LEED Project Showcase 2014: Your Sponsorship is Requested

By Grey Lee

The following is a letter sent to over 150 eligible LEED Project Teams to encourage their participation in the Showcase. If you know anyone who's worked on a LEED-certified building in the past year and a half, please refer them to me so we can bring them on board and so they can earn the attention and accolades they deserve.
 

 

Congratulations!
 
You are eligible for the 2014 Massachusetts LEED Project Showcase. You are the LEED Project Administrator listed for a project certified since Jan. 1, 2013. You did read that right, we want projects since 2013.
 
Thank you for your hard work to ensure your project attained certification and has benefited from the third-party verification process that USGBC created through LEED. We want your project to be highlighted at the LEED Project Showcase. If you are not central to the project, could you help us by referring us to the person or team who would be? This is a gathering for all parties involved in the creation of certified green buildings.
We are hosting the Showcase on Tuesday evening September 30th at Genzyme on 500 Kendall Street in Cambridge MA.
 
 
We would like you to show off your project and sponsor a board, but there are also more significant sponsorship opportunities available.
 
The higher-level sponsorships include advertisements in the NEREJ, videos produced to describe the project for your future use, and opportunities to present at the event. This year we anticipate 250 people in attendance and excellent networking opportunities.
 
National Grid has already signed on as a Platinum Sponsor. You can see a video regarding last year's Showcase hereWe hope you will participate in this celebration of all things LEED!
Thank you for your interest, and please do not hesitate to correspond so I can clarify the event and the sponsorship opportunities.

Grey Lee
Executive Director

Please forward this message to colleagues with whom you've worked on a LEED Project.
 

Passive House Conference Gathering in Portland, Maine, in September

By Dona Pfeffer, NAPHN

by Dona Pfeffer, NAPHN

Portland, Maine to Host Global and Local High Performance Building Experts

North American Passive House Network 2014 will gather Passive House leaders from across the continent and around the world to share new developments in the future of low carbon construction.

Portland, ME will host the North American Passive House Network 2014: Conference and Expo (NAPHN14) at the Holiday Inn By the Bay on September 22nd and 23rd. Leaders in this future-proof building methodology will converge to share solutions on how to address resiliency, carbon reduction and climate change for the built environment. The Passive House Standard has fast gained momentum here in the North East and across North America with leading proponents participating in this event. Local NAPHN 
chapter, passivhausMaine, is thrilled to play host to this conference. 

Founder of the Passive House Institute, Dr. Wolfgang Feist, will keynote NAPHN14 with a presentation on how the Passive House Standard is evolving to incorporate Plus Energy buildings with renewable energy sources. In a recent press release on the new rating system, Dr. Feist stated, “A building that produces more energy than it consumes is not only possible, it is often very sensible.” 

With the North East’s challenging climate and strong history of environmental building design, the region has fomented a hotbed of Passive House innovation. Pre-fabrication and the use of non-petroleum-based building materials have surfaced as strong themes here. Local Passive House proponents will be represented in both presentations and two post-event Passive House Projects Tours. Projects on the tours include schools, a co-housing development, multiple residential projects along with retrofits of existing 
homes.

Presentations have been selected from the broad spectrum of climate and building traditions across North America including NAPHN members from Colorado, New York, California, New Mexico, Washington, Oregon, Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Massachusetts. International presentations from Austria, Germany, Ireland, the UK, Belgium and China will exemplify the diversity and adaptability of this building methodology and make this the most globally-diverse Passive 
House Conference ever hosted on US soil.

NAPHN14 closing plenary speaker Gernot Vallentin, who's firm ArchitekturWerkstatt Vallentin founded by he and partner Rena Vallentin, was awarded the prestigious Best Educational Passive House Building at the 18th International Passive House Conference in Aachen, Germany. The Pulmuone Seminary and Training facility, located in Goesan, South Korea, was designed and completed in 2013 (see below).

The Passive House Standard has come to represent a universal level of quality and performance and it is this that will be showcased at NAPHN14 in Portland, Maine. 
NAPHN14: Conference & Expo website (with offered trainings, social events & tours).

