Upcoming LEED and WELL AP Exam Prep Courses

By Alexander Landa


2016 isn't over yet! And that means we have plenty more going on between now and January 1st. Aside from the few holiday & networking parties going on, we still have more LEED and WELL AP exam prep courses coming up.

See how our last LEED exam prep course went here, and read testimonials on the success of our exam prep courses.

 

LEED November Exam Prep Course
Tuesday, November 29th, 2016
8:30 AM – 4:30 PM
Register here

LEED December Exam Prep Course
Wednesday, December 14th, 2016
8:30 AM – 4:30 PM
Register here

WELL AP December Exam Prep Course
Tuesday, December 20th, 2016
8:30 AM – 4:30 PM
Register here

Healthy Materials Sponsor Profile: Armstrong

By Alexander Landa


Sustainability in our built environment is a complicated machine that goes beyond just the design and features of a building. The materials that go into these designs are important to consider, especially noting that the people inside spend so many hours there, and will be affected one way or another by their indoor surroundings. Following the Healthy Materials Summit last month, we again want to thank Armstrong Ceilings for understanding the importance of the materials that go into building design.

Armstrong World Industries is a global leader in the design and manufacture of innovative commercial and residential ceiling, wall and suspension system solutions. Whether the designs are for the home, office, a healthcare facility, store, restaurant, or classroom, Armstrong offers interior solutions that help to enhance comfort, save time, improve building efficiency and overall performance. These products are meant to be sustainable over long periods of time, making the immediate environment that much more protected over the course of the building's lifecycle. 

Armstrong is a member of the USGBC National Chapter, as evidenced by their loyal devotion to sustainability. This devotion encompasses material transparency, health and well-being, building efficiency, end-of-life recycling, and their environmental footprint.

Education Sessions for Greenbuild 2017

By Grey Lee, Executive Director


Greenbuild is coming to Boston in 2017!

 

It's time to start thinking about educational sessions to produce and deliver at the conference next year.

 

Greenbuild is soliciting entries from presenters already – and the proposals are due Friday, January 13, 2017.

 

Recently, the steering committee for the conference identified two new important priorities:

·        Academic Study: Greenbuild has a firm commitment to the role of academic studies in advancing the mission of transforming the built environment. We are seeking proposals that highlight ongoing or recent research that impacts the built environment, the health of building occupants, our communications about it, or human behaviors that relate to it.

·        New Voices: Greenbuild is a place for industry leaders, novices, and a new generation of leaders alike to gather. We are seeking to provide opportunities for new voices to share their experiences, thinking and work with the Greenbuild audience.

 

The subject area focii are:

  • Health and Well Being
  • Existing Buildings, with a focus on Historic Preservation
  • Innovation in Energy
  • Resilience
  • Social Responsibility, Community Action & Engagement

 

You have probably been wanting to present on your area of expertise: now is the time to organize a deck of slides and practice your best instructional voice. Submit a presentation for the education sessions today!

 

If you are interested in getting involved with the local Greenbuild Host Committee, come to our volunteer recruitment event on 12/15 in Boston after work.

 

Project Mapping Workshop with Sustainable Performance Institute December 14

By USGBC MA


For firms pursuing the AIA 2030 Commitment, your project delivery methodology can make or break success. How does a team measure its effectiveness? Does good collaboration yield better results? Is IP more than a kick-off charrette and “one-hit wonder”? Can IP be achieved in individual project teams if the overall firm culture and methodology isn’t aligned with it? 

 

Register here!
December 14, 2016
7pm-10pm

USGBC’s LEED program now recognizes the importance of integrated process with the new v4 IP credit, so more teams are paying attention to this, but will a LEED credit (again) cause more hoop-jumping without actually providing more value? 70% of a project's performance and impacts are decided in the first 10% of the process, so it's critical to get it right. 

This workshop is a practical and applied look at how your firm can truly capture the value provided by institutionalizing IP – and getting the LEED credit follows naturally! Successfully implementing IP requires a clear, shared understanding of what integration means in your firm culture, how individuals in different roles participate and alignment with consultants around your project delivery objectives. Critical efforts happen beyond the project focus and require change management to help everyone feel comfortable. 

This is a 100% interactive workshop where you will be guided through an exercise to deconstruct and remap your firms process, identifying along the way what organizational triggers need to be addressed so that integrative design is actually the bedrock of project management and not an elusive miracle achieved only with the most progressive clients.

You will gain strategies to help you truly embed IP into daily project management practices and participants leave with practical, actionable steps that will help you implement qualitative changes in your project delivery methodology the next day.

