Announcing the 2022 Sustainability Scavenger Hunt Winners!

Announcing the 2022 Sustainability Scavenger Hunt Winners!

Just WOW!

We were blown away by all of the incredible mission submissions for our 2022 Sustainability Scavenger Hunt that poured in from Earth Day to Mother(Earth)’s Day. It was electric, and the submissions ranged from educational to iconic. Of the 26 participating teams, six teams completed all available missions, but three teams stood out above the rest with exemplary submissions.

17 days - 1673 submissions

Huge congratulations to the first place winner, the EMigrants, made up of Mehdi, Noushin, Elvi and Tom from Scavenger Hunt sponsor Elkus Manfredi. They truly poured themselves into this year’s hunt, and if you don’t believe us, just watch their Turbine Tumble entry (and try not to smile). All four teammates were together in almost every single submission.

It was a blast presenting the awards and prizes at the May 12th Celebration at The Anchor in Charlestown. We honored the top 3 teams, along with prizes for Top Submission, BE+ Staff Favorite, Top Individual, Community Impact, and more. 

Here is the full list of winners:

Top Team: EMigrants

Second Place Team: DrawDowners

Third Place Team: The scAvengers

Top Submission: The Navigators

for their original poem for Peace Out PFAS mission

PFAS Forever Chemicals

 

Rain rolls off my jacket

Eggs slide off the pan

Stains glide off the carpet

This versatile invention of man.

 

Ubiquitous in everything

Animals, land, and sea

Tainted blood and water

Deep in the cells of me.

 

Passed down through generations

Pollution like cancer grows

Will we ever learn our lesson

Or is this the future we chose?

                             -The Navigators

Top Individual: Juhi Goel, The scAvengers

for her original PFAS poem, The Poison of PFAS 

BE+ Staff Favorite: The Wayfinders for this
20-second rendition of Gene Kelly’s Singin’ in the Rain
 

Crowd Favorite: Queen V & Triple Aces for their

reclaimed instruments and original Red List tune

Community Impact: NUSBO’s ohWELL

for volunteering at Fresh Truck in Brookline.

ohWELL - Community Impact

Sponsored Awards

Bluebikes’ Shades of Blue mission: EMigrants

Shades of Blue, 150 Points
Bluebikes offers 4,000+ bicycles around the Greater Boston area to help residents access healthier and more sustainable modes of transportation. Support this accomplishment by uploading a photo of a team member wearing as many different items of blue clothing that you can find while standing next to a Bluebike or any blue colored bicycle, if you are outside of Greater Boston.

Members of the winning team each received a free one-year membership to Bluebikes!

Shades of Blue - EMigrants

BuildingEase’s Instruments of Change mission: EMigrants

Building Ease: Instruments of Change, 200 Points 
BuildingEase makes it easy to do the right thing with building products! The platform is free for design teams to research, track, manage, and procure building materials, including ones that are salvaged, repurposed, and recycled. Using materials found around your office, you (and colleagues) creatively repurpose the next few things you consider throwing away by making them into instruments. Next, create a short song about sustainable building products and upload a 30 second video of you (or your group) jamming out. https://buildingease.com/

The EMigrants team took home the BuildingEase Instruments of Change award with this multi-lingual submission to the 2022 BE+ Sustainability Scavenger Hunt. Mehdi says using Adobe and renewable products instead of concrete. Elvi says using clay for tiles and fast growing forests timber.

The winning team each received a waterproof portable solar battery charger. 

Thank you to our Event Sponsors!

Elkus Manfredi

Thank you to our Mission Sponsors!

Elkus Manfredi

Thank you to our generous Prize Donors!

New England Home Furniture Consignment
Lil Bucks

Thank you to our Promotional Partners!

Elkus Manfredi
Elkus Manfredi

We had so much fun with this year’s Scavenger Hunt that we already know we’re doing it all over again next year! Stay tuned to the event page for details on our 3rd annual Sustainability Scavenger Hunt as they unfold. If you’re interested in sponsoring or participating, reach out to eli@builtenvironmentplus.org.

BE+ partnering with MassCEC to diversify clean energy workforce in Massachusetts.

BE+ partnering with MassCEC to diversify clean energy workforce in Massachusetts.

Targeted College Internship Program | MassCEC

Built Environment Plus is recruiting students and employers to participate in MassCEC’s Targeted Internship Program (TIP). The program’s goal is to increase diversity within the Commonwealth’s clean energy workforce and create career pathways for Massachusetts college and clean energy certificate students that lead to greater economic stability. 

Students of color selected for the Targeted program will be mentored and guided by a MassCEC approved Training Provider. Students will also be required to attend career preparedness workshops facilitated by the training provider. Training providers will recruit students from the MassCEC College Internship Database and seek clean energy employers to place students for the Summer 2022 session. This program has funding for 60 students.

