Summer BBQ A Success!

By Jenna Dancewicz & Aminah McNulty


Last Thursday, professionals of all backgrounds met at the North Point Park to enjoy the summer sun and learn about Permaculture!

The lively discussions were fueled by the delicious and local food provided by Farmer's Market Kitchen. Nothing goes better with networking and green building than grilled eggplant and haloumi burgers! 


We've posted our full photo album on Facebook!


The evening culminated in a fun DIY self watering planter project. We cut used plastic bottles in half, drilled a hole through the cap and threaded absorbent string through. Using recycled newspaper, we lined the bottle to protect the roots from light exposure and filled the top half of the paper lined bottle with organic potting soil. As we filled, we coiled the string in concentric circles up to the top so that water will absorb from the bottom and soak up through the soil. Less than a week out, Aminah has signs of life in her up-cycled self watering basil planter! 

Thank you to Eva Leung, Co-Founder of Terra Cura Inc., for providing insight on Permaculture and its application in the field of sustainable design. Eva gave us an introduction to Permaculture, articulating the scalability and wide set application of the mindset, framework and ethos of the movement. She was thrilled at the opportunity to engage in a conversation with professionals in the green building industry, as “people capital” and sharing information and knowledge are integral parts to her practice. Please visit their website to learn more!

Thank you to our event sponsor, Brightview Landscape Development!

RDK Understands Workplace Engineering

By Ritchie Lafaille, Office Fellow

Today’s work environment can have a significant impact on the productivity and general well-being of the building’s users. Indoor air quality, life safety, appropriate lighting levels, and efficient HVAC systems are critical for ensuring these comforts. As such, workplace design, especially on the part of the MEP/FP Engineer, has become increasingly important. RDK has extensive experience in the design of core and shell office space, open workspace environments, tenant improvement projects, kitchen/cafeterias, conference centers, and training rooms, for a variety of client types. They understand the number of challenges that come with engineering these spaces. Balancing the needs of the tenant with the project’s financial realities; adhering to aggressive construction schedules; configuring the space to the specific needs of the client; and designing in compliance with the latest ASHRAE/NFPA standards, are tasks we address head on. Their approach to workplace design involves:

• Working closely with the client to fully understand their needs

• Ensuring that the design is integrated with the existing base building systems

• Integrating telecom/audio visual/electronic security systems and equipment

• Maximizing comfort while balancing the need for energy efficiencies

• Providing flexibility to accommodate changing tenant requirements as time passes

 

It is great to have knowledgeable allies like RDK Engineers as Chapter Sponsoring Partners, helping to ensure the achievement of more green buildings in Massachusetts, and beyond!

Read more about RDK on their website and our blog!

GRESB and WELL: Complementary Tools to Promote Transparency and Leadership on Health and Well-being

By Chris Pyke, PhD

Health and well-being has emerged as an important issue for real estate companies and funds. Investors and tenants have expressed interest and there is increasing recognition that the promotion of health and well-being can contribute to competitive differentiation, value creation, and risk management.

GRESB and its partners explored this with a series of events in major cities around the world. During these events, we are often asked how GRESB works with the WELL Building Standard™ (WELL). This blog provides highlights of connections between the systems.

First, GRESB and WELL assess different things. GRESB is an assessment of the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance of real estate companies and funds. Consequently, the unit of assessment is anorganization, and GRESB’s focus is on entity-level business strategy, management practices, and performance. WELL is a performance-based leadership standard for building projects. It can be applied to guide and recognize leadership in the promotion of health and wellness for interior fit-outs and whole buildings, and in the future will be applied to neighborhood-scale development. This means that GRESB and WELL are natural complements, with GRESB focusing on organizational practices and performance and WELL defining project-scale leadership and performance. [Screenshot (244)]

GRESB and WELL have strong synergies. We can describe two different types of connections: building certifications and, more broadly, individual indicators. Of course, WELL is a project-level certification, and, as such, it can receive partial recognition within GRESB’s Building Certifications Aspect. The partial recognition reflects GRESB’s long-standing criteria that green building rating systems must address energy performance along with additional factors. By design, WELL doesn’t address energy since its intention is to work alongside green building rating systems as a complementary certification. GRESB will provide partial recognition for WELL Certification this year and give this issue more consideration before the release of the 2017 Real Estate Assessment.

