful work our members and partners are consistently doing. It is their hard work and dedication to sustainability in everything that they do which makes our Chapter such an amazing group of people. Our sponsoring partner Gerding Edlen certainly exemplifies this.

Gerding Edlen Sustainable Solutions provides comprehensive retrofit and distributed infrastructure development services to public and private real estate portfolio owners. The firm believes that superior building performance is more than just energy efficiency—it also includes optimizing water, waste and occupant comfort in order to maximize economic value.

They have also created their own internal, self-certification tool to use on their projects called the Livable Place Index (LPI). The Livable Place Index is a system for measuring the performance of the company's buildings under three categories: Planet, People, and Profit. The Planet category measures the environmental impacts of energy use, air, and water quality and assesses buildings according to the LEED Rating System. The People category includes assessments of the projects achievement of “20-minute living,” which Gerding Edlen defines as “the concept of having all services and amenities for a happy, healthy life within a 20-minute walk, bike ride, or transit ride.” The Profit category assesses a project's success in providing for economic growth.

So far, Gerding Edlen has completed over 60 green projects and 63 LEED certified projects. They also estimate that under the Planet category of their LPI for the total of all of their projects combined they have a projected annual savings of 52.9 million kWh of energy, 7,787 metric tons of carbon dioxide, and 33.3 million gallons of water. We're excited to see Gerding Edlen continue to add to these numbers!

Meet our Members: Michael Sigmon

By Allison Maynard, Communications Associate


Michael Sigmon works for F.D. Sterritt Lumber Company, and focuses on advocating and selling sustainable building materials, specifically FSC® certified wood. From brokering deals across the country, Mike focuses on getting sustainably harvested wood to jobsite at the lowest cost, with the lowest environmental emissions through the supply chain. F.D. Sterritt Lumber Co. was recently awarded “FSC® Leadership Award for Building Supply – East Coast”, at Greenbuild 2014.

Michael also helps the Residential Green Building Committee, (RGBC) as the Communications Coordinator. In this role, he helps communicate the ideas of the bright members and speakers to mass audiences.

In his spare time, Michael loves skiing, the outdoors, travel, songwriting, and sharing a laugh with family and friends.

More of October's New LEED Certified Buildings!

By Allison Maynard, Communications Associate

Congratulations to all of these recently LEED certified buildings!


 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

The Salisbury Public Library was certified Gold for LEED-NC v2009 on October 26th. Their grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony took place on October 2nd.

 

 

 


 

Commonwealth Honors College Residential Complex at UMass Amherst received LEED Silver certification for NC v2009 on October 23rd. The six-building complex, completed in summer of 2013, provides a living and learning environment for students enrolled in the Commonwealth Honors College. It has 1,500 beds, nine classrooms, community spaces, and rooms for faculty-in-residence.


 

Starbucks at Rowes Wharf was LEED certified on October 19th using the LEED for Retail (CI) Pilot v1.0. They now have over 650 LEED-certified stores in 19 countries across all three of their regions—more than any other retailer in the world.


 

Jackson Commons is a mixed-use, mixed-income, transit-oriented component of Jackson Square Partners LLC’s 14-building, $250 million redevelopment effort in the Jackson Square community of Boston’s Roxbury and Jamaica Plain neighborhoods. They were certified Gold under LEED for Homes v2010 on October 15th.

 

November Newsletter: Recap for the Blog!

By Allison Maynard, Communications Associate

You can read our most recent Newsletter here. This links to articles about past and upcoming events, as well as important Chapter news. Below is the intro paragraph from our Executive Director, Grey Lee.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Greetings,

What was the greenest Halloween costume you saw this weekend? Anyone dressed as the demons of green buildings like zombie operating programs, vampire loads or ghost recycling patterns?

If you haven't clicked to our blog, our twitter feed and Facebook, take a look. There's content for you.

I am hoping that you will consider joining our advocacy work. There is plenty to do – and each of you, dear subscribers, are welcome to participate. Net metering, net zero codes, PACE…See the update below or go directly to our advocacy suite at our website. We have a meeting to discuss strategy on our campaigns this Thursday night. Did you see our colleague Jerome Garciano's report on tax incentives for green buildings?

Are you ready for Greenbuild? Join us on Wednesday evening at 5:30pm for a MA Chapter gathering at the BOLD awards.

Come out for our tour of Northeastern's new dorm on Wednesday evening. Friday morning 11/13, our Green Breakfast Club charges ahead with a course on water conservation. Also next week – LEED v4 with Blake Jackson. Everyone knows that in one short year, all new projects will be using LEED v4 right? Time to build up your capacity! GreenbuildXBoston is coming in December as a massive educational mash-up for green building expertise. 
 
Boo! I hope you are excited to move forward with us.

Thank you and I hope to see you at an upcoming event soon,
Grey