The Commonwealth Corporation’s WTFP Express Program provides employers fast, simple access to grant-funded training, helping businesses in Massachusetts respond to emerging needs. Built Environment Plus helps facilitate this funding to enable more attendees to take advantage of our education programs.

Businesses with 1-50 employees can receive up to 100% reimbursement, and those with 51-100 employees up to 50% reimbursement. If you have more than 100 employees, you should apply to the General program.

Who Can Apply?
The Express Grant program is available to Massachusetts employers with 100 or fewer employees, but eligibility depends on a few key factors. To qualify, your organization must:

1. Have a physical MA-based location
2. Pay into the state’s Unemployment Insurance (UI) system.

For-profits, Non-profits and Sole proprietors are typically eligible if they have W2 employees, while government agencies and community colleges are not eligible. To check your eligibility and learn more, visit this page.

Here’s the Process for Applying for Express Grant Funding for Eligible Courses:
1. Pick a Course from the BE+ Catalog
2. Gather Application Materials (COGS from MA DOR; Cert. of Compliance from DUA; W9)
3. Apply for Funding
4. Accept your Award & Sign Contract
5. Attend or Send Employees to Training
6. Request Reimbursement

New Eligibility Requirements for Application Materials:
Effective July 2025, Express Grant applications require a NEW Certificate of Compliance from the Department of Unemployment Assistance (DUA), in addition to the prior documentation required (including a Certificate of Good Standing from the Department of Revenue and signed Form W9; read more about obtaining a Certificate of Good Standing here).

The new Certificate of Compliance is required to:

(1) Verify compliance with DUA UI/UHI contributions
(2) Confirm that your organization pays into the Workforce Training Fund
(3) Verify the latest number of Massachusetts payroll employees that were filed with the DUA

How to Request the Certificate of Compliance
Businesses can generate a Certificate of Compliance that will confirm whether the business contributes to WTFP and is eligible to apply (assuming all other compliance requirements are met) via a self-service option on the DUA’s Unemployment Services for Employers portal. See here for instructions to access the Unemployment Services for Employers portal.

Important Notes:

• • The DUA is now using MyMassGov login for its Unemployment Services for Employers portal, which has replaced the UIOnline portal. You will need to create a “MyMass.gov” login FIRST, before you can get access to your DUA account.
  • You must select the entity type “Commonwealth Corporation” when requesting a Certificate of Compliance through the DUA self-service portal. The Commonwealth Corporation has outlined detailed steps to obtain this certificate.
  • The Certificate of Compliance is valid for 30 days from the date of issuance and must be valid at the time of the grant application.
  • You must ensure you request the version of the Certificate of Compliance that confirms compliance with the DUA, and ALSO verifies that your organization pays into the Workforce Training Fund or your most recently filed employee count.
    • Please ensure you indicate that you need your certificate for “Commonwealth Corporation” compliance by following the detailed guide linked above.

Questions?
For assistance with resolving compliance issues related to your DUA account, please contact the DUA Revenue Enforcement Unit directly at revenue.enforcement@mass.gov, or 617-626-5075, Option 4.

Reach out to the BE+ Education team at education@builtenvironmentplus.org with questions about completing the Express Grant application to take our courses for free!

Built Environment Plus has launched a new award category for the 2025 Green Building Showcase to recognize strategies and interventions that increase energy efficiency and reduce emissions of existing buildings.

As part of its work developing the Massachusetts Building Performance Exchange, in collaboration with the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, this new award will shine a bright light on the innovative and impactful work already underway to transform large, out-of-date existing buildings into modern, energy efficient and healthy buildings.

To better promote this new award, BE+ is offering deep discounts on all entries to this category. All award entries for the Building Decarb Intervention Award will be just $100 instead of the typical $350 entry fee, and will also include one ticket to the October 30th GBS Awards Program & Celebration in the Seaport. See below for details.

As buildings account for around 35% of greenhouse gas emissions in Massachusetts, and roughly 80% of the buildings that will exist in 2050 have already been built, we have to get really smart about how we tackle the carbon emissions of our existing building stock. The submitted project should have a product or practice that is high impact, innovative, and replicable, in order to help Massachusetts cut emissions at scale.