More about the speaker, Barbra Batshalom, Executive Director of the Sustainable Performance Institute:

Barbra Batshalom is the founder and executive director of the nonprofit Sustainable Performance Institute and past founder and president of the USGBC Affiliate in Massachusetts. She is an industry leader whose vision drives the organization's programs to transform the market from public policy to professional practice.

Her work focuses on the intersection of systems, processes and culture. With a diverse background of fine arts, social psychology and 20 years in architecture and sustainability consulting, she brings a variety of skills to her work and a unique perspective engaging the human dynamics of decision-making and creative collaboration to technical work. She's an educator, public speaker and change agent that works with a wide range of governmental, institutional and private sector organizations to help them institutionalize sustainability and achieve measurable improvements in performance and profitability.

SPI's green firm Certification is the first industry program to provide a framework for evaluating the capability of design and construction firms to deliver a consistent, high quality sustainability service and was adopted by HUD in 2011. SPI's Green Firm Boot Camp workshop program has been delivered to hundreds of firms nation-wide to help raise the bar on professional practice in the industry. Barbra teaches sustainable real estate development in Brandeis University’s International Business School. She has served on numerous boards, task forces and committees to help develop public and corporate policies for sustainability and teaches courses on change management for sustainability for professionals around the world.

 

Tech Talk: The Distillery in South Boston Passive House December 1st

By USGBC MA


Come learn about one of the largest Passive structures in the Boston area. Prior to the tour, we are having an educational session on the building with an opportunity to dig deep into the design this project. This session is scheduled immediately prior to the tour of the building and will provide architects, engineers and others with the professional insights. 

Thursday, December 1st
4:30pm – 5:30 pm

Register here!

Learning Objectives: 

  1. Passive House: What is this concept? We'll go into a deep dive with the basic knowledge of how one can achieve this standard of construction. 
  2. Section on cost: Are these comparable in cost to non-PH buildings? The answer is they are! It has to do with sourcing and methods which is very expensive if you don’t know where to build or buy. Big knowledge base here to get it right. 
  3. Air quality: PH addresses big problems regarding micro-particle air pollution (MPP.) It’s the small stuff that is damaging to our health. Lots of studies come out from universities and colleges on this type of pollutant and how it touches on every disease you can imagine. We'll talk through the terrible health effects even tiring it to autism. PH construction has a sealed envelope with only one opening, you can keep MPP out, no other building type can do it. 
  4. Cultural Sustainability: There's a big environmental theme incorporating art and community into the design and landscape. Big efforts into the integration of food growing on site. A lot architecture encouraging exercise. There's also a transportation component, working with EV, DC power micro grids and more. 

About the site:

There's a city block in South Boston which has on it an old rum distillery which has about 150 working artists. The new building is the first of two, and will be completed around Thanksgiving. It will be certified as a Passive House. The challenge of the project was how to make PH construction– which would meet certification, with 90 – 95% reduction in thermal energy requirements– easy and economical to build. This is a problem in design, sourcing, construction methods and sequencing, education of the General Contractor and subs, and strict oversight. 

We're also doing lots of stuff around PV, electric vehicles, food production, indoor air quality, architecture which promotes exercise, the integration of the environmental aims with the arts community, and other things. 

This is a 60,000 s.f. building, to be followed a second 90,000 which will push the technologies and concepts another step. In the end, there will be about 300 people on the site.

Building Tour: 

If you are interested in taking the tour with us. Please register for the separate tour here.

Congratulations to USGBC's New CEO: Mahesh Ramanujam

By Grey Lee, Executive Director

After months of anticipation, it is finally official: Mahesh Ramanujam is now the official CEO for USGBC – taking over from founding CEO, Rick Fedrizzi.

I have met Mahesh many times at USGBC meetings and he has always come across as a very energetic, passionate, and articulate person. He has a vision for our work. I believe he can help us work toward our mission as a Chapter here in Massachusetts.

He sees us being able to incorporate sustainabilty more and more into the built environment, using the tools USGBC has developed.

He is not patient, considering the urgency of our environmental and social challenges, and has really shaken things up at USGBC.

I look forward to working with Mahesh and his team at USGBC to build a better system to advocate for market transformation for sustainability. It is exciting to see the many tools – LEED, WELL, SITES and others in the GBCI portfolio – and to know more and more people are using them every day.

I look forward to the support of USGBC as we build our base and grow our influence in Massachusetts and our region.

You can read the official USGBC press release here.