 

INTERNS:

Check out our full job posting or visit the MassCEC internship program page for more information including dates and compensation. Please email your resume and any other application materials to ryan@builtenvironmentplus.org to help us connect you with qualified employers. Any specific internship questions can be sent to internships@masscec.com. Students should apply by May 2.

 

EMPLOYERS:

If you would like to be part of the Targeted College Internship Program as an employer, let us know by completing this short survey and emailing ryan@builtenvironmentplus.org with your interest and any questions. We will provide additional enrollment steps. BE+ will then help facilitate intern placement with our student applicant pool. Employers should express interest by May 2 to ensure time to match students.

Massachusetts is Definitely Ready for Net Zero

Massachusetts is Definitely Ready for Net Zero

New Report Finds 130% Increase in Known Net Zero and Net Zero Ready Buildings in MA in One Year.

As Massachusetts leaders wrestle with a new opt-in building energy code advancing energy efficiency for new construction projects, a new report by Built Environment Plus (BE+)  highlights exponential growth of Net Zero and Net Zero Ready building projects across the Commonwealth.

Continued data collection from the Massachusetts building community showed the total known square footage of Net Zero and Net Zero Ready projects in the Commonwealth has reached 16.5 million GSF, an increase of 130% in just one year.

“It’s incredibly exciting to see this transformation of the building sector really take shape,” said Meredith Elbaum, Executive Director of BE+. “Like it or not, Massachusetts is clearly ready for net zero building and no one is waiting for permission to make this shift happen. At this point, it’s a win-win-win for people, the planet, and the bottom-line.”

Highlights from the updated report include:

  • The Net Zero and Net Zero Ready building stock exceeds 16.5 million square feet and is growing at an exponential rate in the Commonwealth today.
  • Of the 4 million GSF with reported cost data, 85% reported <1% construction cost premium to achieve Net Zero Ready.
  • Affordable housing, Multifamily housing, K-12 Schools, and Labs & Tech are leading the way, employing heat pumps and on-site renewables to reach their net zero targets.
  • Affordable Housing makes up 78% of all residential Net Zero and Net Zero Ready square footage, up from 54% in March 2021.
  • Net Zero Ready buildings are highly energy efficient: 90% are at least 35% more efficient than the current stretch code baseline (up from 82% in March, 2021 with 26% more projects reporting energy data). All rely on heat pumps as the primary source of heat. Net Zero buildings also procure on-site and/or off-site renewable energy to offset 100% of consumption on a net annual basis.
  • The list of companies working on these net zero projects has grown substantially in the past year, with a 135% increase to 313 companies working to make net zero buildings the standard in MA.

Download the report or visit our Road to Net Zero page.

2022 Annual General Meeting Recap + New Board of Directors

Celebrating Community Achievements

BE+ members gathered virtually January 27th for our 14th Annual General Meeting, and just our second as Built Environment Plus. While we look forward to in-person gatherings in the future, it was great to see new and familiar faces and collaborative participation through Zoom and Miro.

We looked back on a remarkable year, got a sneak peak of the 2021 Annual Report, and plunged forward on bringing the 2021 strategic plan to life in 2022. We also announced the results of our 2022 Board of Directors election.

Miro Snapshot of 2022 AGM
BE+ Strategic Planning 2021

Congratulations to our 2021 Award Winners

Company of the Year: The Green Engineer

Net Zero Hero:  Michelle Lambert

Living Building Champion: Melissa Mattes

Member of the Year: Patrick McCarthy

Health and Wellness Champion:  Connie Wijaranakula

BE+ Community Leader: Allison Zuchman

Emerging Professional of the Year: Shyla Davis

Thank You to Our Departing BE+ Board Members

Trees to be planted in their honor.

We were very excited to announce the Barbra BatShalom Scholarship to honor Barbra’s stalwart leadership. The scholarship will provide equitable access to BE+ programming for a community member who embodies Barbra’s visionary impulse.

 

Returning Board Members

Welcome New BE+ Board Members

They join the continuing directors Randa Ghattas, Rebecca Hatchadorian, Heather Henriksen, Michael Fiorillo, Kristen Fritsch, Julie Janiski, Brad Mahoney, Galen Nelson, Rebecca Schofield, Jana Silsby, Jim Stanislaski, and Jenn Taranto.

Accelerating Change in the Built Environment, Together

As usual, we are blown away by the talent, passion, vision, and commitment of the BE+ community to reshape the built environment so that it truly serves us. It’s important for us to take stock of how far the green building community has come as we strategically consider our evolving role in advancing the triple bottom line of sustainability in the built environment. We look forward to working with our 2022 Board of Directors, our mighty community of practitioners, emerging leaders in the field, and a growing ecosystem of stakeholders seeking win-win-win collaboration.

If you’re just as inspired to plug into an exciting new year, jump into the meeting’s Miro board below!  

Welcome Spring 2022 Interns!

Join us in welcoming our Spring 2022 interns Spencer Gorman and Gwynn Klumpenaar! We are thrilled to have them on board for the spring semester to strengthen the BE+ community and advance our mission to drive the sustainable and regenerative design, construction, and operation of the built environment. They’re bringing exciting interests, passions, and skills to the table, and we can’t wait to see what we can accomplish together.