This new award builds on the success of the Existing Building Interventions and Innovations track at the 2025 Building Tech Forum, which had 39 submissions for 15 presentation slots. Attendees heard Dr. Emily Reichert, CEO of MassCEC, lay out Massachusetts’ leadership role in developing a thriving climatetech ecosystem to address some of the biggest challenges facing the Commonwealth. It’s the perfect complement to our re-named Sustainable Whole-Building Renovation award, and we look forward to including both in future GBS awards programs.

The deadline for all Award Entry purchases is 5pm on September 30th. The September 30th deadline for award submissions will be extended for this category only, but only if the entry is purchased by the deadline.

For more details you can visit the GBS ‘25 Awards Program webpage or download the Call for Entries.

For the discount, apply promo code DECARB100 to an Award Entry purchase here.

About the Building Performance Exchange
BE+ is working with MassCEC to accelerate market transformation for larger building energy retrofits through knowledge sharing, training, peer-to-peer interaction, and targeted research. The Exchange will make retrofitting existing buildings easier through a library of guides, case studies, and webinars. It will create a community of professionals with the expertise to transform large, out-of-date existing buildings into modern, energy efficient and healthy buildings. https://builtenvironmentplus.org/exchange 

About Green Building Showcase
Once a year, the BE+ community gathers to celebrate industry success in greening the built environment. The evening consists of a cocktail reception in a showcase of project boards, short presentations, discussions, and the awards program. Attendees include architects, engineers, contractors, developers, owners, facility managers, building users, lenders, suppliers – everyone who plays a role in designing, operating, and constructing the built environment.
https://builtenvironmentplus.org/greenbuildingshowcase

Welcome Fall 2025 interns Ella Hubbard and Molly Neu! We’re excited to have them on board to help strengthen the BE+ community and support our mission to advance sustainable and regenerative design, construction, and operations of the built environment. With their diverse backgrounds, fresh perspectives, and early contributions of energy and insight, Ella and Molly are already making an impact—we’re looking forward to all of their many contributions to the BE+ community throughout the fall!

Ella Hubbard

My name is Ella, and I am very excited to be working as an intern with BE+ this fall! I am entering my senior year at Tufts University where I study Community Health and  Environmental Science with a concentration in Sustainability and Policy. I am on the sailing team at Tufts and enjoy knitting and drawing in my free time. I am passionate about creating living spaces that benefit both the environment and human health. I am grateful for this opportunity and excited to learn more about green urban design and the green building community during my time with BE+.

Connect with Ella Hubbard on LinkedIn

The 2025 BE+ Building Tech Forum packed the Joyce Cummings Center at Tufts University on July 17th with over 300 people gathering to explore the latest and greatest breakthroughs in building technologies, products, and innovations.

In collaboration with the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC), the Existing Building Interventions & Innovations Track focused on forward-thinking solutions to improve, decarbonize, and extend the life of existing buildings—an area that is crucial as 35% of MA’s emissions come from the building sector.

Dr. Emily Reichert, CEO of MassCEC, addressed the full audience to lay out the progress Massachusetts is making towards leading the world’s climatetech industry and making our homes, workplaces, and schools healthier, safer, and more efficient.

“It was an honor to talk about this opportunity, and it was especially powerful to hear impressive presentations from many of MassCEC’s grantees and partners”, said Dr. Reichert.

The evening then packed in 45 5-minute lightning talks on cutting edge developments and innovations advancing the sustainability of the built environment, in three different track rooms.

The forum was a high-energy event involving the exchange of ideas that will continue influencing the building practices across Massachusetts and beyond. Attendees and presenters were offered networking opportunities with industry leaders, innovators, practitioners, and key decision-makers.

“MassCEC has greatly impacted the building industry in Massachusetts as they cultivate and partner with a growing ecosystem of industry leaders who keep pushing the bounds of what’s possible,” said Meredith Elbaum, Executive Director of BE+. “This year’s Tech Forum was by far the most impactful, thanks in large part to our increased collaboration with MassCEC as we launch the Massachusetts Building Performance Exchange.”

