ISO & LEED: A beautiful couple

By Grey Lee

One item that synergizes perfectly with LEED is the International Standards Organizations (ISO) environmental standards.  And yet, I find that many in the building trades have an imperfect or incomplete understanding of these tools.

 

 
The ISO membership is comprised of 160 national standards institutes and its standards provide practical tools for all three dimensions of sustainable development: economic, environmental, and societal.  These standards provide an internationally developed and recognized framework to ensure quality, ecology, safety, economy, reliability, compatibility, interoperability, conformity, efficiency, and effectiveness.  These traits facilitate trade and shared knowledge based best management practices.

Many of the standards, particularly those in the 14,000 families of environmental management standards, harmonize with many aspects of LEED.  While LEED focuses upon the built environment, ISO focuses more on the organizations operations and management, thus it meshes quite nicely with LEED-EBOM.  These standards can build off each other and the strengths of each can complement the other to build a more sustainable whole.  With a small amount of planning and foresight, a company can occupy a LEED-certified building and earn ISO certification without duplicating effort.  If they currently hold one certification, the other is more easily attained.
 

Why would an organization seek ISO certification?



Just as there are a myriad of justifications for seeking LEED certification, there are a host of reasons for pursuing ISO certification.  These include improved efficiency and effectiveness, contractual or regulatory compliance, customer or public preference, risk management, sales prospects and market access, cost savings/waste reduction, and environmental stewardship.
 

It should be noted that while the ISO develops the International Standards, it is not a certification body.  Certification is performed by third party auditors. These “certification bodies” review the written documentation and audit the facility.  The documentation can include employee standards, training records, approved standard operating procedures, plans for non-conforming events, quality verification, calibrations and test methods, document control procedures, and audits.  The purpose of this documentation is to ensure that the desired procedures are followed in a prescribed manner and that the Plan–Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle is driving continual improvement.


ISO 14001 standard is unique in that one can opt for the traditional third party audit and certification or one can independently self-certify. The ability to self-certify opens the standard up to many smaller organizations that may be daunted by the costs of a third party audit. 
 

ISO 14001 – Environmental Management Systems.

 

This standard is the bedrock of the entire environmental series. It establishes the requirements for an Environmental Management System (EMS).  An EMS is a standardized plan that defines the environmental impacts of an organizations' activity and seeks to minimize those impacts that are within its control.  The system that quantifies and then minimizes these impacts follows the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle.  This involves deciding upon a plan of action, implementing the plan, checking that the plan is in effect and correcting any shortfalls, and reviewing the results and improving the system.  Determining the impacts and designing the plans can be a daunting task; however, the ISO has many published documents to assist in the task.

If a company is certified to ISO 9001 standards, it is much easier to obtain ISO 14001.  ISO 9001 establishes Quality Management Systems.   A company that has a Quality Management System in place will have much of the framework required for an EMS.  They will have records on raw materials and products used, a system for dealing with problems or incidents, internal and external audit procedures, and employee and management training.
 

Other standards within (and without) the 14000 family that can help



Many other standards within the ISO 14000 family of standards can be integrated into an EMS and can assist in the development of a comprehensive Environmental Management System.


ISO14004 provides additional guidance and useful explanations.  ISO 14031 helps an organization evaluate its environmental performance and can assist with selection of suitable performance indicators.  This is useful for accurate and truthful reporting on environmental performance.  ISO 14020 addresses a range of environmental labels and declarations such as eco-labels, self declared claims, seals of approval, and quantified environmental information about products and services.   ISO 14040 provide guidelines on the principles and conduct for the Life Cycle Assessment of products and services.  ISO 14064 provides a set transparent and verifiable requirements for Greenhouse Gas accounting and verification.  ISO 14063 can assist with environmental communication to outside parties. 

Several standards are still in development. These include standards for eco-efficiency assessment (ISO 14045), material flow cost accounting (ISO 14051), carbon footprints (ISO 14067 & 14069), phased EMS implementation (ISO 14005), and quantitative environmental information (ISO 14033).


