Michael presents at the November 2019 Emerging Professionals of Massachusetts meeting.
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At this past USGBC EPMA meeting, I had the pleasure of discussing the work Commodore Builders is doing to move towards a more sustainable future. Commodore is a growing CM firm, and their rapid growth is continuing to innovate and deliver the best possible product for its clients, while balancing and improving the working life of its employees. Building a sustainable culture is pivotal in expanding successfully and ethically.
Through small sustainable steps, significant progress can be made. A big mistake many companies make is a “shock and awe” campaign which leaves employees and clients dazed and confused with the new changes. Taking small, incremental steps is pivotal in creating lasting change. Small steps Commodore has taken include forming a carbon committee, reviewing areas of improvement, and speaking honestly with both clients and employees about sustainable changes. In the competitive Boston construction market, Commodore has realized that sustainability must be a collaborative effort.
Earlier this year, Commodore introduced changes to their subcontractor contracts, mandating LED’s for temporary lights, and banning idling onsite. It is the hope that we can move to bigger, bolder moves while keeping education a priority to make sure that all involved parties understand why changes are being made and what the impact is. Just this past week, office wide composting was introduced with a focus on personal, hands on training to teach employees what can and cannot be composted. Going forward, Commodore hopes to improve their material sourcing, transition towards zero construction waste, and continue to provide employees with one of the best workplaces in Boston.
We had an amazing time at Green Building Showcase 2019! From the hilarious opening skit performed by Jim Stanislaski, Jim Newman, Jill Pinsky, and Lindsey Machamer to Arrowstreet’s King Open/Cambridge Street Upper Schools & Community Complex winning Green Building of the Year, there were some memorable moments.
This event would not have been possible without support from all of our sponsors, judges, and our wonderful community. From the beginning, USGBC MA has been a team effort, and we firmly believe it’s your community.
Check out event photos below, as well as short bios on each of the winners of the night. We hope to see you next year!
Green Building of the Year
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King Open/Cambridge Street Upper Schools & Community Complex Submitted by Arrowstreet
Photo Credit: Robert Benson Photography
Project Team: William Rawn Associates, Architects and Arrowstreet Architecture & Design
King Open/Cambridge Street Upper Schools and Community Complex sets a new standard for school design and high-performing buildings. Completed in August 2019, it is designed as the first Net Zero Emissions school in Massachusetts and was the pilot for Cambridge’s Net Zero Action Plan, which defines Net Zero Emissions as an all-electric building with no on-site fossil fuel combustion and whose energy use is offset through renewables. The 270,000 sf
building includes an elementary school, middle school, school district administration, preschool, public library, public pool, and parking garage. The building was designed to push the envelope on net zero, occupant wellness, site impact, water use, and resilience.
Despite heavy daily and year-round building use, the project is designed to perform at an EUI of 25 using several unique planning and user engagement strategies in addition to energy efficient systems. Building mechanical systems are groundsource heat pumps supplying radiant heating and cooling and displacement ventilation with demand control, providing improved thermal comfort and air quality. Other features include R-28 walls, R-40 roofs, daylight controls, LED lighting, and point-of-use hot water. Renewable energy is generated by roof, façade, and sunshade mounted PV and solar thermal hot water.
Water reduction is achieved through low-flow fixtures and rainwater capture resed for toilet flushing and irrigation. In addition to thermal comfort and air quality, wellness is supported through daylighting, healthy materials, biophilic design, and enhanced acoustics. The classroom finishes are Red List free.
Site improvements include increasing infiltration by converting an acre of asphalt to vegetation. Resiliency features include an elevated first floor, cooling stations, and biodiesel generator.
The building is a unique example of a 21st century Learning Lab with constant feedback of fine-grained metering, prominently located science and technology labs as well as interior and exterior interactive displays about sustainable features.
The Xuhui Runway Park is the award winner for Sites category. It employs diverse green infrastructure approaches including previous paving, inverted berms, ponds, subsurface storage, and robust plantings to reclaim an abandoned runway. They have created nature-rich and historically reverent haven in a dense metropolis by reusing materials in creative ways and maintaining the linear configuration of the space.
Judges Shawn Hesse, Betsy del Monte, and Jodi Smits Anderson
Photo Credit: Sasaki
Project Team: Sasaki
Xuhui Runway Park is an innovative urban revitalization project that breathes life into a unique piece of Shanghai’s history. Located in the Xuhui District, this 8.24-hectare site was formerly a runway for Longhua Airport, which had operated for over 80 years and was Shanghai’s only civilian airport until 1949. To reflect the site’s previous life, the park’s design scheme mimics the motion of a runway, creating diverse linear spaces for vehicles, bicycles, and pedestrians by organizing the park and the street into one integrated runway system. While all the
spaces are linear in shape, diverse spatial experiences are created by applying different materials, scales, topography, and programs. In this way, the park serves as a runway of modern life, providing a space for recreation and respite from the surrounding city.
The Sasaki design team applied good practice into the park design, which greatly contributed to its Gold certification in September, 2019, marking the first SITES certified project in Mainland China.
The design preserves portions of the runway’s original concrete where feasible, including the reuse of broken concrete pieces to build paths, plazas, and resting areas. The historic aerodynamic and industrial sensibility of the site is also referenced through the use of lighting poles that recall the transmission of communication and airfield illumination of the airport. All lighting is refrained from the habitat area and nocturnal life.
New Science Center – Amherst College Submitted by Payette
The New Science Center at Amherst College is the award winner for Innovation category due to the significant achievement in energy efficiency in a lab building, and the focused, creative approach to the thermal design of the building. Although sporting a significant glass wall, facing west, this wall is triple-paned thermally broken curtainwall system, is shielded by the more private west-reaching wings of the building, and it fronts the main circulation space which is impeccably designed for the support and access of the people and the control and use of airflow.
