The USGBC Annual Report is Out!
By Grey Lee
Project Spotlight: Harvard Graduate School of Education Gutman Library (1st and 2nd Floor)
By Grey Lee
- Installed demand control ventilation. The volume of outside air supplied to multi-occupant spaces is controlled by a C02 sensor. C02 increases as more people enter the room and more outside air is provided
- Reused waste heat in the kitchen. Air handling units in the kitchen hood captures and uses the waste heat from the refrigeration equipment to pre-heat the supply air
- Diverted 96% of construction waste from the landfill
SUCCESS: Boston Building Energy and Disclosure Ordinance Passes, Becomes Law
By Grey Lee
Green Apple Day of Service
By Grey Lee
A Green Building That Helps Make Everything Greener
By Grey Lee
In the interests of full disclosure, I submitted this building for the recent Green Building of the Year Award. My connection to this building is not as a member of the project team, but as one who gets to work in this building on a daily basis. I lived through the considerable challenges that the builders, architects, and occupants faced. It was observing this project that helped crystallized my long-running passion for green building.
Imagine being tasked with turning an asbestos laden, archaic, 1950's era building that sits on a Brownfields site that used to house open tanks of raw sewerage into a state of the art laboratory for the advancement of environmental science. Now, imagine being told that it's a state building and obviously budget will be a major concern. Finally, you are told that all of the functions at this lab are critical to the Commonwealth and all activities must continue without impact; all workers must remain on site and their extremely delicate equipment must remain operational throughout.
That was the challenge. One of the difficulties was that the old portion of the building was completely renovated except for one tiny 12×12 portion. This room was an environmentally controlled chamber that had to maintain humidity and temperature within extremely tight ranges. Inside, it housed a robot that was capable of measuring the weight of a fingerprint. It was used to measure airborne particles that are so small that over 700 of them would fit in the diameter of a human hair. When inhaled, these particles directly contribute to hospital admissions for cardiac and respiratory distress. The state monitors the levels of this pollutant and thus the importance of this small space. This chamber stayed operational and free of contamination, not missing a single sample, while the building was literally gutted and rebuilt around it. Not only did the building meet the challenge, but it also achieved LEED Platinum certification.
The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection William X. Wall Experiment Station, located in Lawrence Massachusetts, has been transformed into a state of the art green building. Worldwide there are 52,152 LEED certified projects, but only 1,029 (or 1.97%) are certified at the Platinum level. Of those achieving Platinum certification, only 29 in the world are LEED Platinum Laboratories. Within the 29 certified at a Platinum level, the vast majority are New Construction. The William X Wall Experiment Station not only achieved LEED Platinum certification as part of a renovation to an existing building, it also did so when the existing building was designated as a Brownfields site.
The old facility was constructed in 1954 and was inadequate to handle the complex testing protocols required by today's environmental science. The WXW Experiment Station houses 52 FTE's and is the state's principle drinking water laboratory. The facility also annually performs over 15,000 lab analysis of contaminates in air, water, waste water, soil, hazardous wastes, fish, environmental evidence, and other environmental samples. The state's ambient air monitoring efforts are housed in the facility as well as the Massachusetts Occupational Safety laboratories. The building contains state of the art laboratory facilities that include clean rooms, DNA testing laboratories, inorganic chemistry laboratories, organic chemistry laboratories, toxicology laboratories, a microbiology lab, air monitoring laboratories, and 2.5 micron respirable particulate gravimetric chamber; it also houses laboratory support facilities such as building wide scientific gasses storage, hazardous waste rooms, dedicated wash rooms, high efficiency fume hoods, dedicated sample prep rooms, mechanical workshops, laboratory equipment rooms, and quality assurance lab space.
The project added 13,000 square feet of laboratory space and a major renovation of the 22,000 square foot existing lab. During the entire construction period the laboratory had to continue to operate a full capacity. During this time, all samples were analyzed and all quality assurance benchmarks had to be met. Technical systems audits, conducted by the EPA, insured that data quality objectives were achieved. The project was a 4 year, 2 phase project. All laboratory operations had to be moved multiple times and personnel had to be housed on site in construction trailers.
MassDEP, Massachusetts Division of Capital Asset Management (DCAM) and the design firm of Perkins + Will and RDK Engineers planned the project. O'Connor Constructors, Inc. was the project's construction manager.
As a top notch laboratory, the building required some unusual features. It needed Reverse Osmosis Deionized Water available in every laboratory. The labs had to be plumbed for ultra high purity laboratory grade gasses. Any source of potential contamination had to be eliminated. The entire building needed the ability to change its air within minutes. Data handling infrastructure had to be robust in order to handle the massive amounts of data that the instruments would generate. Safety features such as positive pressure labs, eyewash stations, decon showers, and emergency communications had to be incorporated throughout the work spaces. The building needed back up power and other systems to remain functional in the event of a disaster. Also, the building needs to be secure and capable in the event that it is ever called upon to analyze biological threats.