There are several standards outside of the “environmental” 14000 series that can help. The 19011 is the auditing standard and it is useful for both Quality and Environmental audits.  ISO 50001 is the Energy Management System standard. While an Environmental Management System will contain sections that address energy usage, an Energy Management System under ISO 50001 requires energy performance monitoring and actual energy performance improvements.  It is akin to ongoing building commissioning, but for all the processes that occur within an organization.
 

Data driven standards for continual improvement.



The interactions between these two great consensus-driven international standards, LEED and ISO, can ensure the long-term sustainability of an enterprise. A LEED-certified building, especially if it then earns LEED-EBOM, will position the physical plant for an ongoing benefit. EBOM will ensure that the gains realized by the integrated design and thoughtful planning are not squandered and that the improvements are maintained. ISO standards can help the activities that occur within those buildings meet their environmental goals.  Building Designers and Facilities Mangers can work shoulder-to-shoulder to ensure not only a sustainable building at occupancy, but also throughout its life and throughout the course of the activities the building supports.  These distinct environmental benefits will yield tangible economic benefits and sustain the triple bottom line. 

Kevin Dufour is an Environmental Scientist with Viridis Advisors. He collaborates with Tom Irwin on creating greener greenscapes. The opinions expressed by member bloggers are their own and not necessarily those of the USGBC Massachusetts Chapter.

Showcase Podcast

By Grey Lee

Grey Lee was interviewed by the New England Real Estate Journal to discuss the upcoming MA LEED Project Showcase (10/17).

Take a listen if you have 12 minutes – starts at 27:30 minutes.

What is the Showcase? Who is coming? How are we connected to Google? Why should we celebrate LEED project teams? Will there be another?

The Showcase is sold out, but link here for more about the Showcase. 

A Brief Summary of Changes to LEED EBOM

By Paul Brown

Written by Paul Brown.

A great summary of changes can be found here, on the National USGBC site.

 
A few of the changes include:
  • Under Sustainable Sites, the Credit for LEED Certified Design and Construction has been removed.
  • Under Water Efficiency, there is a new Prerequisite to install (permanently) a whole-building water meter which reports data directly to USGBC.
  • Within Energy and Atmosphere, the Prerequisite previously called “Minimum Energy Efficiency Performance” is now called “Minimum Energy Performance”, and the baseline for compliance with the Prerequisite has been raised from an Energy Star Rating of 69 to 75 (in Option 1).
  • Also in Energy and Atmosphere, a new Prerequisite has been created for whole-building energy meters, and for sharing of data with USGBC.
  • The Materials and Resources Category has been substantially revised, with re-organization of credits (moving to other categories) and revising of Prerequisites.
  • Under Indoor Environmental Quality, the hospitality residential option exception for the Environmental Tobacco Smoke Control Prerequisite has been eliminated, and the former Green Cleaning Credit has become a Prerequisite called “Green Cleaning Policy”.
Those are just a few of many changes; please consult the official documents of USGBC for further important information.
 

Boston Green Academy Does a Green Apple Week of Service!

By Chamberlain Segrest

By Chamberlain Segrest, Director of Green Programming at Boston Green Academy

 

Boston Green Academy (BGA), a high school located in South Boston, celebrated 2013 Green Apple with an entire week of programming! BGA opened two years ago as an in-district Horace Mann Charter School with the mission to graduate all students prepared for college and the 21st century green
economy.

Administrators and teachers strive to integrate concepts of sustainability into classroom curriculum, but students are also provided great opportunities to learn and explore outside the classroom walls. This past summer, one of BGA’s students held a summer green job as a Youth Energy Auditor. She took her newly acquired knowledge about energy conservation and renewable energy technologies back to BGA in order to help organize Boston Green Academy’s Green Apple WEEK of Service event.

 

 


 

BGA Senior Jose Honore presents to BGA staff on 
ways the school can save energy

During this week of service, staff and students spent their daily advisory period educating themselves about the simple things occupants can do to reduce energy use and cut down on utility bills. Even in a building built in 1901, there are opportunities for energy savings!