We are so grateful to have them, and wish them a warm welcome to this community!

Spencer Gorma

Spencer Gorman

I am looking forward to joining the BE+ team this spring and am thrilled about the opportunity to serve the Massachusetts green building community. I am currently pursuing an Environmental Policy & Planning MS degree from Tufts University where I have become passionate about the role of the built environment in promoting sustainability and equity. I have specialized in green design during the program, and I am especially intrigued by the relationship between passive design measures and energy efficiency. This spring, I am excited to be on the cutting edge of the green building transformation with BE+ and am eager to contribute to further sharing of knowledge and expansion of sustainable building practices within and outside the community.

Gwynn Klumpenaar

Hello! My name is Gwynn and I am eager to work with the BE+ team to help them drive their mission of making meaningful improvements to the sustainability of our built environment. I am entering my last semester at UMass Amherst, where I will earn a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science with a concentration in Sustainable Community Development. I am particularly interested in improving the quality of life in cities and surrounding suburbs through increased access to and abundance of green infrastructure, regenerative design, and healthy food networks. I plan to pursue a Master’s degree in the near future in a sustainability related field and I am extremely hopeful that my time spent working with the BE+ team will better prepare me to promote sustainable building practices in my career. 

Gwynn Klumpenaar
Women In Green Recap: What’s Your Superpower?

Women In Green Recap: What’s Your Superpower?

The following recap of our 2021 Women In Green gathering was contributed by Allison Zuchman, chair of the BE+ Women In Green Roundtable, and Senior Sustainability Consultant at The Green Engineer. We invite you to check out the Zoom recording as well as the Miro board embedded below.

What’s Your Superpower?

How can we best use our individual strengths to lead in our work? How can we collectively use our strengths to address the urgency around climate change? How can we create motivation, inspire action, and drive change in an equitable and just way? “What’s your Superpower?” was the topic of the 2021 Women in Green annual celebration, held virtually on December 15, 2021. We began in breakout groups where we identified our own individual strengths and as the event continued these important questions stirred the conversation.

Dr. Angelita Scott, Director and Community Concept Lead for the WELL Building Standard and WELL Equity Lead at the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), was the moderator. Rev. Mariama White-Hammond, Boston’s Chief of Environment, Energy, and Open Space and the founding pastor of New Roots AME Church in Dorchester, was the featured speaker. They spoke about the imperative to act more intentionally, holistically, and locally to address the climate crisis. They talked about how the climate crisis is a social, spiritual crisis about what kind of world we want to create. What are our values individually and collectively? How do we take care of ourselves, connect in our communities, and inspire each other to rise up and act?

Our Superpowers: A Word Cloud

Making An Impact, Together

We can create motivation and inspire action by moving from a strengths-based approach. Know what your superpowers are, break down silos, and make connections with others to move things forward. One of Rev. Mariama White-Hammond’s strengths that allows her to succeed as an activist, a pastor, and now as a government official is her skill in “making a claim.” She is skilled at taking complex ideas and presenting them in ways people can access them. She is skilled at distilling the moral, social, spiritual piece underneath what is being talked about. Rev. White-Hammond recommended that one of the best ways to use your strengths, engage with others, and inspire action is to dig in close to home. Be active where you are. Find a space to push that is realistic to the life you are in, whether your neighborhood, your workplace, your school. What you do doesn’t have to be a grand gesture. Sometimes to take action you just need two other people you can call and rely on. You can be a climate warrior from wherever you are.

Women’s voices have historically been marginalized but in recent years we are seeing women, and specifically women of color, in more leadership roles. We are seeing a rise in women in politics and in women leading climate issues. Women of color are in leadership roles here in the City of Boston and in the State of Massachusetts. In addition to Rev. Mariama White-Hammond, we can look to others like Boston’s Mayor Michelle Wu and U.S. Representative Ayanna Pressley. 15-20 years ago this was just an idea. A group of women started with the belief that this was possible, imagined it, laid the groundwork, and had patience and realized it would take time. Nationally and globally we can look toward leaders like Dr. Scott whose work includes a new WELL Health Equity Rating hoping to move equity across the globe.

An All-Hands-On-Deck Moment

Moving forward, as green building professionals, we need to be extremely intentional in how we do our work. To do our work well, individually and collectively, we need to know what each of our own strengths are and create spaces to imagine, inspire and organize together. We need to commit to all three aspects of the triple bottom line, spending as much time on equity issues as we have on the environmental and the economic issues of green building. This is an all-hand-on-deck, transformational moment in time. Young people have raised the profile of the climate issue. Without the climate strikes, without young people speaking out locally and globally, we would not be in the moment that we are in. We need to work together across generations. We need to create integrated, equitable and just spaces that allow us all to combine our superpowers in the most effective way.

