Local LEED Advocacy
By Grey Lee
USGBC has been able to transform the real estate industry toward greater sustainability in our built environment. The LEED rating system to certify buildings has been a powerful tool in that process. We love LEED! It has resulted in better buildings, reduced infrastructure costs & escalations, improved health and many, many jobs for our colleagues and stakeholders in the green building sector.
The Massachusetts Chapter is engaging with USGBC's national advocacy campaigns to promote LEED as a tool for municipalities to improve their buildings, improved their economies and improve their branding.
Working with a team from Washington DC, I recently went on tour to connect with mayors, planners, and other key leaders throughout Massachusetts. We visited a number of “Gateway Cities” – urban areas which have significant economic and social challenges. We have seen communities embrace green building policies for a variety of benefits in other states, and we can do it here as well. Massachusetts is a leader in energy efficency and renewables, and we can be even more of a leader in green buildings. If we get more municipalities, through their local zoning and development review processes, to stipulate LEED in their policies, we will see the benefits of more green buildings in more communities of the Commonwealth.
Below is the crew: Greer, Chris, Christina and Conor, in the “Flag Room” of the Fall River City Hall:
In our first round of touring in early May, we visited four cities: Brockton, Fall River, Worcester and Holyoke.
Here I am with Conor Yunits, running the team from Liberty Square Group in Boston, who have deep experience in political advocacy campaigns at the local level. It helps that he is from Brockton, in this case. Brockton had a hay-day in the 19th century making a lot of shoes. Inside City Hall are some amazing murals from the 19th Century. Maybe with LEED certified green buildings they can regain their former glory?
Here we have Greer Millard from Liberty Square Group and Christina Kuo, Director of Advocacy at USGBC talking with Dan Racicot, Worcester's Mayor Petty's Chief of Staff. It looks like we'll be doing a presentation for that city's Chamber of Commerce later in the summer.
The last stop on this day's tour was Holyoke's City Hall. Plenty of folks know about the canals and the mill buildings of Holyoke. Some of you have seen the City Hall. Have you ever been up into the actual “hall” of City Hall? It is magnificent!
In Holyoke, we met with Mayor Morse to talk about the benefits of LEED at the municipal level. They are about to certify their library and have had a good experience with LEED so far. They were interested in the LEED ND materials as well. There is a lot of potential for green buildings in Holyoke!
Going Platinum: Atlantic Wharf, Boston
By Ethan Lay-Sleeper
May 6, 2015
By Ethan Lay-Sleeper
Atlantic Wharf
In 2012 Mayor Menino announced that Boston Properties’ Atlantic Wharf project earned LEED Platinum certification, officially making it Boston’s first greenskyscraper. The 1.2 million sf mixed-use project was designed by CBT Architects. It includes 86 residential units, 6 levels of below grade parking, 30 floors of premium office space, and ground floor retail to help activate the area around Fort Point Channel. The project incorporates two existing historic structures, the Russia Building which was transformed into lofts, and the façade and streetscape of the Tufts Building, which were preserved around updated interiors.
In addition to incorporating existing structures, the overall site design uses landscape and hardscape design elements to help link the financial district and the Rose Kennedy Greenway through the block to the waterfront. Over 30% of the site area is vegetated open space, incorporating native plantings and rainwater harvesting to eliminate the use of potable water for irrigation, and reduce overall irrigation by over 60%. Rainwater is harvested from the roof in a 40,000 gallon basement storage tank, and reused in irrigation and process water for HVAC systems. This reduced the amount of process water by 15% below comparable HVAC systems.
