New Balance HQ earns LEED Platinum v2009 Core and Shell

By Ritchie Lafaille, Office Fellow


Massachusetts continues to excel in the green building industry!

The New Balance World Headquarters building has earned LEED Platinum certification under the U.S. GreenBuilding Council’s (USGBC) v2009 Core and Shell rating system. Located at 100 Guest St. in the Allston-Brighton neighborhood of the city, the 250,000 s/f facility is the first in the U.S. to achieve all possible credits in the Indoor Environmental Quality category under this rating system. There are only two other buildings in the world that have achieved this – one each in Italy and Thailand.

“NB Development Group is proud, in conjunction with our project team partners, Elkus Manfredi Architects, Transwestern, and John Moriarty Associates to have delivered to New Balance Athletics, Inc. a world-class headquarters facility that has garnered this LEED Platinum Designation,” said Jim Halliday, managing director of NB Development.  “This designation is in keeping with not only the mission of New Balance, but also as the initial flagship project of Boston Landing, it highlights the spirit and energy we envision for this newly emerging district and ongoing commitment to our neighborhood.”

New Balance’s building secured LEED Platinum certification because it has not one but two green activities that achieved outcomes of energy efficient design, water use reduction, sustainable site selection and development, responsible materials selection and waste management, and enhanced indoor environmental quality.

Additional project achievements include:

  • 26% annual energy cost savings when compared to a code-compliant building 
  • 35% reduction in water consumption of plumbing fixtures when compared to a code-compliant building 
  • 76% waste diversion during construction 
  • 86% reduction in site runoff post-development when compared to pre-development
  • 28% of material used in construction derived from recycled content
  • 74% of material used in construction derived from a regional source
  • 100% of wood used in construction was Forest Stewardship Council certified
  • 30% higher ventilation rate when compared to a code-compliant building
  • All Regional Priority credits achieved
  • All Innovation credits achieved.


“Prioritizing the benefits of exceptional indoor environmental quality is exactly the kind of responsible leadership you’d expect from a company dedicated to health and performance,” said Rick Fedrizzi, CEO and founding chair, USGBC. “Improved comfort and well-being, enhanced productivity, decreased absenteeism, and improved valuation of the building are all aspects of green building that are on par with energy efficiency, water conservation and waste reduction.  Congratulations to New Balance for this significant achievement and for helping us move one step closer to sustainable buildings for everyone within this generation.”

“This certification exemplifies our strong commitment of responsible leadership to our company’s associates and consumers, our local community and the environment,” said Rob DeMartini, New Balance president & CEO. “We are extremely pleased to be able to call our new world headquarters a truly global leader in sustainability.”

The New Balance world headquarters facility broke ground in August 2013 and was completed in September 2015.  It was designed by our sponsoring partner Elkus Manfredi Architects of Boston, built by John Moriarty Associates of Winchester, Mass., and managed by Transwestern through their Boston office.

NB Development Group is a commercial real estate company based in Boston. The group’s professionals bring Boston-based experience in the fields of development, permitting, construction management, asset management, leasing, and marketing.  NBDG is currently managing the development of Boston Landing, a mixed-use project located along the Massachusetts Turnpike in Brighton.  Through expert entitlement and permitting strategies, Boston Landing is transforming a vacant industrial area into a vibrant, transit-oriented district. Boston Landing encompasses more than 15 acres of land and will include uses such as office, retail, hotel, recreation, parking, commuter rail, and residential with a total build-out of more than 2.5 million s/f. 

New Balance, headquartered in Boston, MA has the following mission: Demonstrating responsible leadership, we build global brands that athletes are proud to wear, associates are proud to create and communities are proud to host. New Balance is the only major company to make or assemble more than 4 million pairs of athletic footwear per year in the USA, which represents a limited portion of our US sales. Where the domestic value is at least 70%, we label our shoes Made in the USA. New Balance owns five factories in New England and one in Flimby, U.K. New Balance employs more than 5,000 associates around the globe, and in 2015 reported worldwide sales of $3.72 billion. 

 

Happening Tomorrow: Eco-Districts Workshop!

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

Interested in creating resilient, sustainable, and socially just neighborhoods? Come to our workshop! 

Tuesday, August 16 from 8:30am to 10:30am
“Woolf” Room, 18th Floor, 50 Milk Street, Boston

Register here or below.

Our speaker, Eric Corey Freed, is an envoy for Ecodistricts. Join us as we get the latest on how the program is expanding, supporting improved communities and the neighborhood scale. 

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

  • discover a new process for bringing together community leaders, developers, architects and planners to develop sustainable neighborhoods
  • find ways to plan and incorporate district scale, net zero energy and water systems
  • develop a roadmap for planning goals, development targets and methods to galvanize support for your community

 

 

 

Image source: http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/dumai/61765562/47662/47662_original.jpg

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Come Next Wednesday & learn how to Design Net Zero Buildings!