This new program will be a centralized hub for building professionals, building owners and other large building stakeholders to find information on how to improve building efficiency and health, utilize educational resources, and get support with decarbonizing existing buildings.

MassCEC continues to invest in supporting owners approach building decarbonization and electrification, through programs like their Building Electrification Transformation Accelerator (BETA) which provides no-cost building audits.

We are thrilled with the progress and excitement that events like Building Tech Forum mark, as we bring together the green building community to share and explore cutting-edge innovations and strategies. We see very clearly the transformation of this vital industry and are continually inspired by the collaborative potential that helps drive meaningful change within the built environment.

View photos from the event.

HMFH Architect’s design of the new Josiah Quincy Upper School for the City of Boston has recently earned LEED Platinum certification. It is only the second MSBA-funded school project in Massachusetts, after our design of the Saugus Middle High School, to earn this designation.

This significant achievement reflects the school’s high standards for efficiency, resiliency, and environmental health as one of the first projects to open under the Green New Deal for Boston Public Schools initiative.

Fossil Fuel Free & Efficient 

The building is powered entirely by electricity with efficient heat pump technology, meaning no fossil fuels are used for heating, cooling, or cooking in the school. A well-insulated envelope and optimal window-to-wall ratio minimize energy use from heating and cooling, while most academic spaces have north- or south-facing windows to create optimal daylighting conditions and reduce the need for artificial lighting. Daylight controls and vacancy sensors in classrooms and offices further limit energy expenditure by automatically dimming lights when there is sufficient daylight and turning lights off when a space is unoccupied.

Indoor Air Quality 

With few buildable sites for a new school building in Boston’s dense downtown core, JQUS was conceived as a high-rise school on a constrained urban plot adjacent to two highways. From the outset, mitigating the effects of the site’s air pollution was key to creating a healthy and successful learning environment. An efficient displacement ventilation system, enhanced air filtering, and intakes located on the school’s roof and away from the most significant pollution sources assures that clean outdoor air is supplied to all interior spaces.

Design for Equity & Well-Being

JQUS is a middle high school with a 96% minority student body. The school’s auditorium, black box theater, gym, and media center are designed to serve all students in grades 6-12 as well as the community for after-hours events. Despite the constraints of the school’s less than one-acre urban site, the design fosters a connection to nature and prioritizes student well-being through the design of an accessible landscaped rooftop. Complete with an outdoor STEM classroom, gardens, and walking paths, the rooftop provides space for movement, hands-on project work, and mindful contemplation. Gardens with native species of meadow grasses and hardy wildflowers connect students with the local ecology and student planting beds provide hands-on experience growing food.

Resiliency & Water Conservation

All critical mechanical equipment is raised above the first floor to ensure the building’s continued operation and mitigate risk in a potential flood or large storm event. JQUS is designed to preserve groundwater levels with a stormwater detention system under the building that recharges stormwater back into the ground. In addition, the plantings on the roof help to slow stormwater runoff, reducing the chance that drains would be overloaded in a storm event, and low-flow fixtures throughout the building conserve about 240,000 gallons of water annually.

Join us in welcoming our Summer 2025 interns, Jason Dias and Madison Clowes! We’re thrilled to have them on board for the summer to strengthen the BE+ community and advance our mission to drive the sustainable and regenerative design, construction, and operation of the built environment. Jason and Madison have already brought high energy, insight, and talent to our team, and we’re looking forward to all we’ll achieve together.

Jason Dias

My name is Jason, and I’m a recent graduate of Centre College with a Bachelor of Science in Economics & Finance and concentrations in Accounting & History. I was born in Boston, but lived in Brazil for a few years as a kid. There, I spent a great amount of time on my parents’ farm, where I learned to appreciate our beautiful earth. I’m excited to serve as an intern with the education team at BE+ and immerse myself in the sustainable architecture space before heading to graduate school in the fall. I enjoy running, reading historical fiction, and trying out new smoothies.

Connect with Jason Dias on LinkedIn