Greenbuild Boston is 100 days away!

By Emily Kingston

The Greenbuild Conference and Expo is only 100 days away! The world's largest expo and conference on green building is coming to Boston this November 8-10th in the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (BCEC).

USGBC MA has been working alongside many dedicated volunteers to help make Greenbuild 2017 the biggest and best one yet.


Here's what's new with the Greenbuild Committees:

  • The Green Building Tech Program at Madison Park Vocational High School will begin in September for the Legacy Project. The USGBC MA will be introducing students to the green industry and the various career paths that exist.
  • The Greening Greenbuild Committee is working with local hotels to adopt green initiatives and is preparing a campaign on educating this year's Greenbuild attendants on recycling and waste diversion. Did you know that paper towels can't be recycled?
  • As the new school year begins, the Volunteers Committee continues to recruit and coordinate student volunteers and emerging professionals to participate in Greenbuild. If you're a student or professional under 25 and have an interest in sustainability, volunteer at Greenbuild and receive a full 3-day pass!
  • The Cultivation Event and Luncheon, supported by the Ambassador Committee, brought sustainable leaders together. Speakers included Mahesh Ramanujam (USGBC President and CEO), Bryan Koop (Executive Vice President of Boston Properties), Austin Blackmon (Chief of Environment of Energy & Open Space for the City of Boston), and Judy Nitsch (Founding Principal at Nitsch Engineering).
  • This year in Boston, Greenbuild Tours includes 30 tours and over 70 sites in Massachusetts scheduled over three days. Registration is now open!
  • Local Partners and Regional Outreach Committee is working with 12 partner organizations to provide a conference and expo that reflects regional needs and aspirations

You can always read more about what's new with Greenbuild. If you are interested in coming to Greenbuild, registration is now open. Click here to register today!


National Grid Gas Transmission (NGGT)

By USGBC MA Communications

National Grid Gas Transmission (NGGT) has launched its call for ideas for the 2018 Network Innovation Competition (NIC)

Here in NGGT, we’re looking for potential partners to help us find our next flagship low carbon innovation project. We’re asking innovators across the industry to share their ideas with us on how we can operate and maintain the gas transmission network faster, cheaper, greener and more flexibly than ever before.

After internal review, we’ll choose the best idea or ideas to take forward for the 2018 Network Innovation Competition (NIC) process. The competition is operated by the regulator, Ofgem, and it makes up to £20m of funding available to inspire large-scale and industry innovations across the gas industry.

Successful projects are awarded the funding they need to research, develop and demonstrate the smartest new ideas and technologies of tomorrow.

The efficiency challenge

There’s always room to improve – and our customers expect us to do so. How can we deliver the same work, but much cheaper, faster or more flexibly – without ever compromising safety? Can we find and prove new methods to isolate, modify, repair, divert or decommission our assets better than before?

Challenges:

Cheaper, faster valve remediation, for example, solutions that require no excavation, less excavation, keyhole robotics and automation

Cheaper, faster decommissioning

Cheaper, faster diversions

Cheaper, faster network change and modifications

Flexible isolations, for example no-dig, less dig, inline, mobile, faster or cheaper, and inline isolations

 

Future of the National Transmission System (NTS)

While it’s difficult to predict the future for gas, we do expect it will require a more flexible and responsive network. What do we need to investigate and develop now in order to operate a more widely distributed gas system? How can we welcome non-traditional gas sources and be ready to meet future gas transmission network demands? And how can we get the gas and electricity infrastructure working more closely?

Challenges:

Operating a more distributed gas system

Designing for a future gas transmission network

Opening up opportunities for emerging or non-traditional gas sources, and developing new methods of interaction between the gas and electricity networks

 

Food Sustainability: How green is your diet?

By Ian Johnson

With today’s food options, one can quickly become overwhelmed with choices. In addition to what type of food and how trendy it may be, we should also be considering how sustainable one food choice is compared to another.

If you’ve done any research on the subject of food sustainability, you’ll see that vegetarian options are often the preferred choice, as it requires less water and energy to produce plant based meals, thus eat based food options have a much higher carbon footprint. In the past five years, we’ve seen an increase in more sustainable food options. From organic, local, GMO-Free, to an increase in Farmer’s Markets and healthier options. Whatever and wherever you get your food, there are ways to make the best selection from what is available to you. When buying food, at the store you can read the label to better understand the ingredients, ask an employee for information regarding the farm or manufacturer’s sustainability standards and criteria, or even take to your smart phone to do some digging (search online or try an app like GoodGuide, True Food, or Locavore).  