By Rachael Berry, Graphics Associate

Want to learn how to rally your project team to achieve net zero energy on your projects? We'll teach you how to achieve net zero energy on your building projects and more importantly how to sell them to your clients! 

Eric Corey Freed is Founding Principal of organicARCHITECT, is a visionary design leader in biophilic and regenerative design. He brings over 20 years of experience in helping architects, builders and homeowners use sustainability to improve the design and operational savings for thousands of buildings around the country.  Eric has helped thousands of companies monetize sustainability by showing them how to cut their real estate operations costs in half and established himself as a pioneer in sustainable building. You definitely do not want to miss out on the opportunity to gain valuable insigh t from the extremely qualified and inspiring, Eric Freed, at next week's event. 

Wednesday, August 17 from 8:30 am to 12:00 pm
50 Milk Street, Boston (“Meridian”, Floor 5)

Register here or below.

You’ll learn…

  • how to rally your project team to achieve net zero energy on your projects
  • ways to sell your clients on being committed to never having to pay a utility bill ever again

Using specific case studies and stories from the field, you’ll develop an arsenal of ideas you can apply to your current projects right now. We will also include a BONUS discussion of Seattle’s Bullitt Center, called the “greenest office building in the world” and how they achieved net zero with an EUI of 10.

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Who will win Green Building of the Year?

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!


See if your building has what it takes! Every year at our Green Building Showcase, we choose a Green Building of the Year (GBOTY), the building that best exemplifies the Chapter’s passion for sustainable design and stands out against its competitors.

If you've recently worked on a project that fits the bill, enter the contest now! Make sure it fits the following requirements:

  • Met a third-party green building recognition or standard (LEED, LBC, Energy Star, etc)
  • Whole building, not components or portions of a building
  • Complete and have a certificate of occupancy by 9/21/17
  • Located in Massachusetts

It costs $250 to enter, and all entrants must have a display board for judges to see. Entries are due by September 8th, 2016

Judges will be on the lookout for a standout project. Previous winners have gone above and beyond expectations: their innovative projects helped pave the way to a more sustainable future.

For inspiration, check out last year's winner! The Green Engineer Inc. won GBOTY 2015 for their project, Summer Star Sanctuary. Read about it on our blog!


If you're looking to enter a contest more focused on specific aspects of your project, consider entering the Green Building Market Leadership Award Series. This award is designed to highlight the leading firms across various market specific sectors and acknowledge their impressive individual strides towards sustainability. Potential award categories are as following: Health/Wellness, Energy Efficiency, Site, Beauty, Materials, Water Efficiency, Resilience, Social Equity.

Winners for each category will be determined by the crowd, so make sure to impress viewers with easy-to-read information to increase your chances of winning.

It costs $250 to enter, and all entrants must have a display board for the crowd to see. Entries are due by September 8th, 2016.

Click here for our Contest Details Page.

Remember to get your tickets and to register your project boards for Green Building Showcase! Click here for our event page.

See you there!

In the meantime, check out this promotional video for the Showcase!

Video of Showcase

Residential Green Building: 8/8/16

By Molly Cox

The Residential Green Building Committee met on August 8th, 2016. We started off with announcements of events coming up, and some advocacy news from Craig Foley. Some highlights include the signing of the Energy Omnibus Bill by Governor Baker on 8/8, and although the energy audits at the point of sale in MA did not pass, we were still able to see improvements such as Commercial PACE finance. There is still much to be done, but this is a step in the right direction!


We had a guest speaker, Michael Chavez, who is an Enterprise Rose Fellow on Greening the Fairmount Corridor. Michael is working with the Fairmount/Indigo Line CDC Collaborative in an effort to improve economic opportunity for residents, and focus on the benefits that this Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) will bring along this 9-mile commuter rail. The line runs between South Station and Readville through neighborhoods such as Hyde Park and Dorchester, so the goal will be to develop more affordable housing in these neighborhoods and take advantage of the proximity to public transit.  

Michael presented on his work thus far, and focused on the Cottage Brook project in Dorchester, which includes energy efficiency improvements for all 147 units spread across multiple buildings. The buildings are owned by the Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corporation (DBEDC), and Michael and his team initiated this mod-rehab, with the end goal of saving money but also increasing energy efficiency. They were able to redo the roof and install new windows, along with reducing airflow through the doors and windows. They actually installed new windows within the existing window frames of the building, which ended up being a reliable watertight solution. Additionally, they wanted to reduce heat loss through the walls, so they installed insulation between the exterior walls and the heating units. CLEAResult, the consultant on the job, will perform HERS ratings for 3 of the buildings. The tenants who will rent these units will receive continued education on incentives for continuing to improve energy efficiency in these units, through LEAN or MassSave programs for example. Feel free to read more about Michael Chavez and the project (biography found HERE, read PowerPoint HERE)

We then continued our RGBC meeting to confirm our goals for the next few months. We have some exciting projects coming up, so stay tuned for our progress!