In terms of water consumption and improving the public realm, Atlantic Wharf is designed to use 33% energy than comparable office towers. To achieve these energy savings, the design team developed a core and shell system that performs well above ASHRAE 90.1-2004 standards. It uses a curtain wall system with 20% better thermal properties, glazing with 42% better thermal properties, and roof systems with 32% better thermal properties. These improvements help to reduce CO2 equivalent emissions by an estimated 43%, and they also help to save money on the project’s annual energy bill which is over $2.5 million. During construction, over 85% of waste was diverted from landfills, 20% of the building materials were manufactured from recycled products, and 50% of the wood used in the building is FSC certified. The building operations and maintenance also implemented a single stream recycling program upon opening, which continues to reduce waste over the building lifecycle. To learn more about Atlantic Wharf, check out the LEED project scorecard here.
Upper Northeast Regional Summit
By Grey Lee
A sizeable contingent of Massachusetts Chapter members attended the USGBC Upper Northeast Regional Summit in Portland, Maine, on May 1st.
The gathering brought together representatives from the six New England state chapters and the New York Upstate chapter as well. Each year, the gathering draws attendees from the USGBC community to share best practices, explore regional priorities for the movement, and build social capital among our professional networks.
This year had a theme regarding resilience and we participated in charettes for local Portland organizations who are dealing with sea level rise.
Below are some of the crew from Mass who came up for the day and the associated meetings of the Upper Northeast Regional Committee.
From left to right: Suzy O'Leary, EPMA; Sandy Brock, Board; Jim Newman, Chair of the Board; Conor McGuire, Regional Rep & Board; Shawn Hesse, Regional Rep & Board; Grey Lee, Exec Direc; and Jared Gentilucci, Central MA Committee. The backdrop image was part of a charette showing downtown Portland's future flood zone perimeter (in purple).
Thank you to all on the UNRC who organized the event, especially Ken Filarski (Chair of Rhode Island Chapter) and John Pietroniro (Chair of New Hampshire Chapter) and the team from the Maine Chapter, Doc Brudzinski, Diane Milliken, and Mick Dunn (Maine Chair). It was a very interesting, informative, and enjoyable summit.
Cape Cod Net Zero Home
By Adam Prince, Co-Chair of the Cape & Islands Working Group of USGBC MA Chapter
By Adam Prince, Co-Chair of the Cape & Islands Working Group of USGBC MA Chapter
The USGBC-MA Cape & Islands Interest Group hosted an evening in late April with presentations and a tour of a new high performance home in Sandwich, Massachusetts. Open to the public (with refreshments graciously sponsored by g Green Design Center) attendees listened to insights and details about the brand new green home during a series of short presentations.
Presenters covered nearly every aspect of the project including:
- Greg Delory, the designer for the building who addressed the architecture and selection of SIPs as a construction system
- Nicole Goldman, the green interior designer, who explained green material selections & finishes, kitchen design, and bathroom design
- Steven Klug, the general contractor, who discussed the SIP assembly and construction techniques
- Bruce Torrey, who completed the energy modeling and consulting for the home
- Paul Raymer, who designed the heating, cooling, and ventilation systems
- Peter & Betsy, who provided insight regarding their values and decisions as the homeowners
Overall the evening was exceptionally insightful with professionals willing to share, and plenty of content available to discuss in the newly constructed energy efficient home.
Building Tech Forum & Schock
By Ryan Duffy, Communications Fellow
Schöck Inc. was one of our great sponsors for the inaugural Building Tech Forum. The Schöck group, with 13 companies and 630 employees is headquartered in Baden-Baden, Germany. Schöck's work increases building efficiency and reduces maintenance and renewal costs for buildings, which made them the perfect partner for our event.
Schöck's focus is on the development of ready components that are part of the statics with building physics at a high value, such as the avoidance of thermal bridges or impact noise in the building. The group offers innovative solutions to thermal bridging, a common problem in new construction and existing structures. The concept of thermal bridging is explained in the infographic below, taken from Schöck's website.
Greening the MLS
By Craig Foley
Greening the Multiple Listing System (MLS)
Sustainability Data in the Presentation of Real Estate
Implementing green data fields in residential multiple listing services (MLS) throughout the country is still at the early adopter stage. Of the roughly 900 MLSs in service throughout the country, only 20% have adopted green data fields.