They surveyed the school, looking for energy offenders like plugged in vampire devices and lights left on.  Other things they did were looking in recycling bins for contaminates, researched energy saving tips online and created individual action plans to reduce energy use at BGA. BGA was motivated by the school’s green mission from Youth Energy Auditor Jose Honore’s enthusiasm.  The new Boston Public Schools Energy Conservation Campaign will be kicking off district-wide in October.

Staff and students are excited to continue this energy education and track the building energy usage, comparing monthly energy bills with those from the same month last year. Stay tuned on our progress!

 

 

City’s Building Energy and Reporting Ordinance (BERDO) Moving Forward

By Grey Lee

I’m sure most of you are aware by now of the City of Boston’s Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance (BERDO), which was passed on May 8, 2013. BERDO will require all buildings or groups of buildings greater than 35,000 square feet to report on annual energy and water use, along with greenhouse gas emissions through the US EPA’s Energy Star Portfolio Manager. The requirement will be phased in over 5 years and will first apply to non-residential buildings 50,000 square feet or greater in 2014 and residential buildings with 50 or more units in 2015.  Ultimately, the requirement will apply to non-residential buildings 35,000 square feet or greater and residential buildings with 35 or more units.
 

 
While many organizations have been involved with BERDO’s public process over the past year, Boston-based business organization A Better City (ABC) has taken an active role in ensuring thorough input from the commercial real estate sector.  ABC has worked to educate owners on the ordinance and is soliciting feedback from the business community to help shape the final regulations.  During the course of the summer, ABC assisted building owners throughout the City on how to use Energy Star Portfolio Manager.
 
ABC provided free one-on-one training sessions with owners which involved: 1) determining which owners were already using portfolio manager and 2) sitting down & training owners how to use portfolio manager in order to work through any problems they were having.  
 
ABC has been involved in BERDO since May of 2012. While the ordinance was being written by the City, ABC held focus groups (organized by property types and representing Class A and B buildings) to provide direct feedback from owners and property managers.  These focus groups were attended by city staff and the feedback had a direct influence on the final ordinance.   Most building owners are starting to take steps to comply with the ordinance and are taking advantage of opportunities to learn more about Portfolio Manager.  
 
The timeline for reporting energy and water data is going to be phased in over five years.  The first group that will have to comply will be non-residential buildings equal to or greater than 50,000 gsf or two or more buildings on the same parcel that equal or exceed 100,000 gsf.  The first report for this group will be due May 15, 2014.  Non-residential buildings between 35,000 gsf and 50,000 gsf will not have to report until May 15, 2016. There are roughly 1,900 commercial buildings that will fall under the ordinance (over 35,000 sq ft).   
 
The regulations for Boston’s Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance were determined after examining several other cities that had successfully implemented a similar ordinance.  These cities include San Francisco, New York, Seattle, and Washington DC.
 
This fall there will be a release of the draft regulations, followed by stakeholder meetings and outreach to owners that will report in 2014. The Boston Air Pollution Control Commission (APCC) will then hold a public hearing on these draft regulations.
 
This information was gathered from an interview with Mihir Parikh at A Better City and the City of Boston’s website.  To learn more, go to: http://abettercity.org/environment/index.html    andhttp://www.cityofboston.gov/environmentalandenergy/conservation/berdo.asp

The Cambridge Rindge & Latin School Achieves LEED Gold Certification

By Grey Lee

Cambridge, MA. According to the City of Cambridge and

Image Credit: NEREJ

HMFH Architects Inc., the comprehensive renovation of the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS) has earned LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. HMFH's design for the 400,000 s/f high school fulfills the city's ambitious sustainability goals through substantial reductions in energy consumption and water use, significant increases in indoor environmental quality, natural ventilation, and daylighting.