An All-Hands-On-Deck Total Transformation Moment

I was inspired by Dr. Scott and Rev. White-Hammond and by everyone who attended the Women in Green event. There is much more to say than I could possibly capture here on this page. I encourage you to watch the recording, realize your superpowers, and engage with your community however you define it. And join us. The BE+ Women in Green Roundtable brings women together regularly on a quarterly basis and ends each year together for a larger celebration. Find out about all our events and register on our webpage. We are looking for a few key folks to join our Women in Green steering committee to help plan this year’s events. Let us know if you are interested by sending a note to meredith@builtenvironmentplus.org.

I hope you also feel inspired and are looking forward to all that we can do together in 2022.

Our 2021 Green Building Showcase Winners!

Our 2021 Green Building Showcase Winners!

The Wait was Worth It!

After two long years apart, the Built Environment Plus community was able to reunite for the 2021 Green Building Showcase. This community works so hard to advance sustainable and regenerative design, construction, and operation of the built environment throughout the year, and we are so grateful to have been able to celebrate industry success and innovation.  

At GBS 2021, community members celebrated the best efforts, designs, and products in the Commonwealth. 100+ people celebrated 50+ projects that all embraced the spirit of sustainable design.

Attendees included architects, engineers, contractors, developers, owners, facility managers, building users, lenders, suppliers – everyone who plays a role in designing, operating, and constructing the built environment. We here at Built Environment Plus are so appreciative to the green building community for coming out and celebrating with us. 

This year brought in a new leadership award to recognize someone who has made a significant positive impact on the environment, social equity, and economy. Congratulations to our first Change Agent of the Year, Jacob Knowles of BR+A, and in addition as awarded by the judges, our first Emerging Change Agent of the Year, Kiersten Washle of CMTA! Jacob is an active member of the BE+ community and a key part of our roundtables, and Kiersten is the leader of our Emerging Professionals group.

GREEN BUILDING OF THE YEAR

Harvard University Science and Engineering Complex
Submitted by Behnisch Architekten & Harvard University

Setting a new paradigm for scholarship in the 21st century and beyond, Harvard’s Science and Engineering Complex (SEC) is designed to inspire learning and scientific discovery while showcasing sustainability. The building weaves together a number of threads of contemporary life, which will influence current and future generations of researchers: engineering’s influence on the exploration and resolution of some of the world’s most pressing problems, the importance of cross-disciplinary efforts to achieve major scientific breakthroughs, and genuine leadership in sustainable design and urban development. The building’s adaptable, innovative environments support the school’s commitment to cutting-edge academic collaboration, create vibrant public spaces at a variety of scales, and set a distinctive architectural tone for the Allston campus.

The eight-level, 544,000-square-foot building is organized into three four-story volumes connected by two glazed, multi-story atria that provide light-filled social hubs for faculty and students. The upper stories are clad in a facade whose layered design celebrates and calibrates the scale of the large volumes that comprise the research activities of the building, creates an identity for the complex, and plays a crucial role in the efficient energy performance of the building as well as occupant comfort.

Sustainability and performance are high priorities for Harvard. The SEC has been certified LEED Platinum. Complementing energy-conscious HVAC and lighting systems and vegetated roof terraces, the facade balances technical and aesthetic goals. Four principal facade types are used at the building, including the world’s first hydroformed stainless-steel screen, which wraps the laboratory portion of the structure. It is dimensioned to shield the interior from solar heat gain during warmer months while admitting beneficial sun during the winter, reducing cooling and heating loads. The screen reflects daylight towards the interior while maintaining large view apertures. Glazed facade sections feature exterior sun-shades and operable windows that support automated natural ventilation.

GREEN HOME OF THE YEAR

The Harvey

Submitted by CBT

The Harvey is a new six-story, 177-unit residential building in the famed Hood Park in the Boston neighborhood of Charlestown. The project represents an important phase in Hood Park’s continuing evolution from its origins as an industrial plant to a state-of-the-art office/research park, and now into a modern and dynamic mixed-use development. The highly sustainable building is designed to complement the existing buildings in Hood Park and give life to the emerging Rutherford Avenue corridor with 10,500 square feet of new retail space.

The retail venues serve the larger Charlestown community, as well as the businesses throughout Hood Park. CBT collaborated with New Ecology (a firm working to bring the benefits of sustainable development to the community level, with a concerted emphasis on underserved populations) to develop a design that has achieved LEED Platinum certification under the LEED for Homes and Multifamily Mid-Rise program. The highly sustainable Harvey is a bold and inviting gateway into this vibrant and revitalized industrial neighborhood.

Category Leader Awards

CARBON & ENERGY

Rockwell Integrated Sciences Center
Submitted by Payette

Conceived as an “inside–out” building, the new Rockwell Integrated Sciences Center revolves around a vibrant four-story gathering space that has a small footprint, but a large building impact. Despite its location tucked away in the corner of an existing courtyard, the building provides robust spaces for science and a welcoming campus destination. Experienced as a contextually appropriate three-story building from campus, much of the building’s program is concealed from view using sunken courtyards to maximize daylight and internal visual connections.