But what about when you are out to eat at a restaurant?

You can’t really ask the wait staff or chef 20 questions about the food you are about to order every time you go out. Perhaps you saw that episode of Portlandia where they end up leaving the restaurant to go to the farm to see how their chicken lived before they decide on what to order?


This is an extreme version of what many of us today want to do as we become more informed about certain criteria worth considering before ordering.

So, since many of you will be eating out quite a bit while in Boston for Greenbuild 2017, the “Greening Greenbuild” team has created some criteria to help you make the most sustainable food choices while in town.

How can you find food options that go beyond industry standards? Here are some questions you can ask yourself:

Does this restaurant have options that are:

  • Locally Sourced?
  • Organic?
  • Non-GMO?
  • Vegetarian? Or Vegan?
  • Sustainably Sourced/Fair Trade?

Does the restaurant:

  • Compost food waste?
  • Have a certification from the Green Restaurant Association?
  • Have they participated in the Real Food Challenge?
  • Use other sustainable practices? (Renewable energy or offsets)

As part of our goal to “green” Greenbuild, our team has performed research on Boston based restaurants to understand what makes one restaurant more sustainable than another. Currently, we’ve compiled a list of restaurants and criteria to make choosing a sustainable option easy for you while in town. We hope that our work can help you to make even just a few more sustainable choices while you are in town and help to support businesses that are pushing for more sustainable food. You’ll not only be able to enjoy a delicious meal, but also feel confident that you made a bigger impact through selecting a meal with a lower carbon footprint.

You’ll be able to check out the full list of the restaurant research during the conference. For now, here are a few of the restaurants that stood out:

-Tam Bistro & Bar
-Sebastian’s Café
-75 on Liberty Wharf
-Boloco
-Sweet Green
-Clover
-Bon Me

 

About the Author: Ian Johnson is the Principal at Signature Sustainability, a sustainability consulting services firm located in Cambridge, MA.

Pittsfield is first again as Eversource hits a major solar milestone in the Berkshires

By Emily Kingston

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – The Berkshires, a world- class cultural center renowned for magnificent forests and spacious mountains, also has a rapidly growing reputation as a Massachusetts green-energy hub. The city will soon be home to two universal solar facilities owned and operated by Eversource, together capable of producing more than 3 megawatts of clean, renewable energy.

Also in the Berkshires, the company is currently constructing a 2.3 megawatt site in Lee and conducting a feasibility study for a proposed 6.6 megawatt site in Dalton. If all projects move forward as planned, a total of four Eversource-owned solar plants in the Berkshires would be capable of producing more than 12 megawatts of clean, green power.

“We’re proud to be a leader in the clean energy future of Massachusetts as we bring more competitively priced, zero-emission solar power to customers across the commonwealth,” said Eversource Vice President of Business Development Mike Ausere. “We applaud and share the vision of state policy leaders to make the benefits of green energy available to an increasing number of homes, businesses and communities. We also want to thank our community partners for their help and foresight bringing the benefit of clean power to their communities.”

Last December, the Department of Public Utilities approved Eversource’s plan to increase its commitment to clean solar energy, expanding the amount of solar power produced by the company in Massachusetts from 8 megawatts currently to a maximum of 70 megawatts statewide.

Following months of site reviews, community meetings, engineering reports, and permit requests across Massachusetts, the site on Partridge Road in Pittsfield will be the first completed as part of Eversource’s solar expansion plan. The company built its very first solar installation in 2010 on Silver Lake in Pittsfield, becoming the first energy company in Massachusetts to receive approval from the commonwealth to develop a universal solar facility.

The sites where the solar power plants are being built in both Western and Eastern Massachusetts have all undergone thorough inspections and analysis, making sure the property is accessible, environmentally suitable, and able to accommodate ground-mounted solar panels. Members of Eversource’s solar and community relations teams have met with city and town officials, as well as abutters, to keep them fully informed during the entire site selection process.