 

The Pulmone Seminary and Training Facility in Goesan, South Korea

 

 

USGBC MA Chapter

By Grey Lee

USGBC MA Chapter has a new home!

 

 
We have officially started operations at the new CIC Boston coworking facility – at 50 Milk Street in Boston. We are now on the 19th floor with many of our colleagues from Space with a Soul. The new location is between Post Office Square and Downtown Crossing. 
 
Looking northwest at the Charles River, across Boston Common and beyond the spire of the Park Street Church. How many green buildings can you see here?
 

 

 

The facility will be more convenient to more volunteers and visitors – located close to all T lines and a short walk from many of our sponsors' and members' offices. We are also now much closer to Boston City Hall and the State House, which will hopefully enable more advocacy work.
 

We are now officially part of the curated office space network of the CIC (formerly Cambridge Innovation Center) and the building is being renovated for another type of “Venture Cafe” networking venue. This is a big weekly gathering in Kendall Square, Cambridge currently and we hope to participate with the innovation community through CIC Boston.
 

If you have an upcoming meeting at “our offices” – they will now be at 50 Milk Street in comparable space. We will be updating the calendar entries but please know that we will have no further activities at our former location at 281 Summer Street.

 

 

Also at CIC Boston is the Impact Hub Boston for social enterprises working to solve social problems through business-based models. I like to think LEED is one major way to use business to address social & environmental problems, meaning that we are indeed a social enterprise.

I hope you will stop by for an upcoming meeting. Wait, did I hear someone say “Open House?!”

See you soon,
Grey

 

Chapter Volunteer Phoebe Beierle Nationally Recognized

By Grey Lee

Phoebe Beierle, long-time Chapter volunteer and former Board President, has been recognized in the magazine gb&d – a 50,000 subscriber portal for all things in the green building & design world.
 

Congratulations to Phoebe for being acknowledged as one of five people nationally who are going above-and-beyond for green schools. THANK YOU for your work to help make the Boston School Department embrace environmental responsibility in their operations and in how they bring subject matter to the students. You are a fabulous example of the dedication, the insight, and the hard work it takes to transform organizations and our built environment. Kudos to you!

The Chapter depends on people like Phoebe to help bring about the major changes we need in order to attain our mission. We believe in the power of design to improve lives and we have a vision that every person will be able to live, work, play and study in a green building within a generation. Also congrats to another Massachusetts green building proponent, Bruce Coldham, for his work on the Living Building at Smith College!

Tuesday, September 30: The 2014 MA LEED Project Showcase

By Grey Lee

Are you ready for the biggest LEED show in New England?

That's right, the 2014 LEED Project Showcase is coming right up in 2 months.

This year we expect to be even bigger and better than last year. Did you catch that video we made? We anticipate over 75 projects on display and over 200 people in attendance. This is a great time to connect with people you've worked with on past projects, explore the creativity of our community, and connect with owners and property managers who need to see how we can meet their needs as they commit to better and better performances in their building portfolios.

The event will be from 5:30-8:30 on Tuesday September 30th, 2014. Sponsorship opportunities are available – including video interview and at-event presentation packages.

We will convene at Genzyme at 500 Kendall Street in Cambridge – this was the first building in Massachusetts to attain LEED Platinum certification back in 2005.
 

We look forward to seeing you there!
 

The Weekly Bulletin to 7/25/14

By Grey Lee

It's been a busy summer so far with the Chapter. We had a great time at Spaulding Rehab on the 17th – take a look at the pics for more on that!
 

Then on Wednesday our wonderful Emerging Professionals (EPMA) put together a great “Oceanview Summer Social” at the Atlantic Beer Garden. Special thanks go out to Forbo Flooring Systems who were able to provide appetizers for everyone and a few minutes of a presentation on healthy building materials – which of course is something we all appreciate.

What is coming up?

The City of Cambridge may be voting on the Building Energy Use Disclosure Ordinance (BEUDO) this coming Monday. This is similar to Boston's BERDO and other energy benchmarking & disclosure ordinances throughout the country. The USGBC and our Massachusetts Chapter are strong proponents of these measures and have been lobbying hard to see a good ordinance pass in Cambridge. We will keep you posted.