Replacing an inefficient biology building the project resulted in a 40% reduction in campus carbon emission. A multi-valent approach decoupling ventilation from conditioning, utilizing filtered fume hoods, air quality monitoring, and a high-performance mechanical system with enthalpy heat recovery resulted in a 74% reduction in energy usage from a typical lab building. The energy load reduction, also contributed to a 56% reduction in water usage for the cooling tower, and a 41% reduction in building water usage and 76% reduction in stormwater run-off from the pre-project conditions and providing vegetated areas for 30% of the building footprint.

The project achieved a Bird Safety Avoidance Index of over 75 by limiting glazing to 24%, utilizing a custom frit and careful location of plantings. The envelope performance also focused on minimizing thermal bridging and was studied for passive survivability and interior conditions for 72 hours in the event of power loss. Occupant health and comfort was integrated throughout the design utilizing healthier materials that minimized the usage of flame retardants, anti-microbials, highly fluorinated chemicals and vinyl, while incorporating natural ventilation in classrooms and offices and daylight throughout the building.

Consciously subtle in its portrayal of sustainability, this LEED Platinum building has set the bar for sustainable building, catapulting the College toward the President’s pledge of carbon neutrality by 2035.

EQUITY & INCLUSION

The Swift Factory
Submitted by Bruner/Cott Architects

In Northeast Hartford, the former Swift Gold Leaf Factory is reimagined into a community venue generating opportunities for job creation and training, educating youth, improving resident health, and spurring local economic growth.

Once the economic heart of its neighborhood, the Swift Factory closed in 2005, leading to decades of systemic challenges that drove unemployment to 25%, left nearly half the population living below the poverty line, and lead to the area’s designation as an HUD Promise Zone in 2015.

The redevelopment of the Swift Factory revitalizes an existing community asset to better serve its residents through mission- and community-driven adaptive reuse of the site’s six historic factory buildings and two homes. The Swift factory’s new uses address the economic, social, cultural, and environmental conditions of the neighborhood.

HEALTH & WELLNESS  1/2

Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Campus Center

Submitted by Bruner/Cott Architects

The Holyoke Center at Harvard has undergone a transformation of its ground floor arcade, public common spaces, and its student collaboration spaces to become the new Richard A. & Susan F. Smith Campus Center. The 10-story building, designed by Josep Lluis Sert and orginally opened in 1965, occupies a full city block in the heart of Harvard Square. A much-needed modernization and reorganization of uses brought formerly private office spaces into the public sphere and enhanced already public areas with a variety of collaborative and recreational spaces. The renovation was a major milestone of Harvard’s ongoing ‘Common Spaces’ initiative, which promotes the creation of physical spaces and intentional programming for fostering intellectual, cultural, and social experiences on campus.

HEALTH & WELLNESS  2/2

Boston Medical Center Rooftop Farm

Submitted by Recover Green Roofs

In 2017, Recover installed a rooftop farm atop Boston Medical Center. The farm, which produces around 5,000lbs of food a year, serves the patients and staff of the hospital with fresh food, in addition to absorbing stormwater and reducing the building’s carbon footprint. Rather than freighting food in, BMC may now produce food at a large enough scale to regularly provide its residents with the freshest of vegetables and greens, which they can watch being wheeled directly from the farm to the hospital’s kitchens, rather than going through multiple stages of transport across state lines. The close proximity and regenerative practices of the farm (managed by Lindsay Allen) decrease the loss of nutrients and potential for contamination associated with shipping produce to the hospital. Additionally, any extra food produced in a week goes to the hospital’s Preventative Food Pantry, which serves local city residents who are struggling with hunger and/or otherwise lack access to fresh produce.

SITE & LANDSCAPE

Ora Seaport
Submitted by Arrowstreet Architecture & Design

Ora Seaport marks a new gateway development with direct access to the Silverline Way bus stop, the Boston Harbor as well as a popular performance pavilion. This mixed-use development is comprised of two buildings that integrate apartments, boutique hotel restaurants, and retail shops with a substantial public realm. The site was designed with a focus on resiliency: integrating creative ways to protect the buildings from sea level rise while maintaining strong pedestrian connections between the interior spaces and the street.

A primary focus of this development was to incorporate community-oriented urban design that also address the resiliency challenges. The elevated terrace is comprised of dining and lounge areas and is surrounded by private patios. The roof deck contains decorative screens, pool, cabanas, fireplace, media walls, grills, wet bar, and an extensive green roof planting system to absorb rainwater. The streetscape incorporates the Seaport Square design aesthetic and consists of permeable paving, rain gardens, industrial-inspired aged steel components, and ample plantings. The architecture and landscape create a sequence of interwoven public spaces that maximize ocean views while providing a superior level of protection from rising tides and storm surges. The walls on the plaza also double as outdoor seating and integrate into the raised entry areas and seamlessly raise the ground floor’s elevation to further protect it from flooding. These passive systems eliminate the need for more traditional deployable flood barriers around the building.

SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION INNOVATION

69 A Street
Submitted by Commodore Builders

We renovated and expanded an existing rivet factory in South Boston at 69 A Street. The project converted the existing three-story building into a five-story office and retail space using CLT planks supported by glulam columns and beams. The lightweight and sustainable CLT design allowed for the addition of two levels without the need for substantial reinforcement of the existing structure. It was also a clear choice for a highly constricted urban area with absolutely no laydown and delivery spaces. By creating a detailed and efficient schedule, we were able to move planks directly from the delivery truck into their appropriate location within the building. The choice in materials helped expedite the construction process, and the exposed wood CLT ceilings and glulam complemented the aesthetic of the existing wood features of the structure.

STUDENT PROJECT OF THE YEAR

Resilient Hub
Submitted by Team Harvard GSD

In this era of Anthropocene, buildings will be subjected to rising temperatures and increased risk of natural disasters. In addition, a growing population and strong urbanization trend will increase the density of our cities. These environmental changes will have a considerable effect on future building performance. ResilientHub, situated in the Seaport District of Boston, Massachusetts, USA, is a future-ready building that maintains the highest energy efficiency and occupant comfort level possible throughout its lifetime.

The proposed building design accommodates thirteen floors office space, in addition to retail, restaurants, a daycare center for children of office employees, and underground parking on the lower floors. The office floors are expected to cater to a diverse range of corporate users from the life sciences, technology and financial sector. Adaptable ETFE pillow façades, that feature a novel tunable material developed at the GSD, optimize solar heat gain and daylight access in response to daily and seasonal weather changes, and future global warming and urbanization. A solar chimney, placed prominently at its most optimal position for solar heat gain, provides buoyancy-driven natural ventilation and significantly lowers the building’s cooling loads with future rising temperatures. A series of indoor atria supply the office spaces with a healthy level of natural daylight and provide a space for informal social interaction. Situated in a flood zone, the building employs building and landscape-integrated strategies to mitigate flood levels and delay, resist and discharge flood water. The innovative, high-performance design solutions ResilientHub employs are directly applicable to the vast majority of the future global building stock that will be affected by the same environmental changes.

National Grid/Eversource Energy Optimization Award

Lowell Justice Center
Submitted by The Green Engineer

Located within the Lowell National Historic Park, the Lowell Justice Center forms the cornerstone of Lowell’s Hamilton Canal District development master plan. The project originally began with a certifiable building study and was the largest of three pilot studies for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM)s ZNE initiatives. A goal in the design of this 265,000 SF courthouse was to maximize energy efficiency. Building systems and controls, glazing, and highly insulated walls are among many of the design features specified to achieve performance targets 40% better than code and its LEED Platinum certification. The building contains a chilled beam HVAC system, photovoltaic panels, and a sophisticated building envelope as well as abundant natural light throughout. The Center was designed in orientation to the site, with many special landscaping features incorporated on the former brownfield site, such as the use of native plants requiring no irrigation and a post-development site runoff reduction of 40%. Approximately 65% of the occupied floor area offers direct views to the outdoors. Water use reduction is 35% and energy use savings are approximately 58%. The Lowell Justice Center is the first courthouse in Massachusetts and first state courthouse in the country to achieve LEED Platinum certification.

Presented by:

Denise Rouleau, Lead Program Manager, National Grid 

Michael Loughlin, Program Manager, Eversource

PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD

Emerson College – The Little Building
Submitted by Elkus Manfredi Architects

The preservation and adaptive reuse of the Little Building, in spite of serious structural challenges that could have led to its demolition, demonstrate the value of inventing creative solutions that reduce both waste and the introduction of new embodied carbon, mitigating the environmental cost of construction — and how sustainability and preservation objectives can work in concert to enhance our built environment.

The reinvigorated Little Building is a uniquely creative 21st-century response to complex preservation challenges. The project addresses the building’s failing façade and recaptures its modern Renaissance Gothic glory, increases the bed count and improves student life spaces, and implements current life safety codes — all while respecting the historic fabric, upholding an aggressive schedule, and maintaining a reasonable budget.

The novel strategies employed in the preservation of its façade made the project viable and involved the utilization of aerospace laser scanning technology, digital modeling of complex Gothic geometries, and direct designer-to-fabricator communication of each component. Following Emerson’s acquisition of the building, existing façade failures were found to be far worse than imagined: not only had water infiltration irreparably damaged the cast stone, it had also begun to corrode the steel, compromising structural integrity. The design team’s hybrid strategy combines established techniques for conservation of the lower levels and replacement in kind of the upper levels’ cast stone, guided by the physical evidence — via digital scanning — of the extant pieces.

The team’s post-completion study quantifies the environmental impact of saving as much of the steel superstructure and façade as possible, versus simply demolishing and building new, demonstrating the value of this effort and of considering embodied carbon in the design of our build environment.