Along with the significant environmental benefits of increasing the number of universal solar energy facilities in Massachusetts, there are substantial cost-saving benefits for Eversource customers as well. The company estimates it will produce solar power for about 18 cents per kilowatt-hour, compared to upwards of 50 cents per kilowatt-hour for some private projects currently operating within the commonwealth.

Eversource will sell the solar energy it produces directly into the regional energy market and customers will benefit from the proceeds.  Additionally, the company will receive Solar Renewable Energy Credits for the power it produces and will pass the savings along to customers through electricity rates. As a regulated electric utility in Massachusetts Eversource will not receive net metering credits, which will further reduce the price to customers. Eversource also pays local property taxes on all of its solar facilities.

The company’s new facilities will also represent a significant reduction in greenhouse emissions, equivalent to taking more than 6,000 cars off the road per year.

Eversource (NYSE: ES) transmits and delivers electricity and natural gas to 1.7 million customers throughout Massachusetts, including approximately 1.4 million electric customers in 140 communities and 300,000 gas customers in 51 communities. Recognized as the top U.S. utility for its energy efficiency programs by the sustainability advocacy organization Ceres, Eversource harnesses the commitment of its approximately 8,000 employees across three states to build a single, united company around the mission of safely delivering reliable energy and superior customer service. For more information, please visit our website (www.eversource.com) and follow us on Twitter (@eversourceMA) and Facebook (facebook.com/EversourceMA.)

Healthier School Environments Promotes Healthy Minds

By USGBC MA Communications

Aircuity is currently installed in 8 of Northwestern University’s buildings. Most recently, they have been involved with the school’s Arthur and Gladys Pancoe Life Sciences Pavillion, a building that functions a laboratory, office, and teaching space for researchers at Northwestern. The school turned to Aircuity with hopes of upgrading the building’s control platform while also reducing energy consumption. As a result, Aircuity has provided numerous benefits for the school, including an annual savings of $117,000, a 3-year payback, and an overall healthier environment for occupants of the building.

ABOUT AIRCUITY: Aircuity creates smart airside solutions through its intelligent building platform, significantly reducing energy costs and improving the indoor environmental quality for occupants. As the demand control solution, Aircuity optimizes ventilation rates through its patented technology. As a result, commercial, institutional and lab building owners can lower operating costs, protect occupants and verifiably reduce energy use by as much as 60 percent. Founded in 2000 and headquartered in Newton, MA, Aircuity’s solutions have benefited over 400 organizations such as Google, Amazon, Eli Lilly, Masdar City, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of California-Irvine. For additional information on the company and its solutions, please visit: www.aircuity.com. 

Ultra-Efficient, Economical Apartments Now In South Boston Are Part Of 'Big Wave'

By Fred Bever

You may have heard about passive housing: residences built to achieve ultra-low energy use. Imported from Germany, it's been kind of a boutique-y thing here until recently, with eco-minded homeowners making costly upfront investments to downsize their carbon footprints. But now, New England is joining a surge in large-scale passive housing development.

The Bayside Anchor, a big, green, somewhat boxy-looking four-story building that overlooks a tidal cove in Portland, Maine, has joined the trend.


'Ultra-Efficient' And Environmentally Friendly

Architect Jesse Thompson says the 45-unit project had to meet a lot of goals: Construction had to be cost-effective enough to get financed by public and affordable housing groups; it needed common areas and office space for Head Start and a community policing station; it had to be ultra, ultra-efficient.

And, finally, it had to meet the needs of tenants like Peter Janes, who was one of the first to move in this winter.

“I know it had great insulation. I had to shut off my heat in February,” Janes says. “It was too hot.”

The building does have great insulation — extra-great. Thompson says the exterior walls are several inches thicker than basic code would require.

“It's recycled newsprint: it's 10 inches thick, you know, really well done. And there's triple-glazed windows. So you can sit next to the window in the middle of winter in a T-shirt and you won't be cold. And that allows us to really radically downsize the heating system,” Thompson says.

There isn't a central heating system at all. Instead, each apartment has a small baseboard electric heater with an estimated electricity cost of just $125 a year.

It takes more than thick walls to achieve those energy savings. It also takes a near-perfect seal on the building's envelope and a high-tech ventilation system to purge moisture while keeping warm or cool air in, depending on the season. Thompson calls it the building's “lungs.”

