Reminder – Annual General Meeting this Thursday!

By Alexander Landa


We're starting to get really excited – this Thursday is the USGBC MA Chapter Annual General Meeting!

This is a really special night for all of us. It's a gathering of a wide mix of individuals from our Chapter, from the active volunteers who show up at every event we hold, to the emerging professional who rarely gets a chance to break away from coursework in college. We will celebrate our victories in 2016, look forward to the upcoming year, elect our new Board members, and announce a new game that will put the spotlight on the individuals that made the biggest impact in Massachusetts.

Come on out to Payette on Thursday and join the fun!

Register here for the annual general meeting
Thursday, January 26th, 2017
5:30pm-8:00pm
Payette
290 Congress Street
Boston, MA, 02110

 

Getting To Know Fellow USGBC MA Member, Chris Schaffner of The Green Engineer

By USGBC MA Chapter


We're an organization built by our members, who range from students and emerging professionals to senior level executives at massive architectural firms. Today, we want to shine the spotlight on Chris Schaffner, LEED Fellow, Founder & President of The Green Engineer, Inc., a sustainable design firm. Chris has been a huge part of our community for a while now, frequently attending meetings, presenting at our morning educational sessions, and supporting us in everything we do.

A long time promoter of sustainable design, Chris was a charter member of the US Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED Faculty(TM), training more than 9,600 building industry professionals in the use of the LEED Rating System since 2001. He is a currently an elected member of the USGBC Advisory Council, as well as a volunteer with the LEED Advisory Committee. He previously served on the USGBC Board of Directors, as Chair of the Energy and Atmosphere Technical Advisory Group (TAG) and as a member of the Indoor Environmental Quality TAG, among other volunteer roles with the USGBC.

The Green Engineer, Inc. is a sustainable design consulting firm specializing in solutions to design, build, and operate buildings with improved energy efficiency and reduced impact on the environment. 

Reminder – WELL Exam Prep Course Next Tuesday

By Alexander Landa


The WELL Building Standard is commanding the attention of property owners throughout our market area. The Chapter invites any professional who is interested in taking the WELL AP exam to join us for an in-depth professional exam preparation course.

Register here!

If you are interested in taking a comprehensive day-long class of the WELL Building Standard, sign up now. You can be a part of the earliest wave of WELL Accredited Professionals in Massachusetts. We welcome professionals from all sectors of the building industry: owners, operators, designers, engineers, builders and occupants interested in mastering and practicing the new standard.

The WELL AP Exam Prep Class will have nine sections which will be given over the course of one day (see content section below). A light breakfast, full lunch, and snacks throughout the day will be provided. A hard-copy exam study guide will be provided to all students.

WELL AP Exam Prep Course
Tuesday, January 24th, 2017
8:30am-4:30pm
50 Milk St, 18th Floor, Hemingway Room
Boston, MA, 02109

Call for Greenbuild 2017 Session Proposal Reviewers Extended Friday 1/20

By Alexander Landa


Attention those interested in Greenbuild 2017! If you or someone you know is interested in engaging with biggest green building event of year, then you might be interested in becoming a reviewer to evaluate proposals for educational sessions.

The most current news is that the submitting due date for applications has been extended to this Friday, January 20. That's tomorrow – but there's still time for any of you procrastinators to get it in.

Find more information about the application process here.

You will be notified of your status as soon as next Wednesday, January 25th. From there, you will start to receive proposals to review on Monday, January 30th. Proposal reviews are due by Friday, February 20th.

It should be known by now, but Greenbuild 2017 is going All-In… and coming to Boston this time around! As the host Chapter, we're going to be doing a lot beween now and November to get psyched for the big event. Follow our Road to Greenbuild here.

January 18 LEED Exam Prep Course Recap

By Alexander Landa


Yesterday, we held our monthly LEED Green Associate exam prep course! From 8:30am-4:30pm, our office was packed with a diverse group of architecture & green building enthusiasts!. We're happy to have had such a huge turnout, and it's days like this that prove how much we really need to keep forward with our mission devoted to sustainability.

During the all-day training session, USGBC MA Programs Manager Celis Brisbin lead the packed room through the vast majority of what to expect from the exam. At the end of the day, we all took two rounds of practice question, similar to ones we'd likely see on the big day. Everyone was clearly paying attention all day.

Special thanks to Chapter member Samira Ahmadi of enviENERGY for stopping by to talk about LEED credits and about her personal experience with designing and certifying buildings.

Our next prep course is February 22nd – hope to see you there!

Early Bird Registration for NESEA's BuildingEnergy Boston Ends Tomorrow!

By USGBC MA


Early bird pricing ends tomorrow!

Our friends over at the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA) are putting together a pretty cool event March 7-9. BuildingEnergy Boston Conference + Tradeshow is the region's leading event for those in the field of sustainability, bringing over 2500 local leaders & emerging professionals together.

What makes this conference stand out is its place in the field – it's much more interdisciplinary in content and in audience than other similar tradeshows. Attendees and topics range from architecture, engineering, building design, consulting, policy, finance, auditing, installation, construction, education, and more.

Learn more about BuildingEnergy here.

USGBC Online Education:Beyond Buildings: LEED for Neighborhood Development in Massachusetts

By USGBC MA


Did you know that we provide online education resources through the USGBC to help you maintain LEED Accreditation? Instead of (or in addition to) going to in-person workshops, these online resources allow you to maintain accreditation from anywhere, anytime, at your own comfort. 