Experience our 2021 Green Building Showcase as a Digital Gallery

Thank you to our Amazing Judges!

Betsy del Monte

Betsy del Monte

FAIA, LEED BD+C Architect & Consultant, CameronMacallister Adjunct Professor, SMU Lyle School of Engineering

Health & Wellness | Sustainable Construction Innovation

Debra Guenther

Debra Guenther

FASLA Design Partner, Mithun

Site & Landscape

Lisa Matthiessen

Lisa Matthiessen

FAIA, LEED Fellow Industry Expert, World Wide Sustainability, Amazon

Health & Wellness | Sustainable Building Operations

Z Smith

Z Smith

FAIA, LEED Fellow, WELL AP, Fitwel & Living Building Ambassador Principal, EskewDumezRipple

 

Energy & Water Efficiency | Site

 

Kimberly Lewis

Kimberly Lewis

Chief Equity Officer at Havenz Network. Co-Chair; Health Equity Advisory, IWBI

Equity & Inclusion

Julia Rodgers

Julia Rodgers

Global Operations, FCS, Facebook

 

Carbon & Energy | Sustainable Building Operations

 

Mary Ann Lazarus

Mary Ann Lazarus

FAIA LEED Fellow Architect and Consultant, CameronMacAllister Sustainability Program Coordinator, University College Washington University in St. Louis

 

Green Building of the Year | Change Agent

 

Josh Radoff

Josh Radoff

Renewable & Sustainable Energy Specialization Lead, Masters of the Environment Program, University of Colorado Boulder

 

Green Building of the Year | Green Home of the Year

 

Alex Muller

Alex Muller

Director of Collaborative Impact, mindfulMATERIALS

Health & Wellness | Sustainable Construction Innovation

Pauline Souza

Pauline Souza

Partner, K-12 sector lead and the Director of Sustainability at WRNS Studio

 

Green Building of the Year | Equity & Inclusion

 

Patrick Thibaudeau

Patrick Thibaudeau

LEED Fellow, ILFI Principal Sustainability Officer, JLG Architects

 

Green Building of the Year | Change Agent

 

Nathan Kipnis

Nathan Kipnis

FAIA Kipnis Architecture + Planning

 

Green Building of the Year | Green Home of the Year

 

Patty Rose

Patty Rose

Executive Director, Greenspace NCR, Inc.

Green Home of the Year | Equity & Inclusion

Bonny Bentzin

Bonny Bentzin

Deputy Chief Sustainability Officer, University of California, Los Angeles

 

Site & Landscape | Sustainable Building Operations

 

Thank you to our Event Sponsors!

Charles River Speedway anchors the BE+ 2021 Green Building Showcase

Charles River Speedway anchors the BE+ 2021 Green Building Showcase

The 2021 Green Building Showcase is set to return to Boston on October 21st at the revitalized Charles River Speedway—a landmark example of adaptive reuse and historic preservation. It’s not too late to buy your tickets to join the leading architects, engineers, contractors, developers, owners, facility managers, manufacturers and more pushing the envelope for sustainable and regenerative design, construction and operations of the built environment.

The following overview of the project was provided by Bruner/Cott Architects.

Charles River Speedway

The Charles River Speedway is a dynamic, transformative reuse project that combines historic preservation and forward-thinking sustainable design to reposition a 19th-century racetrack and police station into a vibrant community asset and new gateway to the Allston-Brighton neighborhood of Boston.

The Speedway was originally constructed in 1899 by the Metropolitan Park Commission as a headquarters to support a new parkway along the Charles River, a park that turned a stretch of tidal mudflats into an interconnected series of public parks. This development included a mile-long horse and bicycle racetrack, which became one of the city’s most popular gathering areas. In later years, the facility housed the now-defunct Metropolitan District Commission Police. Many of the original horse stables were extended and converted into vehicular garages to support the agency. Hidden in plain sight along Soldier’s Field Road, the facility had been largely abandoned since 2005. Portions of the buildings had begun to decay, and one section suffered a fire.

credit: Department of Conservation & Recreation

The complex, owned by the Mass. Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a Boston Historic Landmark. An irregular roofline connects six shingle-style buildings, creating a single-story courtyard. The arched gable entrances, porches, double hung windows and elaborate wood trim create an overall composition characteristic of William D. Austin’s architectural work for the Metropolitan Park Commission. Through the state’s Historic Curatorship Program, the DCR created a long-term lease for not-for-profit developer, Architectural Heritage Foundation (AHF) to rehabilitate and manage the historic property. 