On Tuesday August 12th, we'll be hosting a related “Making the Best of BERDO” Forum from 8-10am at Atlantic Wharf in Boston. Thank you to our event sponsors Cadmus!  We'll hear an excellent panel of heavy-hitters from Gerding Edlen, Boston Properties, National Grid and of course, Cadmus. We'll learn how leading firms are using building energy benchmarking and reporting to beef up their property management processes and embrace whole-portfolio energy management for competitive advantage. Sign up now!

That same week on Thursday the 14th, we have an in-depth morning workshop on Net Zero Energy design & construction. Taught by Eric Corey Freed, this will be an important opportunity for people from across our industry to delve deep into net zero design – the imperative of which no one can deny!  See you there.

 

Speaking of “going green,” join the EPMA for the “Sustainable Bike Tour” of Boston's Back Bay and Fenway on Saturday, August 23rd. Starting from Central Square in Cambridge, the tour will last a few hours in the afternoon. Last year was a real hit, so we hope to see even more green building & bike ethusiasts this year.

And before I forget, there's also some big news – the 2014 MA LEED Project Showcase is coming to town on Tuesday, September 30th at Genzyme in Kendall square. We just settled the venue and the date. It's going to be great – over 75 project teams and over 200 guests from all ends of the industry. A major green building networking event sure to be. Don't miss it! Sponsorship opportunities are available. You will be hearing a lot about it over the next few weeks.

Last but not least: what the greenest building in this picture?
 

Fun at the Summer Social!

By Grey Lee

On Wednesday July 24th, the Emerging Professionals (EPMA) hosted another great evening event bringing together a wide range of green building professionals. We took over half of the Atlantic Beer Garden and had a good time making connections.
 

Yeah: #MoreGreenBuildings!

Special thanks to Forbo Flooring for sponsoring the delicious eats. We appreciated your presentation about healthy materials and biologically-informed design. Glad you could make it out to meet the future of the green building industry. Thank you Matt & Jeff.
 

 

 
Congratulations to the organizing team from EPMA – Jessica, Jenna, Kristen, Stephanie and Adrienne.

 

It was great to meet over 50 emerging professionals from architects, engineers, illumination specialists, materials scientists, builders, roofing, fenestration & access pros, retrofitters, state public servants and more! See you next time!
 

 

Spaulding Rehab Tour & More!

By Grey Lee

We had a great evening in Charlestown last Thursday night.
 

The view heading over to Charlestown from the Central Wharf Ferry

Thank you to AtSite for sponsoring the event. Thank you to Perkins+Will, TCI, and Copley Wolff Design Group for facilitating the amazing tours. Your dedication to this incredible project is noteworthy. Thank you to Deborah Rivers of P+W for organizing the tour leaders for us all.

 
Perkins+Will has a great suite of content related to the project at their website – with excellent aerial photos. 
 

There's a great article “Rethinking Rehabilitation” about the hospital at GreenHealth Magazine.
 

 

 

Here's the AtSite team with the project architect. Looking good Alan Friedman, Steve Black, Olav Hegland and Jeffrey Keilman of Perkins+Will!

 

 

 

 

Great group of over 75 professionals came out to hear brief presentations and then tour the building & grounds. 

 

 

 

 

 

More than a few Chapter regulars made it out to see and be seen!
 

 
 
 
 

The Weekly Bulletin to 7/18/14

By Grey Lee

Thank you to all who came out to our monthly networking night at Spaulding Hospital yesterday! Thank you to event sponsor AtSite and to Deborah Rivers of Perkins+Will for organizing the tours of that amazing facility. More photos coming soon!
 

 

Coming up next week we have the EPMA “Oceanview Summer Social” at the Atlantic Beer Garden.  This would be Wednesday 7/23 from 6-9pm. There will be Mad Libs and free appetizers, courtesy of Forbo Flooring. All are welcome – hosted by the Emerging Professionals, but open to all!

I wrote a bit about upcoming events the other day – take a look to see what's in the works. There are some committee meetings listed in there too.

Don't forget to send a note to your state representative in order to endorse the PACE financing bill. We have a template letter you can use right here on the blog. Thank you for lending your support to this initiative!