“So all the bad air, all the bad smells go out. But the heat stays in,” he explains. “The fancy technical name is a 'heat recovery ventilator.' But they feel like magic to us.”

There are other environmentally friendly features: a roof-full of solar panels, and underneath the ground floor's polished concrete slab, instead of a basement crammed with heating systems, big retention tanks allow rainwater to filter slowly into surrounding land, bypassing the city's overworked storm water system.

And all for a cost that's low for Portland's go-go development scene. Thompson said prices for high-efficiency materials and systems are dropping fast. And, he says, public housing agencies are beginning to embrace the long-term savings gained through lower energy and maintenance costs.

“Everyone is starting to see how the economics are working,” he says. “They are giving extra points for meeting these energy goals. So we're going to see a big wave coming in the next five years.”


A Treat For Southie Developers

It's reached South Boston now.

“I don't want to be embarrassing about this, but it's a kind of miracle,” says developer Fred Gordon. On the site of a 19th-century waterfront rum distillery, Gordon is renting up the first apartments in what will eventually be a 65-unit passive housing building.

“I could stand and look at this building all day long. I just eat it up. It's like having a new girlfriend,” he says.

It's very much like the one in Portland: super-tight envelope, high-tech ventilation and no central heating system. But there's also an important difference. In this case, Gordon isn't relying on government incentives for affordable housing. He's going market-rate and plans eventually to sell the units.

In Southie's hot housing market, Gordon's got one advantage: He bought an entire city block there back in 1984, when land was considerably cheaper.

But he insists that the distillery project proves any developer can radically reduce a building's carbon output and still make a buck. Gordon says renters and buyers are willing to pay a 10 or 15 percent premium for passive housing features.

“It's getting to the point where as an investment decision … [it's] increasingly attractive,” Gordon says. “That's what we want to do. We want to make it so that if a building is not a passive house, then people say, 'Oh, well, that's a real negative, I would rather do something that is a passive house: it's just better.' “

Officials at the Chicago-based Passive Housing Institute say it's still a big ask to finance market-rate units that won't realize full energy-efficiency savings for decades. But momentum for large-scale passive housing really did start gaining last year, when the number of buildings the institute certified doubled.

And that number is on course to more than double again this year, with projects getting bigger and bigger, including a 350-unit New York City high-rise.

International WELL Building Institute, An organization working towards healthier buildings

By Tatyana Frid

Various organizations are working towards healthier buildings all over the world today. An innovative company whose goal is to create more sustainable buildings worldwide is WELL. Currently, there are over 100 million square feet of buildings that are WELL certified in more than 30 countries worldwide. With the recent growth of the International WELL Building Institute, WELL is able to constantly work on new programs and resources that can help create more sustainable buildings, especially where they are needed most. WELL has recently published a new video on their website showcasing some of there talented innovators that have helped WELL become a pioneering organization with a global market.


Additionally, WELL has recently created a new app called Build WELL , which features up to date articles on WELL along with other members of the sustainable buildings community. This innovative app also serves as an on-the-go tool to help buildings be WELL certified anytime, anywhere.

You can check out more information on how WELL is working towards their mission through this link. 

 

Board Member Andrea Love featured in Boston Globe News Article

By Courtney Humphries

Our own board chair, Andrea Love, was featured in a news article written by Courtney Humphries for the Boston Globe. The article Boston wants to fight climate change. So why is every new building made of glass? talks about the many of the lesser known issues that glass buildings possess. Andrea mentions that a glass building requires more indoor heat because of the cold surface of the glass, therefore wasting more energy that could have been sustained otherwise. 


“What’s so problematic about glass walls? In Boston’s climate, the biggest problem is a lack of insulation. Unlike opaque walls, glass allows heat to pass in and out easily. A 2014 report from the Urban Green Council in New York found that glass buildings have insulation values equivalent to medieval half-timber houses. “You have to now put more heat in your building to make up for that glass,” says Andrea Love, director of building science at Boston architecture firm Payette. On a cold day, glass walls will make you feel chilly, even if the air temperature in the room is comfortable, because your body loses heat to the cold surface. And as Love explains, they create a chill-inducing draft, as warmed air hits the top of the glass wall and falls. Perimeter heating systems are often needed to make up for these discomforts. In the summer, solar energy heats up surfaces inside, requiring more air conditioning. All-glass buildings often need constant heating or cooling to maintain comfortable temperatures. In an extended power failure, temperatures in a glass high-rise could quickly rise or fall to dangerous levels.”