You can read Mahesh's statement here.

I am eager to work with USGBC on his priorities:

  • Own the vision for USGBC and work hard to inspire others to share in its ownership.
  • Provide resources to our community that will help everyone to grow and lead.
  • Help shape the culture of the green building movement to be as inclusive, diverse and innovative as possible.
  • Strive to make decisions that will serve our interests in both the short and long term.
  • Deliver on USGBC’s performance by never losing sight of our market transformation vision.


Residential Green Building Meeting Recap from 11/14/16

By Molly Cox


The Residential Green Building Committee met on November 14th, 2016. We heard from our own Rick Ames from Next Phase Studios, on the plethora of certification types he has encountered with his projects (See attached presentation). This includes the Living Building Challenge, LEED, Net Zero Energy, Energy STAR, Passive House, and Enterprise Green Community Certification.

Rick went into depth on some of the projects he has worked on which include deep energy retrofits and changes such as the addition of solar thermal, solar PV, reassessing boiler situations, insulating the outside of building, natural ventilation, and more. Rick showed us some examples of past projects including a grocery store, hospital, college campus, and homes. One EnergySTAR rated home included a “Healthy House,” as it created a healthier living environment for a homeowner with respiratory troubles.

Rick explained his interest in the Living Building Challenge certification in particular, as it shows “buildings can be regenerative.” This certification is based on multiple performance categories that sets a high bar for environmentally sustainable buildings. It requires urban agriculture, and includes attributes such as an efficient gray water system, compost toilet, and more. It also involves equity measures such as social justice and educational requirements, along with beauty conditions.

Some of the lingering questions included how do we continue to raise the bar within the commercial and residential building space? What are some action items we can take to promote taking these next steps?

We then continued to discuss some committee business, and the exciting events we have coming up!

We have a building tour on December 1st, 2016 at the Distillery in South Boston, which has Passive House certification (register HERE). And come join us for our next Committee meeting on December 12th!

See the slideshow used here.

Remarks on recent events

By Grey Lee, Executive Director

Dear Colleagues in Green Building,

The recent election has generated a lot of emotional energy throughout our communities. My heart is tight.

Many people are excited about change, a practical approach to government, and anticipated efficiencies in getting business done.

Many are frightened and mobilizing about statements coming from our president-elect related to racism, intolerance, antipathy to science, and general capriciousness. There are demonstrations, there is violence & aggression. There is a call to action.

I have been speaking with many of our members. The ABX conference has afforded some great interactions already. Some ask: how can we respond as a community? What is our role – how do we juggle our traditional focus on buildings with the wide range of associated concerns we have? 

Word from the new actors in Washington is that major legal frameworks and federal agency support structures which affect our industry will be diminished. At a meeting last night with colleagues, we lamented how so much progress on sustainability issues seems to be getting simply thrown away. It is frustrating, saddening and angering all at the same time.

Our work may seem more urgent than ever. Many of our peer organizations are rattled, are raging, are redoubling their efforts. 

Let us recall our center. Our core. Our knowing-ness of the long arc toward justice.

Let us use our fundamental beliefs in a better world as a bedrock to build upon. 

Let us use our wholehearted convictions to double down on our work.

We must hit the calculations harder and develop messages that are unassailable – not just aspirational and rhetorical, but defensible against short-term thinking. 

As an organization we are committed to change. Our parent organization arose as a means to disrupt the status quo. We have shifted the way architecture, engineering and construction is done. 

But as one of our Directors said: “What has really changed?  We’re already heading off a cliff.  Now we’re just driving a little faster!”

We have not turned the course of the vehicle, as it were, of our industry. The election may affect some GSA requirements for green buildings, but what else? 

We still have to pitch to clients the science of green buildings, the moral imperative of reduced GHGs and diminished toxicity, the health benefits of better buildings. As Boston's Chief of Environment & Energy, Austin Blackmon has commented: none of our daily work is significantly changed.

Let's take our core convictions, the strength of our arguments, and move forward to offer our communities the benefits of green buildings.

We aspire to drive sustainable and regenerative design, construction and operation of the built environment. We must work together to raise up our abilities and capacities to lead the industry. 

No one else will do this: connect the amazing promise of sustainability to the massively scalable solution that a transformed built environment can deliver. 

We are the solution we are seeking! 

Let us be heartened by our organizational vision:

We envision a thriving and diverse community, creating a built environment of net positive systems of water and energy, of financial and social equity, and of ecological and human health.

Let us respond as brightness to the malevolent and inconsiderate.