Bruner/Cott worked alongside AHF to revitalize and preserve the complex, which now supports a variety of commercial uses. Tenants include small retail shops and maker spaces, shared offices, a restaurant, café, a publicly accessible community courtyard, and anchor tenant Notch Brewing.

credit: Bruner/Cott Architects

credit: The Speedway

credit: Department of Conservation & Recreation

credit: Department of Conservation & Recreation

The project’s preservation approach included:

  • Removal of piecemeal garage extensions at historic stable frontages and the reconstruction of lost features including wooden carriage access, sliding barn doors, and windows. 
  • A new, wooden ramp unifies original building entrances at the same grade and doubles as a stage for outdoor performances. 
  • Damaged interior plaster was removed to add insulation. 
  • Fieldstone foundations were reinforced with concrete and repointed. 
  • Stables and a 1940 concrete garage were fitted with recessive glazed fronts and overhead doors that connect them to the upper courtyard. 

Sustainable design strategies employed include:

  • A 100% electric mechanical system, which will become carbon-free as Boston actively decarbonizes its electric supply. The team approached the mechanical design with heat pumps, which reduced the amount of ductwork and piping needed as compared to an air system.
  • The envelopes leverage the low cost and low carbon of cellulose, while including new detailing to promote drying of the roof and wall sheathing and match the historic profiles of the existing buildings. This required development of a ventilation system under the sheathing of the roof. The new cladding system incorporated a new drainage plane to create a vapor open wall assembly, and protect the new cedar shingles by promoting drying throughout the year. 
  • The site now includes a complex, sub-surface stormwater recharge system to divert runoff from the adjacent Charles River. 
  • The basement and slab design implements robust barrier strategies at the building’s foundation to prevent ground contamination of VOCs leftover from previous uses from entering interior spaces. This included sheet barriers at slabs, clear sealing systems at historic fieldstone foundations so they could remain exposed, and future sub-slab ventilation systems, should they be needed to remove contaminants in the future.

credit: Bruner/Cott Architects

Welcome Summer 2021 Interns!

Join us in welcoming our Summer 2021 intern team! We are excited to have them with us to help drive forward our mission. With them joining, there is such great momentum moving us into this summer, and we can’t wait to see how much we get accomplished together. We are so grateful to have them, and wish them a warm welcome to this community!

Erika Yao

Hello! I am excited to join Ann, Ethan, and Meredith in their mission to drive sustainable and regenerative design within the built environment. I graduated last year from the University of Connecticut with my Bachelor’s in Environmental Engineering, and recently finished my first year of the Sustainable Building Systems Master’s program at Northeastern University. I am passionate about sustainable design and look forward to being more involved in the community surrounding green building.

Christian Rudder

Hi, my name is Christian; I’m thankful to be a part of the mission that’s playing a big role in making our community’s environment healthier and more sustainable. I’m currently a freshman computer science major at MassBay Community College looking to transfer into a 4-year college to get my bachelor’s and hopefully pursue my master’s. I’m eager to jump into the world of green buildings and utilize my talents to help push the future of sustainable and regenerative design, construction, and operations of the built environment.

Elizabeth Newton

Hi! My name is Elizabeth, I’m excited to be working with Built Environment Plus in such an important field to push sustainable design further ahead. I graduated in May from Clarkson University with my Bachelor’s in Civil Engineering and will be continuing on to obtain my Master’s in Sustainable Building Systems from Northeastern University starting this fall. I’m excited to gain some experience in the industry and apply it to my education later. I’m eager to see all my future opportunities within Built Environment Plus throughout this summer.

Melissa Stok

Hi! My name is Melissa Stok and I am thrilled to be joining Built Environment Plus this summer to learn about and work towards sustainability in the built environment. I am a current undergraduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology majoring in Materials Science and Engineering and am hoping to minor in Sustainability or Energy Studies. I was introduced to sustainable design and construction last summer through a project that I worked on and immediately found a passion for this work which I will get to delve deeper into over the course of the next few months!

Congratulations to the First Ever Graduates of the BE+ Green Building Leadership Institute!

The Green Building Leadership Institute – Emerging Professionals Certificate Program is a self-paced program that allows emerging professionals and students to foster their sustainable building knowledge leadership skills, community engagement, and professional brand as the next generation of professionals within the built environment.

The program contains four credit categories; Accreditations/Certifications, Chapter Engagement, Community Involvement, and Leadership Development; each of which has a designated number of points that must be achieved to earn a certificate of completion. Participants complete the program once they reach 100 points, which is no easy feat.

The following nine participants recently earned these 100 points and graduated from the program. Many of them left earning their LEED AP BD+C, LEED Green Associate, and WELL AP Accreditations. They attended an impressive amount of events and trainings focused on green building knowledge and leadership. As part of the program, participants also volunteered time within their communities.

    • Abigail Keilman – Smith Group
    • Alex Testa – Siena Construction
    • Ashleigh Savage – Smith Group
    • Bethany Robertson – Ci Design
    • Caitlin Gilman – Perkins Eastman
    • Jacob Savona – The Green Engineer
    • Kara Slocum – Sasaki
    • Kristen Murphy – Acentech
    • Lindsey Machamer – Austin Energy Green Building

These nine emerging professionals have made an incredible personal investment with us these last two years, and in doing so have positioned themselves as community experts and the next generation of leaders ensuring we create a sustainable and resilience built environment. Congratulations to the graduates!