Keep an eye out for some events coming up: Our next committee meeting on September 12th, where we will have another guest speaker, so stay tuned on who it will be! Also, the Green Building Showcase is coming up on September 22nd (Register HERE).

Eversource Greens Office Space with Sustainable Office Design Program!

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

Eversource, a Silver Sponsor of USGBC MA, has been working hard on their Sustainable Office Design (SOD) Program! This program provides high-performance lighting solutions to the leased commercial office market. Qualifying projects receive an incentive of $1 per square foot.

Eversource has already worked with ARC (Architectural Resources Cambridge) and Cimpress on improving facilities and reducing energy costs. As a result, the ARC office space will save 34,592 kWh (or 17 tons of CO2 emissions) every year, which is estimated to be about $5,189 annually. The Cimpress office space will save 399,540 kWh (or 196 tons of CO2 emissions) every year, which is estimated to be about $59,931 annually. Read the case studies here and here.

Click here to learn more about the Sustainable Office Design Program!

Sustainable Office Design Benefits

For Building Owners:

  • Saves on operational costs (where lease permits)
  • Improves building values and rents
  • Helps attain LEED® or ENERGY STAR® certification
  • Improves customer service to tenants and enhances sustainability branding in market

For Tenants:

  • Saves on operational costs (where lease permits)
  • Helps achieve corporate sustainability goals and improves brand image
  • Contributes to LEED ID+C: Commercial Interiors credits
  • Improves quality of space and boosts employee comfort and productivity

We're hosting Greenbuild 2017… Get Excited and Get Involved!

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

Let's get ready for the biggest networking event in green building worldwide: right here in Beantown!

The Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, launched in 2002, is the world’s largest conference and expo dedicated to green building. Greenbuild features several days of inspiring speakers, industry showcases, specialty workshops, tours of the host city’s green buildings, and invaluable networking opportunities. The event has been hosted in major cities across the U.S. and Canada, including Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto, Atlanta, and Philadelphia.

Boston hosted Greenbuild 2008, which brought in 28,224 registered guests, 807 exhibitors, and people from 85 different countries. In November 2017, Greenbuild is coming to Boston for the second time, and USGBC MA Chapter is serving as the host chapter!

Reasons to get excited:

It will be hosted in a newly-certified LEED Silver building!
The Boston Convention and Exposition Center (BCEC) just got certified LEED Silver on May 25th of this year for Existing Buildings Operations + Maintenance (EB O+M). 
Congratulations to Vanderweil and SGH (a Bronze sponsor of ours) on this terrific feat! Read more about the BCEC here.
(Bonus: SGH designed the marquee structure at the Summer Street entrance)

It will bring visitors and business to Boston!
We had over 28,000 guests last time, so this is a great opportunity to showcase our city's committment to green building and design.


image source

How you can get involved:

Join the Host Committee (apply here!)
The Host Committee is led by two Co-Chairs who are the primary leaders of our Greenbuild efforts.  The Host Committee Chairs help to plot our overall vision and work with subcommittees to set and ensure they are meeting their goals and timelines. This Committee will also be populated by the Co-Chairs of each subcommittee, the USGBC MA Executive Director, and a board liaison. Read more about the Host Committee and the subcommittees here.
Apply now to be a member of the Host Committee.

Can't wait for Greenbuild? Register for 2016!

Greenbuild 2016 is in Los Angeles! (October 5 – 7) Register now.

We also have housing accommodations! Reserve your spot now.

Advocacy Update: The Energy Bill is Signed

By Grey Lee, Executive Director

[Note: join our Advocacy Committee on Thursday 8/11/16 at 5:30-7pm at 50 Milk St. RSVP: advocacy@usgbcma.org]

 

Over 200 people gathered this afternoon on the lawn at the Kennedy Statue at the Massachusetts State House for the signing of the 2016 Energy Bill.

Political figures from all corners of the legislative process gathered to share responsibility for the bill, H 4568, which as of approximately2:09pm this afternoon was signed into law by Governor Baker.

Comments reflected the consensus across both chambers of the General Court – that this bill will help assert Massachusetts' leadership in energy policy, in procurement, and in financing new energy efficiency projects.