Register for the presentation here

his course will provide attendees with up-to-date information on the status of the LEED for Neighborhood Development Rating system, how it has helped shape LEED V4, how it has been specifically applied to local registered and certified projects in Massachusetts and how planners and developers are using the rating system as a tool to help regulate more sustainable neighborhood development.

The review of specific projects will look at the current status of two LEED ND pilots and where they are at now, as well as 3 new projects currently going through ND certification.

Participants will hear from presenters on some of the opportunities and challenges the ND rating system has presented, along with a focus on some of the most influential credits and prerequisites. The program will end with a look at how local governments in Boston and the surrounding region are using LEED ND as a guide and a way to help identify barriers to sustainable neighborhood development.

Objectives

  1. Identify the intent and requirements of LEED ND
  2. Utilize the LEED ND rating system as an evaluation tool
  3. Identify how LEED ND has helped shape LEED V4 & other LEED rating systems
  4. Recognize project applications of LEED ND in Massachusetts.

Reminder – LEED Exam Prep Course Tomorrow!

By Alexander Landa


Register here!

Tomorrow is our next LEED Green Associate exam prep course! Becoming LEED accredited gives you a massive advantage at your current role, or any future jobs you may be interested in. Our all-day training session covers everything you can expect during an AP exam, so you can go into testing day confident. 

Our LEED exam prep courses have always been incredibly successful. See for yourself with a recap of our October 2016 LEED exam prep course. We have proven success, as evident by testimonials by past attendees:

“I just wanted to say thank you again for organizing the LEED review session last week- it was extremely helpful. I took the GA exam this morning and passed without too much trouble! I look forward to attending more USGBC events in the future,” – C.A.

“Thank you very much for the training!  It was clear and informative–I am looking forward to taking the next steps.  It was also just nice to meet the other people in the training and to be in such a beautiful space. Thank you very much,” – L.S.

“My notes had things in them like 'be sure to know this' and 'expect questions about these numbers.' I focused on those items as I studied material, and they all turned out to be accurate.  Your practice exam questions, too, were very helpful and gave a good feel to what to expect,” – T.H.

Attend our next events and go into your exams prepared!

Register here
Wednesday, January 18th, 2017
8:30am-5:00pm
50 Milk St, 18th Floor, Hemingway Room
Boston, MA, 02109

We have awesome events going on over the next month!

By Grey Lee, Executive Director


See the full event note here!

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day,

I hope you are all having a good long weekend, and taking some time today to reflect on the legacy of Dr. King. And what a right and rich legacy!

I have a full blog about the combination of urgency and patience that he demonstrated. Please take a sec to read it.

Many of us are active on many fronts. Many of us are focused on our families, our careers, and our station in life. Working toward better buildings is an awesome way to connect our moral universe with the practicalities of making a living.

Together, working with our mission, we are advancing policies and market-based solutions to address the wrongs we see in the world.

It is clear that our built environment affects social and ecological outcomes. Thank you for holding on to the complexity, the multi-stage reality, and the hard work it takes. 

Let us continue our work, bending the arc toward justice, for all,
Grey

PS – our community convenes: sign up before the end of the early bird pricing for the Building Tech Forum.

PPS – thinking about leadership: attend our morning program on Wednesday to learn how to change your firm from within.

Sign up for our monthly newsletter here

See the full event note here!

On this day, we honor Martin Luther King Jr.

By Grey Lee, Executive Director

I hope you are all having a good long weekend, and taking some time today to reflect on the legacy of Dr. King. And what a right and rich legacy!

Over the years, I have read and listened to several of his speeches. I was brought to tears when I visited the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis – hearing his resounding voice while standing in the hotel where he as assassinated. It was deep breath powerful. What an amazing role model and champion for positive change in our society.

It is sad that his efforts are now so far in the past, and while much has changed, so much has not improved.

Yet one of his recurring themes was persistence, to keep moving forward.

Our work for net positive outcomes for our communities through the transformation of the built environment is fundamentally patient. The pace of real estate plods along. Projects take years to come to fruition. Planning looks at decades. Codes, fundamental technologies, methodologies of project delivery, the duration of leadership in firms: all take years to shift. The movement of practices for buildings to become better requires the long view.

Yet MLK's spirit was also one of urgency. He said “the time is always right to do what is right.” We feel this urgency as practitioners. Even in a long-term oriented industry we want to support the best and right moves now. We want to execute on innovation – to save money, to reduce a building's impact, to be a more efficient contributor to the excellence of our final products.

Our urgency is not just to get ahead in the industry. Our community of practitioners is motivated by a basic concern for a sustainable and just world. We come together through this organization because it is inter-disciplinary and helps us see the way systems connect holistically.

Every day that passes is an opportunity to address the troubles in the world. Many of us are active on many fronts. Many of us are focused on our families, our careers, and our station in life. Working toward better buildings is an awesome way to connect our moral universe with the practicalities of making a living.

Together, working with our mission, we are advancing policies and market-based solutions to address the wrongs we see in the world.

Our building rating systems and performance-attainment challenges offer us ways to engage with our mission. Our techniques provide the small steps we can take today, with an eye on long-term achievement.

Together, as a community, we are growing the ranks of capacity to change the real estate industry. 

It is clear that our built environment affects social and ecological outcomes. Thank you for holding on to the complexity, the multi-stage reality, and the hard work it takes.

Thank you for your work to struggle for what is right, and thank you for being with me on this journey. I, and our staff, are here to help you in any way we can.

Let us continue our work, bending the arc toward justice, for all,

Grey