The sustainable design strategy for the three-building complex, which was originally constructed in 1932 and expanded in 1978, includes a chilled beam HVAC system – well-suited for incorporation in existing concrete frame buildings and a rooftop photovoltaic array. These retrofits, coupled with high-efficiency lighting fixtures and daylighting, contribute to the school's net energy savings, lowering the operating costs by more than $335,000 annually; this reduces energy use by more than 1.3 million KWh of electricity and nearly 44,000 therms of natural gas.

Read more at NEREJ

 

Building Types in Boston

By Jim Newman

Written by Jim Newman.

What resources do we put in to make the city more resilient?

 
Boston is an old city. Over 50% of Boston’s housing units were built before 1940 (MAPC, 2008, p . 3), with the highest proportion of pre-WWII housing among the major cities in the U.S. (Cox, 2013). Commercial buildings, on the other hand, saw a major surge of new construction after 1960 with over 25 million square feet added between 1960 and 1998.
 
The majority of buildings within the city are small-scale residential buildings. Large commercial and residential buildings are mostly clustered downtown, with mid-rise buildings distributed in neighborhood centers around the city.
 

 

The table below shows the distribution of building types by total floor area in greater Boston.

Plymouth North High School Tour Kicks Off Green Apple Day of Service

By Steve Muzzy

By Steve Muzzy

 

 

The Chapter kicked off Green Apple Day of Service 2013 with a tour of Plymouth North High School. More than thirty people attended to witness and learn about this energy efficient and healthy school seeking LEED Gold certification.
 

 

 

Tour guides included Energy Conservation Coordinator for the Plymouth Public Schools Chris Hastings and Troy Randall from Ai3 Architects. We also heard from other design team representatives from Griffith & Vary, Inc., PARE CorporationBirchwood Design, and Andelman & Lelek Engineering. Gary Maestas, Superintendent of Plymouth Public Schools, provided historical context of Plymouth High Schools and shared how the curriculum played a role in the building's design. 
 
The tour provided an opportunity to understand the many energy conservation measures incorporated such as energy efficient light fixtures, daylighting and occupancy sensors, optimized chiller and boiler plants, heat recovery, and enhanced kitchen hood controls. These features resulted in greater than 23% overall energy savings for the project, with an annual projected savings of 459,000 kWh and 13,600 therms. 
 
Other sustainability features include:

 

  • Low flow toilet fixtures
  • Recycled materials
  • Optimum acoustics
  • School as a teaching tool (historic boards, green design boards, sustainable design kiosk)
  • 20,000 gallon rainwater harvesting system
  • Green Vegetated Roof
  • Cool Roof (PVC)
  • Electric Vehicle charging stations
  • On-site renewables – Photovoltaic array on the gymnasium

Many thanks to Troy Randall, Chris Hastings, Gary Maestas and the rest of the design team for their time and knowledge! I also want to thank Kathy Arthur and the Green Schools Committee for putting this terrific tour together. 

 

 
 
 
Solar Hot Water
 
Tour Participants
Ceiling of Metal, Wood, and Robotics Shop
 
 
 

Plymouth North High School: A Green Marvel!

By Grey Lee

Check out this article written by our friends at Wicked Local Plymouth about our recent tour of the LEED Gold-nominated Plymouth North High School in Plymouth, MA!
 

Photo credit: D G Jones

This innovative project includes impressive features such as a solar water heater, a green roof, rain gardens, bike paths, electric vehicle charging stations, as well as low flow and waterless plumbing just to name a few.

Read more about the project here.
 

A vital tool for managing Americas largest crop

By Grey Lee

If you ask anyone what the largest crop in America is, you would get quite a varied assortment of answers: corn, alfalfa, wheat, soybeans.  But in fact, the largest crop in America is turfgrass.  The amount of land under cultivation with turfgrass is more than three times the next most common crop. There are approximately 128,000 square kilometers of cultivated turfgrass in the United States, while the next largest crop is 43,000 square kilometers of corn.  Massachusetts has approximately 4,183 square kilometers of turfgrass under various levels of management.  