Let us respond with rectifying compassion to the shifting culture around us, the emboldened misguided bigots, and the science-averse.

Let us grow our roles and bring more people into our movement. Let us grow our connections with our colleagues across the acronyms and across the aisles. Let us step back and step up as needed, and respond invigorated!

I look forward to working with you in the coming weeks and months.

Thank you for being part of our community,

Grey

[NB the photo above is from Monday night's meeting with the Living Building Collaborative, which we host. The Living Future Challenge is an inspiring message about a better future that I think we can all believe in!]

“Plus des Batiment Vert!” – les Quebecois Rock!

By Alexander Landa


The USGBC MA Chapter has many partnerships across the state, the country, and even the continent. We work with architects, schools, product manufacturers, and more – including the Quebec Delegation – who has an office here in Boston. This past Wednesday during ABX 2016, we worked together with Quebec to throw an awesome party, celebrating our partnership, architecture, our mutual mission for a better tomorrow, and more green buildings!

In between networking sessions, we saw Grey Lee, Yann Lamarche, Keith Kalinowski, and a couple of heartening testimonials by customers who are picking up the accent. We also brought back the showboards from our Green Building Showcase in September – lots of cool projects to share with the community encore!

We look forward to working with Quebec here in Boston more!

See more photos from the event here.

Greenbuild, USGBC, ABX, and BSA/AIA Announce Co-Location for 2017 in Boston

By Grey Lee, Executive Director


“It's going to be a wicked green conference, and we are psyched to collaborate with our friends at the Boston Society of Architects.” said Grey Lee, Executive Director of USGBC MA – the local Chapter of USGBC, based in Boston, “We are thrilled to maximize the potential of our community to manifest as a force for good: to go ALL IN for MORE GREEN BUILDINGS! It is awesome that we can come together in a great LEED Silver-certified building to connect across industry sectors to learn, network and advocate for a more sustainable and just world, through the transformation of the built environment for net positive results.”

To connect with our community, come to our eventsjoin us as a member, or connect with us on 12/15 for our “Road to Greenbuild” volunteer recruitment event.

 

Read more from the press release by Informa:

Today, November 15, 2016, Informa Exhibitions, the US Green Building Council (USGBC), and the Boston Society of Architects/AIA (BSA) announced Greenbuild and ArchitectureBoston Expo (ABX) will be co-located for 2017. The events will take place the week of November 6-10 and both will be held at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (BCEC) in Boston, creating one of the largest events for the building community in North America.

“Greenbuild and ABX co-located back in 2008 in Boston, both shows happening at different venues but the same week, creating significant, lasting synergies between the two events as well as holding the record for the largest attended Greenbuild to date,” said Lindsay Roberts, group director, Informa Exhibitions. “This is an incredibly positive opportunity for us to bring two very significant events together again, this time in the same facility, and allowing us to better serve the building community by offering more educational, networking, and exhibition opportunities throughout the week.”

Greenbuild annually attracts more than 18,000 attendees and more than 500 exhibiting companies with a broad audience that spans the sustainable building community. ABX draws more than 8,000 attendees and more than 400 exhibiting companies. 

“ABX is the largest annual building industry event in the Northeast and it thrives because of our robust cross-industry partnerships,” said Josiah Stevenson FAIA, 2017 BSA president. “By co-locating with Greenbuild, we can ensure an even greater depth and diversity of ideas and topics presented to the full spectrum of building industry professionals.”

Specific details are currently in development and will be released as they become available. Each show will contact its exhibitors in the coming weeks to begin discussions for formal plans for the 2017 exhibit hall, which will be one comprehensive space accessible to attendees of both events.

“Greenbuild 2017 will be aptly themed, “All In,” to encompass the breadth and diversity of the sustainability and green building movement. When we come together, we are one community of professionals, advocates, and practitioners, students and teachers, designers and builders, and everything in between,” said Kate Hurst, vice president, Community Advancement, Conferences & Events, USGBC. “Partnering with a respected regional event like ABX will provide our audience with more dynamic opportunities to engage, learn, and interact with other professionals and leaders in the industry.”

More information on Greenbuild can be found at greenbuildexpo.com. The Call for Proposals and Reviewers for Greenbuild 2017 is open through January 13, 2017for those interested in speaking and/or participating in the conference program at Greenbuild.

ABX 2016 runs November 15-17 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in Boston. More information about ABX can be found at abexpo.com. The 2017 Call for Proposals opens in December 2017.

Please read the full press release here (including information about each organization).