If you are interested in reading the rest of the article, feel free to check out the link below. 

http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2017/07/14/boston-wants-fight-climate-c…

 

 

July 2017 EPMA Meeting; Earning and Maintaining LEED & WELL Credentials

By Manuel Esquivel

Whether you already have or are preparing to obtain LEED and WELL certifications, there are many easily-forgotten but key-to-remember details. During our July 2017 EPMA Meeting, Brian Fontaine presented on earning and maintaining LEED and WELL credentials.

There are two levels of LEED credentials which anyone can seek to attain, LEED Green Associate and LEED Accredited Professional with Specialty (AP Specialty). There is one WELL certification, WELL Accredited Professional. Although no prior practical experience is required to obtain the LEED Green Associate, it is highly recommended that you gain exposure to LEED and Green Building concepts through a combination of education, work experience, and volunteering. To obtain the LEED AP Specialty certificate no formal documentation of experience is required, but prior work on a LEED-registered or certified projected is directly assessed within the exam. The WELL Accredited Professional certification does not require prior experience.  

You can learn about LEED and WELL exam registration procedures and costs in Brian’s presentation. LEED exam premiums are lower for USGBC members, so check if your organization is a member before making your payment. There is a LEED Green Associate / LEED AP Specialty combined exam at a lower price than the added costs of the two separate exams. WELL exam premiums are lower for USGBC members, ASID members, and those with LEED certifications.   


There are both print and digital guides to help you prepare for the exams, which typically range from zero to $250. Popular resource for study guides, practice exams, and flashcards include Green Building Education Services (GBES), Poplar Network, and GreenStep.

Once you pass the exams make sure to maintain your credentials! This includes logging a certain number of Continuing Education hours and paying a maintenance fee every two years. There are many ways to obtain your Continuing Education hours, including hosting Lunch and Learns at your organization using USGBC approved presentations, attending EPMA meetings, and acquiring LEED and WELL project experience. You can find the specific number of hours needed for each certification, more options to fulfill the hours, and maintenance fees in Brian’s presentation.

If you need further support to prepare for your exam or have other creative ideas on how to earn Continuing Education hours, join us during the upcoming monthly EPMA meeting and share your thoughts.     

 

Mixed Use Comes Of Age

By USGBC Communications


How can architecture re-imagine how mixed-use developments can meet changing demands and preferences?

Mixed use is not a new idea. Retail, office, and residential have long co-existed side by side in cities and towns, but there is little doubt projects are becoming more unique and more comprehensively planned. Creating a community and a destination is the new emphasis, and transportation, whether in the form of parking for private vehicles, access to public transportation, or usually both, is a priority.

On the Boston waterfront, The Architectural Team Inc. combined new construction and adaptive reuse at Lovejoy Wharf. Now home to the corporate headquarters for clothing manufacturer Converse, the complex also offers retail space, a recording studio, and outdoor public amenities like a 30,000-sq.-ft. wharf space along the water’s edge. (Photo: Gustav Hoiland)

Jay Szymanski, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP, associate at The Architectural Team, Inc. shares his thoughts on how mixed-use projects are expanding in cities as well as suburbs: he stresses the importance of access to a wide range of jobs, goods, services, and opportunities for social interactions as keys for “successful 24/7 live, work, play environments.”

He expands with lessons for all mixed-use developments:
“Ideally, a development should provide enough critical mass to support several uses that keep activity on a site at all times of the day and all days of the week. The inclusion of quality outdoor space that allows a variety of different passive and active options will help support retail, commercial, and residential uses. Inclusion of some food service uses will serve the residents, as well as the general public. The addition of some form of public art, whether it be a sculptural element or a water feature, certainly helps to serve as an attraction to bring in activity and local pride and an attachment to one’s community. Its importance cannot be overstated.”

The expectations of building owners, tenants, and visitors to mixed-use neighborhoods clearly have evolved. No doubt adjustments will continue to be required as needs and preferences mature, making those plans that are the most flexible the ones that will be the most successful.