The green upgrades include: a 52.5 kW solar photo-voltaic system for on-site renewable energy production; use of the existing site as a Brownfield redevelopment; maximizing open space; rain gardens and storm water detention basins to protect the adjacent Merrimack River; water efficient landscaping; high performance roof; green-roofed areas; rain water harvesting for reuse in toilets and cooling tower; water efficient plumbing (40% savings); optimized energy performance (greater than 21% over baseline, 5 LEED points); day lighting of 75% of the space; plug in charging for 2 electric vehicles; bicycle storage room and shower facilities; lighting controls; ventilation air monitoring; low emitting, regional, and recycled materials, and other strategies as well. A measurement and verification plan, as well as enhanced commissioning, has been incorporated to insure that the building continues to meet its certification.
The Lawrence Experiment Station was founded in 1887 and it was one of the first laboratories in the world dedicated to environmental research. In 2013, the newly renovated laboratory became one of the few LEED Platinum labs in the world and is poised to be on the vanguard of environmental science for years to come.
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.
Building Energy Disclosure
By Grey Lee
The Building Energy Reporting & Disclosure Ordinance is a Boston policy that could transform our city and make it possible to reach our climate change mitigation goals. Mayor Menino is calling for 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and the only way we're going to get there is if we can bring down the % of energy that our buildings consume. In Boston, it's a whopping 70% and most building owners don't have a great handle on their building's energy and water usage. The Building Disclosure Ordinance would require owners of buildings over 20,000 sq ft to report their energy usage in a free online EPA tool called Portfolio Manager that all sectors across the country use to manage energy.
Make your voice heard by making a phone call or sending an email to your City Councilor and/or to an at large City Councilor TOMORROW. (You have to have a City of Boston address). The Ordinance is up for vote by the City Council on Wednesday, May 8th.
If you want to send a letter, NRDC has put together an Action Page that has a pre-drafted (but editable) letter of support for activists to send to all Boston council members (supporters must have a Massachusetts address in order to send). Please feel free to push this link out in any way you can via mailing list, social media, etc:
https://secure.nrdconline.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=3055
Why BERDO is a good idea:
1) Tenants have a right to know. Without BERDO, prospective tenants and buyers can't get comparable information about the utility costs of buildings they're considering moving into. BERDO will help us avoid being stuck in cold, costly apartments. Community groups support BERDO.
4) Air Quality. Our neighborhoods are already plagued by high asthma rates and other illnesses associated with environmental exposures. More insulation means reduced demand for energy generated from dirty power plants — and that means we'll have cleaner air and improved health. Moms and kids support BERDO.
What BERDO is NOT:
4) We do not expect that building owners will have to spend a lot of time to do the energy reporting
5) City buildings are not exempt and will be the first to be measured.
Call Your City Councilor
Here is the breakdown of Councilor contact info and how to identify which district you live in:
Verify your district: http://www.cityofboston.gov/citycouncil/districts.asp
Look up your city councilor: http://www.cityofboston.gov/myneighborhood/
Salvatore LaMattina – District 1 (Charlestown, East Boston, North End) 617.635.3200
Bill Linehan – District 2 (South Boston, Chinatown) – 617.635.3203
Charles C. Yancey – District 4 (Dorchester) – 617.635.3131
Matt O'Malley – District 6 (Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury) – 617.635.4220
Michael P. Ross – District 8 (West End, Mission Hill, Back Bay)- 617.635.4225
Mark Ciommo – District 9 (Allston, Brighton) – 617.635.3113
Felix G. Arroyo – At Large – 617.635.4205
Stephen J. Murphy – At large – 617.635.4376
John R. Connolly- At large – 617.635.3115
Ayanna Pressley – At large – 617.635.4217
Green Schools Update (May)
By Grey Lee
- Establishing & Coordinating a Multi-Disciplinary, Massachusetts “Green School Building Coalition”
- Expanding the LEED Education & Practice Program
- Developing & Managing The Green Schools Project Matching Service
Green Buildings for Peace & Prosperity
By Grey Lee
I hope you will stay energized and alert to improve our building stock as well as the ecological, health & safety, security and human rights issues relevant to our real estate and built environment. We have a lot of work to do!
[please also see the comment from Ben Myers below, just under the “tags”]
Below is the piece:
Facts About the Proposed Boston Building Energy and Disclosure Ordinance
By Grey Lee
Photo credit: wikipedia.org |
to meet the Mayor's greenhouse gas reduction goal of 25 percent by 2020, Mayor Thomas M. Menino filed the Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance with the Boston City Council. This ordinance would require all large and medium-sized buildings to report their annual energy and water use to the City of Boston.
Here are some facts about the proposed ordinance:
1. All large and medium buildings or groups of buildings would be required to report annual energy use, ENERGY STAR rating (if applicable), water use, and greenhouse gas emissions through ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager or an equivalent mechanism.
2. The requirement would be phased in over 5 years and would ultimately apply to non-residential buildings 25,000 square feet or greater and residential buildings with 25 or more units.
3. Buildings with ENERGY STAR ratings below the 75th percentile and do not meet other exemption criteria (to be developed by the city, i.e. high performing buildings that do not qualify for any ENERGY STAR rating or that show continuous improvement) would be required to conduct energy audits or other evaluations every 5 years to identify opportunities for energy efficiency investment. Building owners would not be required to act on the audit.
(Excerpted from USGBC MA's April 2013 Newsletter)