My initial reaction was one of shock with quickly morphed to concern. That is quite a lot of land to be managed or potentially mismanaged.   That amount of turfgrass makes quite a large environmental impact.  It naturally requires quite a large amount of water and could account for quite a lot of chemical input to the ecosystem.  However, conventional wisdom proves to be neither, but more on that later.

 

Data can save the day.

With turfgrass being such a major component of our nations landscape and asignificant agricultural industry, as well as a vital cover crop, there can be little doubt that the government plays a vital role. This role is most exemplified by the county extension services, agricultural schools with turfgrass science programs, and government backed academic research efforts.  If you have a project, such as a school or park, which may involve large areas of turfgrass, all of the above listed resources can be extremely helpful. 
 

One can go a long way to determining the success or failure of a project.  That is when the NTEP program comes in.  NTEP stands for the National Turf Grass Evaluation Program and is a University-based turfgrass evaluation program. It evaluates seventeen turfgrass species in as many as forty U.S. states and six Canadian provinces.   

Turfgrass is evaluated and cultivars are cross-compared for traits such as disease resistance, drought tolerance, traffic durability, plant density, color, heat/cold tolerance, and quality.  This data can be used to make environmentally-sound decisions by choosing the cultivar that meets a projects' particular needs.  You can use this data to choose a type of turf that might thrive without irrigation or perhaps might fare better in a drought prone area and fare better without pesticides.  There may be a project that will likely see severe compaction or traffic. The selection of the proper cultivar could prevent the strand of turfgrass from deteriorating and allow weeds to propagate or else surface erosion could occur.  One caution is due: too often people will look at NTEP data and just assume that the one that scores the highest is the “best”; this is not always the case.  What you need to do is carefully asses your needs, prioritize them, and then choose the cultivar or blend of cultivars that will meet as many of your concerns as possible. 

It is remarkable to me how many architects, designers, and even landscape architects are unaware of this resource. Too often a bid will spec “turfgrass” , “sod”, “kentucky blue grass blend”, or some other generic terminology.  It makes no sense to design a water-efficient landscape and not spec an appropriate turfgrass cultivar.  Also, it doesn't make sense to design a beautiful landscape and have it wash into a nearby stream.  What also doesn't make sense is to build a state-of-the-art recycled water system and have the grass die due to salt intolerance. A poor choice at the design phase leads to intensive maintenance issues and a failed design element.  In any event, both outcomes mean a higher environmental cost.

 

Why not just eliminate it?


At this point you may be thinking, “why not minimize the turf grass and reap the benefits?”.  This is where we get back to conventional wisdom being not so wise.  When the International Green Building Code was being developed, a debate occurred.  The idea was put forth that in order to be “green”, the turf area should be limited.  It seemed to make sense: less turf means less water use, less fertilizer and nutrient issues, and even less pesticides. The end result was that the conventional wisdom did not quite pan out and the turf limitation was removed with the consent of all parties, including the EPA.  It turns out that the research demonstrated that healthy turf grass actually reduced pollutant loads in surface waters. Healthy turf grass, even one that was regularly treated with fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, was actually significantly better for surface water quality than even untreated and poorly-maintained grass.  The ecosystem services that were all net positives included nitrogen capture, carbon sequestration, air and water filtration, oxygen generation, heat island mitigation, habitat, mico flora and fauna, storm water interception, and groundwater recharge. An area of turfgrass 50 square feet generates enough oxygen to meet the needs of a family of four and an acre can absorb hundreds of pounds of atmospheric Sulfur Dioxide, a primary driver of acid rain. The human centric benefits such as aesthetics, texture, functionality, fire control, erosion control, and ease of maintenance were also positive. The negatives could be addressed and mitigated by Best Management Practices, modern techniques, and proper plant selection.

Kevin Dufour is an Environmental Scientist with Viridis Advisors. He collaborates with Tom Irwin on creating greener greenscapes. The opinions expressed by member bloggers are their own and not necessarily those of the USGBC Massachusetts Chapter.