Equally or more importantly, GRESB and WELL have complementary requirements for individual WELL Features and GRESB indicators (questions). This means that entities familiar with GRESB are likely to have management practices and systems that make it easier to achieve WELL Certification. Conversely, many WELL Features contribute directly to GRESB indicators. For example, the GRESB Health & Well-being Module has a new indicator for leadership. This GRESB indicator provides information about the specific individual (or individuals) responsible for directing health promotion activities. Existence of leadership for health and well-being at the company or fund level is likely to facilitate achievement of the over 100 discrete, project-specific health promotion strategies or features recognized by WELL. To take this a step further, implementation of individual WELL Features provides easy answers for GRESB Health & Well-being Module questions 4 and 7, related to strategies promoting health and well-being. Although it is challenging to compare WELL and GRESB side-by-side given the difference in scale and approach, there are clear instances of alignment. For example, both GRESB and WELL recognize the importance of monitoring outcomes using tools such as occupant surveys. A highlight summary of connections is shown in the accompanying table.

The bottom-line is that the WELL Certification and its underlying strategy to promote health and wellness contribute positively to GRESB. In turn, GRESB and the new GRESB Health & Well-being Module provide an organizational “wrapper” around the WELL Certification to understand portfolio-level issues, such as how leadership and business strategy contribute to successful implementation of health-promoting strategies at the project scale. Together, WELL and GRESB provide an effective platform to promote health and well-being and provide transparency for investors and other stakeholders.

Original article: http://insight.gbig.org/gresb-and-well-complementary-tools-to-promote-tr…

Building Tour + Networking Night for the Price of One (or FREE)!

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

Our Outreach Committee has organized a joint building tour and networking night! Free for Members and $25 for Non-Members!

Thursday, July 21 from 5:30pm to 8:00pm
75 State Street, Boston

Register here or below!

During the tour, we’ll explore the building, including tenant spaces and the roof deck. After the event, we'll be discussing all things sustainable!

Schedule:

5:30 PM – Initial Gathering in Lobby
5:45 PM – Project Presentation
6:00 PM – Building Tour
7:30 PM – Chapter Networking

About the Venue:

75 State Street, Boston, MA (Brookfield Properties)
LEED O+M: Existing Buildings Gold Certification in 2009
LEED O+M: Existing Buildings Platinum Re-Certification in 2014

The building is also Energy Star Certified.

Newly-Certified LEED Buildings in MA! (Part 2)

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

We love hearing about all the Green Building that's going on! Here are some of the buildings that were LEED Certified in May. (If you missed it, here's Part 1)

Click here to learn more about LEED.
Click the certification levels to get more details.

Two Financial Center (LEED Gold)


image source
60 South Street, Boston
LEED-EB:OM v2009
Constructed April 8, 2015; Certified May 17, 2016
61/110 Points (Gold)
240,321 square feet

275 Wyman Street (LEED Gold)


image source
275 Wyman Street, Waltham
LEED-CS v2009
Constructed August 12, 2013; Certified May 19, 2016
64/110 Points (Gold)
316,684 square feet

Farm Life Center at Drumlin Farm (LEED Gold)


image source
208 South Great Road, Lincoln
LEED-NC 2.2
Constructed April 17, 2009; Certified May 20, 2016
40/69 Points (Gold)
1,488 square feet

Old Colony Public Housing Redevelopment (LEED Gold)


image source
25 James O'Neil Street, Boston
LEED-ND v2009 Stage 3
Constructed February 19, 2015; Certified May 26, 2016
60/110 Points (Gold)
7.89 square feet

UMass Lowell: University Crossing (LEED Silver)


image source
220 Pawtucket Street, Lowell
LEED-NC v2009
Constructed April 26, 2012; Certified May 4, 2016
50/110 Points (Silver)
227,691 square feet

Craftsman E North (LEED Silver)