Many people believe that the multiple listing service is a single, monolithic, centralized database of real estate transactions that has stored the essential information for residential sales across the country. Nothing could be further from the truth. The 900 MLSs servicing the real estate sales industry are most often owned by local real estate boards – in Massachusetts alone we have 15 local boards which provide continuing education opportunities for members, promote and protect real property ownership, as well as govern their local membership under the guidelines expressed in the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) Code of Ethics.
Only a few of the local MA boards own their MLS, many have decided to work under the larger umbrella of MLS Property Information Network (MLS PIN) located in Shrewsbury, MA. MLS PIN is the predominant listing service in the region, and under the guidance of its CEO and President, Kathy Condon, was one of the earliest adopters of green data fields in 2009.
During the summer of 2013 a group of stakeholders from the Residential Green Building Committee of the Massachusetts Chapter of the USGBC decided to take a detailed look at fields MLS PIN had adopted in 2009 . The committee quickly realized that the fields PIN adopted needed a revision. The rapidly evolving marketplace of new technologies designed to make new and existing homes more energy efficient required an update to keep the fields relevant.
Arguably the most important field that was added to MLS PIN’s update was the field for a HERS Index Score and the date that it was completed. Although fans of the NESEA Master Blog series need no education about the HERS Index Score or how important it is to have the field added to residential listings in Massachusetts, a quick overview of both might be helpful for the casual reader. The HERS Index Score is a third-party verification of the energy efficiency of a new or existing home. The score gives the home an energy asset rating based on the inherent characteristics of the building’s envelope and fenestration, ductwork, heating and cooling systems, and the water heating system.
The importance of an energy asset rating in the real estate transaction cannot be understated. Occupancy behavior, particularly by residential end-users of power to heat, light, and cool their homes, can be extreme. Asking the seller to provide documentation of their heating and cooling costs can give a false impression of the inherent energy efficiency of the building. Energy asset ratings like the HERS Index Score, the DOE Home Energy Score, or MA DOER Home MPG Scorecard, all have the ability to provide an accurate metric for home buyers or lessors considering their next move.
As demand rises for homes that offer buyers not only lower operating costs, but also healthy living spaces and have a lower environmental impact, a home’s inherent energy efficiency delivered in a third-party verified energy asset rating is essential to a transparent marketplace. Kudos to MLS PIN for their willingness to implement the HERS Index Score to their database of residential properties here in Massachusetts.
Service in the Big: Franklin Park!
By Grey Lee
Our awesome Emerging Professionals got together last weekend to provide some community service to the great park system of Boston.
We went out to Franklin Park, the “crown jewel” of the Emerald Necklace system in Roxbury. We even brought a special friend: Titus!
It was a gorgeous day to be out and about: really a delightful spot.
Big Bill kept telling us about how great a golf course it was at Franklin Park.
But he got to work, deep in the rough, to help clean out trash:
There was quite a good crew assembled:
Kimberly even got a little too enthusiastic…and wet!
We found “Scholar's Corner” where this plaque was placed:
Let's see that crew again!
A Building Tech Forum is Born
By Grey Lee
What a great gathering! We had a full house last night for our innaugural Building Tech Forum.
Over 100 people gathered in the event space at MassChallenge in Boston to connect building professionals with building tech innovators. Here we have building scientists Ale Menchaca and Andrea Love with Jim Newman, Sec. Beaton, and Grey Lee.
We heard from the Secretary of Energy & Environmental Affairs, Matt Beaton, about green builidng and energy policy in Massachusetts. It was his fifth speech on a very busy Earth Day – so we thank him sincerely for taking the time to come out to the Innovation District with us. We will certainly take him up on his offer that his office work with us to advance our mission of green buildings for everyone within a generation. The USGBC MA looks forward to supporting the Secretary's work to protect and improve the environment of Massachusetts for all citizens of the Commonwealth.