This last note is in reference to the PACE provisions of the bill. Lt. Governor Polito particularly pointed out how the program will enable MassDevelopment to provide bond funding to small and medium businesses who can use the financing to improve their buildings and make their operations more efficient. PACE wasn't exactly a hot topic just a month ago – good thing it moved up on the agenda!

Senator Downing was lauded for his role as a conferee and for his general leadership on energy policy. He was thanked profusely by his colleagues as he will not be seeking re-election this fall. He spoke to our continued need to promote energy efficiency first, optimization of use second, reductions in fossil-fuel generated supply third, and then the build-out of new renewables.

Prior to the Governor signing the bill, Energy & Environmental Affairs Secretary Beaton spoke to the balance, thoughtful, competitive and regional nature of the package. It was important that the legislation “be fair to ratepayers” – although there was no elaboration on what that meant really. It probably means keeping rates from growing rapidly. Good to know that is one of his priorities! He especially highlighted the provisions to promote energy storage technology development where we have leaders in industry and academia. 

Governor Baker was able to share how the legislation will enable the Commonwealth to make good on its commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and to diversify the energy sources used in Massachusetts. This was noted as important considering the retirement of the Plymouth nuclear plant in just 3 years, which has 680 MW of generating capacity. That would be a lot of wind turbines (or efficiency improvements)!

Many hard working people in the sustainability community were there including Austin Blackmon of the City of Boston and Ken Pruitt of the Environmental League of Massachusetts. Congratulations to the many advocates, legislative staff, expert testimony providers and others who helped the elected officials create legislation that, while lacking in some regards, will help us more forward toward a better energy future in Massachusetts.

We will be back in full force for the next session to continue to promote energy policy which will benefit citizens of Massachusetts. We will push for residential PACE and energy transparency, increased requirements for renewables in the electricity grid, more aggressive standards for building performance, and more funding for cleantech innovation for our built environment. 


Celebrate MA Green Buildings at our Showcase!

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

Join us for our annual Green Building Showcase, where we showcase and celebrate all the green buildings conceived, designed, built & operated by our community of practitioners over the past year.

Over 100 projects will be on display. More than 300 leaders in our industry will be in attendance for this open bar reception and entertaining collection of green buildings.

Thursday, September 22 from 5:30 to 8:00 pm
888 Boylston Street, Boston

Get your tickets here or below!

We also have sponsorship opportunities for companies and firms in the green building industry! The packages include exposure of your company, contest entry, event tickets, chapter memberships, and more. We provide an audience of people in the green building industry eager to hear about your efforts, see your products, and admire all of your accomplishments.

For more information about the Showcase, click here.

To get your tickets, click here.

 

 

Residential Green Building

By Ritchie Lafaille, Office Fellow

The Residential Green Building Committee met on August 8th, 2016. We started off with announcements of events coming up, and some advocacy news from Craig Foley. Some highlights include the signing of the Energy Omnibus Bill by Governor Baker on 8/8, and although the energy audits at the point of sale in MA did not pass, we were still able to see improvements such as Commercial PACE finance. There is still much to be done, but this is a step in the right direction!

We had a guest speaker, Michael Chavez, who is an Enterprise Rose Fellow on Greening the Fairmount Corridor. Michael is working with the Fairmount/Indigo Line CDC Collaborative in an effort to improve economic opportunity for residents, and focus on the benefits that this Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) will bring along this 9-mile commuter rail. The line runs between South Station and Readville through neighborhoods such as Hyde Park and Dorchester, so the goal will be to develop more affordable housing in these neighborhoods and take advantage of the proximity to public transit.  

Michael presented on his work thus far, and focused on the Cottage Brook project in Dorchester, which includes energy efficiency improvements for all 147 units spread across multiple buildings. The buildings are owned by the Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corporation (DBEDC), and Michael and his team initiated this mod-rehab, with the end goal of saving money but also increasing energy efficiency. They were able to redo the roof and install new windows, along with reducing airflow through the doors and windows. They actually installed new windows within the existing window frames of the building, which ended up being a reliable watertight solution. Additionally, they wanted to reduce heat loss through the walls, so they installed insulation between the exterior walls and the heating units. CLEAResult, the consultant on the job, will perform HERS ratings for 3 of the buildings. The tenants who will rent these units will receive continued education on incentives for continuing to improve energy efficiency in these units, through LEAN or MassSave programs for example. Feel free to read more about Michael Chavez and the project (biography found HERE and see PowerPoint attached below)

We then continued our RGBC meeting to confirm our goals for the next few months. We have some exciting projects coming up, so stay tuned for our progress!

Keep an eye out for some events coming up: Our next committee meeting on September 12th, where we will have another guest speaker, so stay tuned on who it will be! Also, the Green Building Showcase is coming up on September 22nd (Register HERE).