77 Musante Drive, Northampton
LEED-HOMES v2008
Constructed October 11, 2013; Certified May 20, 2016
67/136 Points (Silver)
1,528 square feet

Craftsman E South (LEED Silver)

75 Musante Drive, Northampton
LEED-HOMES v2008
Constructed October 11, 2013; Certified May 20, 2016
67/136 Points (Silver)
1,668 square feet

Ayer Shirley Regional High School (LEED Silver)


image source
141 Washington Street, Ayer
LEED FOR SCHOOLS v2009
Constructed December 21, 2012; Certified May 20, 2016
55/110 Points (Silver)
144,072 square feet

NEBFM 2016: FREE Exhibits, Talks, and Networking!

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

Wednesday, June 29 – Thursday, June 30
Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, Hall B-2
415 Summer Street
Boston, 02210

Register here!

This event will feature over 300 exhibitors displaying products and services necessary for the operation, management, maintenance and renovation of buildings and facilities in the greater New England region. 

Running concurrently with the trade show is an educational conference featuring 40 individual one-hour talks covering a wide range of topics including: LEED, Green, Sustainability, Energy, Building Commissioning, Facility Maintenance, Construction and Renovation Planning.

networking reception is held from 3:00pm – 4:00pm the first day of the show. Attendees & Exhibitors are invited to join IFMA and all the Show Sponsors for drinks and hors d'oeuvres.

Learn more about the event here.

Register for FREE here!

****** Remember to mention USGBC MA when you register! ******


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are You Free Thursday Evening?

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

Join USGBCMA for an exciting design charrette where we will brainstorm for our newest community service project! 

Thursday, June 30, 6:00pm – 7:30pm
130 Bishop Allen Drive
Cambridge, MA 02139

To receive updates on specific details,
RSVP here to this free event.

We are planning to transform a Boston classroom from status quo to super green.

Possible areas for improvement will include maximizing daylight, minimizing energy use, and improving air quality. We will benefit from those with an expertise in design, construction, and products, so please pass the invitation along if you know a prospective volunteer who can be a positive contributor to our team!

You can get involved by signing up as a volunteer or a sponsoring organization! Please join us with your ideas, expertise, material donations, or just a willingness to help out!

To learn more and to RSVP, click here!

Image source: http://sageclassroom.com/

Thinking about the UK? LEED's European Forebear, BREEAM, Arrives in US

By Tristan Roberts

The forebear of all green building rating systems, LEED included, is arriving from the U.K. as an accessible alternative.

Before there was LEED, there was BREEAM.

While the LEED rating systems might have more buzz, the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology is the world’s oldest and most widely used green building rating system. Created in 1990 by the Building Research Establishment (BRE) in the U.K., the system is responsible for 544,600 certified projects worldwide, according to BRE. (By comparison, LEED currently has more than 75,000 certified projects.)

Now BREEAM is coming to the U.S. through a partnership announced by BRE and BuildingWise, a U.S.-based LEED certification consultancy. A new organization, BREEAM USA, will make the BREEAM In-Use standard available to commercial buildings of any size, age, and condition. The standard offers benchmarking and certification for existing buildings.

BREEAM In-Use available to all commercial buildings

According to BREEAM USA, BREEAM In-Use is an “independent, science-based, and inclusive assessment” that gives building managers and owners a framework for improving their operational sustainability as well as reducing energy and water costs.

Barry Giles, CEO of BuildingWise, will lead BREEAM USA as CEO. Giles told BuildingGreen, BREEAM is “a way for getting in this vast number of existing buildings that don’t have an option for a certification program.” LEED for Existing Buildings (LEED-EBOM), the best-known certification of its kind, includes a number of prerequisites. Most significantly, the current version of its energy-efficiency prerequisite requires a minimum Energy Star score of 75, which by definition excludes 75% of buildings from LEED eligibility.