Kimberly Cullinane of Eversource highlighted the support that the energy utilities in the state are willing to provide to help support innovation in the design and the energy systems of new buidings. Kim noted that Eversource is committed to supporting the energy of the future – that they will be “the battery” for all of our distributed renewable generation that we're putting on buildings.
Thank you to the many folks from Eversource who attended, and their Champion-level sponsorship of the event. Thank you also to the companion Champion Sponsor, National Grid. Take a look at their awesome video about all the money they offer to design teams to incorporate energy savings in the early stages of their projects.
On hand to impart so wisdom earned from the field was Dan Teague from WegoWise – an energy management software company that started in Boston and is now international in scope. It was great to hear how a wonderful idea can catch on, expand into a growing business, and help people improve their buildings' energy performace – way to go Wegowise!
Jim Newman, of Linnean Solutions, and Chair of our Board, made the connection of how green building has always been part of the innovation economy, and how “we're gonna keep doing that!”
The dozens of guests enjoyed a seriously good spread of food & drink, and were able to interact with a dozen displaying firms selected to represent a cross-section of product and service types, all innovations that connect to the building sector. It was a serious building technology geek-schmooze-fest!
Our Building Tech Forum concluded with a lively panel answering the questions of: What innovation here has helped you to think newly about a problem you confront on one of your projects? And what can we do to help this building tech sector continue to innovate to help improve buildings? Thank you representatives from each of our Leadership Sponsors to Steven Burke of SMMA, Dan Teague of WegoWise, Abby Charest of Wentworth Institute of Technology, Chris Crowell of SemaConnect, Kim Cullinane of Eversource and Chris Schaffner of The Green Engineer.
Some of the answers were quite intriguing, such as “Become a B-Corporation” “Net Zero is not enough” and “Collaborate with your competition” – and we thank all who attended and were able to share their know-how.
Thank you to those who could attend, and especially our displaying sponsors:
Embue
EnerScore
TOTO
SolaBlock
Ecovent
MassSave
SGH
Sustainable Minds
Advanced Energy Intelligence
Schock
We look forward to continuing this conversation about innovation in building technology, and certainly to producing another Building Tech Forum in the coming years. Thank you to MassChallenge for providing the space! If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to write us and we can try to re-connect you with that conversation from the event.
Happy Earth Day, everyone, everyday!
PS: Thank you to the organizing team: Tiffany King (Commodore Builders), Ethan Lay-Sleeper (MIT), and Alana Spencer (Vanderweil). I'm not sure what we were making faces about but it was toward the end of the evening!
LEED Gold Certification in Northamption
By Grey Lee
LEED® Gold Certification Awarded To PeoplesBank Northampton Office
NORTHAMPTON, Mass. (May 5, 2015) – Earth Day week was an appropriate time for PeoplesBank to announce its third LEED certified office. The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) recently certified the PeoplesBank Northampton office as LEED Gold.
This green building joins the PeoplesBank LEED Silver certified office at 1051 St. James Ave. in Springfield, which also was recognized with the City’s first GreenSeal Award, and their LEED Gold certified West Springfield office. Pictured, Left to Right: Mayor David J. Narkewicz; Stacy A. Sutton, First Vice President PeoplesBank; Douglas A. Bowen, President & CEO PeoplesBank; Ludmilla D. Pavlova-Gillham, Founder & Past Chair USGBC Massachusetts Chapter – West Branch; Susan B. Wilson, First Vice President PeoplesBank; and Grey Lee, Executive Director USGBC Massachusetts.
About: PeoplesBank is a leader in innovation, corporate responsibility, environmental sustainability, and employee engagement. Our three LEED® certified offices are environmentally friendly, and we have financed more than $70 million in wind, hydroelectric, and solar energy projects.
As the largest community bank in the market, we have a unique ability to help the communities we serve through volunteer efforts and millions of dollars in donations to charitable and civic causes. Our associates devote an average of 6,000 hours to volunteer work each year, and 48 of the bank’s officers serve on the board of directors and committees of 115 area nonprofit organizations.
PeoplesBank – “a passion for what is possible”