Giles—a LEED Fellow who helped launch LEED-EBOM as a founding member of its Core Committee and who actively consults on LEED-EBOM projects—laments the current market response to LEED. Its uptake has been poor, he notes, and with LEED v4 raising the bar, he worries that relief is not in sight. “Even Class A buildings are beginning to reject LEED recertification because of cost, paperwork, and time,” says Giles. (Recertification is required every five years in LEED-EBOM.) “The smaller they are, the harder it is to offer a fiscally sound package to them,” he says. That’s where BREEAM In-Use comes in: for a flat fee, it helps projects benchmark themselves and gives them a road map forward.

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), for its part, is investing in its LEED Dynamic Plaque as a magnet for attracting building projects. Responding to the news about BREEAM USA, Scot Horst, chief product officer at USGBC, told Bloomberg news, “We need to keep coming up with innovative ways to get people onto a path to improvement. We see the same need. We just have different approaches.”

It starts with an online questionnaire

Engaging with BREEAM USA will start with an online questionnaire that building owners will pay $1,000 to access for up to a year, says Giles. The questionnaire is in three parts:

Part one covers the asset: the building, construction date, materials used, glazing type and percentage, etc. “With that, we’re able to calculate quite well what the energy consumption should be,” says Giles.
Part two covers the operations of the building. “Nine-five percent of the questions are associated with production of operational data,” according to Giles.
Part three covers the tenants. According to Giles, there is “a series of questions to give themselves a rating on how they deal with the space that they lease, rent, or borrow.”

“If you’re savvy with your building, it’s probably not more than a week in total filling the questionnaire in,” says Giles. That’s not a week in front of the computer; plan on fishing around for some data. You get scored as you go, and each question leads to additional questions that, according to Giles, provide a roadmap to the next level of success. For example, if you answer “yes” to having a water meter, the next question asks whether you have a year’s worth of water bills, and a subsequent question asks about submetering. There are no prerequisites, emphasizes Giles.

That initial score is unverified. The next step, if a building owner wants certification, is to hire an independent third-party assessor licensed by BREEAM USA who will come onsite and verify the data (at a cost based on the assessor’s bid). “The assessor’s job is to assess, not to consult,” notes Giles. Their report is sent to BREEAM USA for quality control, and BREEAM may ask the assessor for follow-up information. If it all passes muster, BREEAM will issue an official certification.

[Image: how BREEAM USA scores existing buildings]
Along with energy and water, BREEAM covers a total of nine environmental categories, including waste, materials, pollution, health and well-being, land use and ecology, transport, and management. (Detailed examination of how BREEAM handles these categories is outside the scope of this article.)

Fundamentals unchanged from U.K. origins

While Giles has his eye on what he counts as 5.6 million uncertified existing buildings in the U.S., “Our biggest focus is to have well-trained assessors out in the marketplace before having a flood of buildings.” BREEAM USA will offer assessor training starting in October 2016, but it is also starting an “early adopter” program for buildings now.

BREEAM is being Americanized, says Giles, though its fundamentals won’t change, in order to maintain its international relevance. For example, BREEAM USA will align with the data input to the widely used Energy Star Portfolio Manager, but it won’t use the output of that benchmark. European standards are being replaced with American standards (like ASHRAE’s), and some concepts are being explained differently for the American audience.

BREEAM’s rigor has not been compared with that of LEED-EBOM, according to Giles, but he noted the strong desire by BRE and BREEAM USA to bring more data to the marketplace, working with the U.S. Green Building Council and other organizations.

Original article here: https://www.buildinggreen.com/newsbrief/breeam-usa-jolts-existing-buildi…

From Newsweek: Your Office Air is Killing You

By Douglas Main

Green Buildings intersect with Human Health! Even high-profile news sources like Newsweek are picking up on this message.
If you want to learn about human health and building standards intersect, join us at Intro to WELL or our WELL Exam Prep Course.

An invisible killer had infiltrated Sto-Rox High School.

When workers installed a cell tower on top of the school outside Pittsburgh, no one realized the exhaust spewed by its diesel generator was being sucked into the building’s ventilation system and inhaled by everyone inside. This is stuff you really do not want in your teen’s homeroom: Diesel fumes contain particulate matter and chemicals like benzene and arsenic, which in the long term increase the risk of lung cancer and in the short term cause breathing problems and dull the mind. But lucky for the Sto-Rox students, they had Joe Krajcovic—and a Speck.

Krajcovic had installed this new device in his science classroom as a school project. The Speck measures airborne particulate pollution, which increases the risk for and exacerbates symptoms of respiratory problems like asthma. Krajcovic’s class was analyzing the data gathered by the sensor to learn about indoor air quality when they noticed spikes in particle levels every few hours. Those coincided with the generator’s daily schedule: Whenever it kicked on to power the tower’s battery, particulate pollution increased, says Speck developer Illah Nourbakhsh, a robotics researcher at nearby Carnegie Mellon University. After parsing this unnerving data, Krajcovic filed a grievance, and the tower was moved.

Your life depends on good air. Every year, air pollution causes the premature deaths of between 5.5 million and 7 million people, making it more deadly than HIV, traffic accidents and diabetes combined. The majority of these deaths—about 4 million—are caused by indoor air pollution, primarily in developing countries. But it takes a toll in developed countries as well. In Europe, for example, air pollution shortens the average life expectancy by nearly one year. Worldwide, more than 80 percent of people living in urban areas breathe air that exceeds pollution limits advised by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Particulate matter is the prime villain. The most lethal are the smallest particles (also known as PM2.5, for particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter, about one-third the diameter of a red blood cell), which are produced by combustion and household activities like cooking. These specks can get deep into the lungs, tarring the airways and weathering the heart, disrupting its ability to beat properly: Many studies have linked exposure to PM2.5 with heart attacks, cardiac arrhythmias, strokes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, worsened symptoms of asthma and an increased risk of respiratory illness. Worldwide, particulate matter contributes to about 800,000 premature deaths each year, according to the WHO, making it the 13th leading cause of death worldwide. Other pollutants also cause major problems, especially indoors—radon, a gas produced naturally in the Earth, is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the U.S., and additional gases like carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) cause myriad health effects.

Poisonous indoor air is almost completely ignored by the press, the public and those who bankroll scientific research—it gets about 100 times less research funding than outdoor air, even though the average American spends about 90 percent of the time inside. “Outdoor air is a political hot topic,” but it means less for public health than indoor air, says Jan Sundell, a researcher at the Technical University of Denmark. “You get sick due to indoor air. You die due to indoor air.”

While the federal government has a nationwide network of sensors perched atop towers that sniff for particulate matter, these cost around $100,000 each and aren’t exactly mobile—there’s simply no way the program could be expanded into schools, homes and offices, even if we could overcome all the red tape necessary for that to happen.

The Speck, however, costs $150 and is the size of an alarm clock. It’s just one example of a new generation of devices that measure air quality, many of which are priced at $200 or less and can quantify levels of particulate matter, VOCs, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and other gases. Although many of these devices aren’t yet 100 percent accurate (and certainly aren’t as precise as the fed’s monitors), they have already allowed people to improve the air they breathe in ways that would’ve been impossible even a few years back.

 

Original article: http://www.newsweek.com/2016/06/10/indoor-air-pollution-revolution-46553…

Welcome The Architectural Team as our New Sponsor!

By Ritchie Lafaille, Office Fellow


We are honored to announce The Architectural Team (TAT) as our newest Silver-Level Sponsor. We love how they are committed to sustainability and how they really “get it” in regards to our mission.

 

Driven by a commitment to exceptional design and an unyielding focus on achieving client objectives, TAT's distinctive portfolio is a result of the firm’s ability to understand and draw inspiration from our client’s goals. Their insightful, pragmatic design solutions reflect their respect for site, context and environmental sustainability. While their work has been honored with many awards, they are most proud of their lasting client relationships, and their part in those successes.

Inspired design doesn’t happen in isolation. It’s the result of a committed partnership between the client and the design team; where respect for the character and quality of the natural and built environment is fundamental. Distinctive solutions begin with client goals. These goals evolve through collaborative relationships and come to life through the insight and expertise of our design teams. How could they help you realize your design vision?

 

Welcome to our sponsoring partner community, TAT. We are proud to have you as a partner and look forward to accomplishing great things together.