Judges Alex Wilson, Tristen Roberts, and Jodi Smits Anderson
Photo Credit: Chuck Choi Photography
Project Team: Design Architect: PAYETTE; Structural Engineer: LeMessurier Consultants; MEP Engineer: van Zelm Engineers; Civil Engineer: Nitsch Engineering; Landscape Architect: Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates
The Amherst College New Science Center is a high intensity laboratory with one of the lowest energy footprints of its typology. The building employs several strategies contributing to energy efficiency including a high performance envelope, abundant natural light, low-energy HVAC chilled beams, fan-coil distribution systems,
optimized fume hood control strategies, demand control ventilation including laboratory spaces, high performance heat recovery with indirect evaporative cooling, and freezer heat recovery for domestic hot water. Indirect-direct evaporative cooling reduces the heating and cooling needed for the ventilation system to reduce peak loads in the laboratories. High performance triple-pane glazing, curtainwall and façade systems implement thermal breaks. Opaque, natural ventilation panels were used in the faculty offices to provide natural ventilation while maintaining thermal integrity of the triple-pane windows. The Commons’ roof monitors integrate architectural and mechanical elements that provide an overall comfort conditioning solution: chilled beams, radiant slabs, acoustic baffles and a photovoltaic array to generate onsite power.
Community Living Center DCAMM Chelsea Soldiers’ Home Submitted by Payette
The design of this facility, with excellent energy performance, natural ventilation, and connection to views and community spaces, is an exemplar of care for our veterans.
Judges Tristan Roberts, Bill Walsh, and Anne Hicks Harney
Located atop Chelsea’s iconic Powder Horn Hill, the Community Living Center is a long–term care facility for Massachusetts’ veterans that creates a dramatic new urban landmark capped by its solar canopy and reaching outward to frame the horizon. Designed to harness panoramic views of downtown Boston and the harbor, the
transformative new facility will have 154 private rooms organized around shared community spaces and surrounded by generous courtyards.
The net zero hospital uses a performance-based approach to the building and systems design resulting in a building that is designed to use 63% less energy than a typical facility utilizing geothermal heating and cooling, extensive natural ventilation and a 0.5 megawatt rooftop–mounted solar array to meet state and federal fossil fuel reduction targets.
The Irving Institute demonstrates the art and science of sustainable design. It is contextual, responding both to its place and interacting with the natural systems around it, resulting in resource conservation and promoting occupant wellbeing. The building breaths! What really made this project stand out is that the design addresses operational and embodied carbon, demonstrating the importance of each as we shift towards a carbon-free future.
Judges Jennifer Preston, Greg Mella, and Shawn Hesse
This 51,000 GSF project, scheduled for completion in 2021, will be the first permanent home for the Irving Institute for Energy and Society. Its design
demonstrates and expresses the building’s high performance while creating a space for interdisciplinary research that focuses on advancing an affordable, sustainable, and reliable energy future for the benefit of society.
The institute is a hub of collaboration that brings together multiple different users: institute researchers, the Thayer School of Engineering and Tuck School of Business, the Campus Sustainability Office, the Feldberg Library, and students moving to and from Murdough Center. Program spaces include project and research labs, classrooms, a café, offices and workspaces, and collaboration spaces ranging from small conference rooms to large gathering spaces.
This project epitomizes the celebration of energy performance through design. From the exterior, the major focal element of the main façade is the large glass pavilion that anchors the building at the end of the Tuck Mall axis. The pavilion houses two major collaboration spaces for the Institute, and is wrapped in the double-skin glass façade, encapsulating all of the building’s passive and active strategies to minimize energy consumption, including automated windows, exterior automated shades, radiant ceiling panels, ceiling fans, dynamic lighting to display performance, glass cavity for ventilation exhaust with stack effect, and culminating in the thermal exhaust vent at the roof. From the interior, the building is organized around a central atrium that acts as a public living room for users to formally and informally coalesce; provides daylight to all the surrounding spaces through its skylight; serves as the natural ventilation exhaust path; and is heated and cooled with radiant floors. The design and client team have worked closely together to create a space that makes the invisible visible, fostering crucial research about humankind and energy.
Boston Coastal Flood Resilience Design Guidelines & Zoning Overlay District
Submitted by Utile
The Boston Coastal Flood Resilience Design Guidelines and Zoning Overlay District was selected because it is far more than a resource for Boston; it is, hands-down, the most useful and broadly applicable resource on how to adapt coastal communities and buildings to flooding and rising sea levels that has been produced to date. The Guidelines are clearly a replicable tool for other cities. They are already being referred to in Washington, DC, and we expect many other coastal communities in the U.S. and worldwide will soon be benefiting from this material.
Judges Betsy del Monte, Alex Wilson, and Greg Mella
Photo Credit: Utile with the City of Boston and the Boston Planning and Development Agency
Utile led the development of the City of Boston’s first ever citywide zoning overlay district and design guidelines to promote resilience from coastal flood risk for existing buildings and new construction. The zoning overlay district extends over areas with a 1% chance of flooding in 207 at 40” of sea level rise and is a critical step in advancing the City of Boston’s Climate Ready Initiative.
Working with a team of experts, this multi-faceted project integrates a study in national
best practices, existing regulations, analysis of Boston’s built form, community input, and expertise in cutting-edge building technology to identify effective, consensus-driven revisions to the zoning code.
This project makes Boston one of the first few communities nationally to take a proactive approach toward promoting coastal flood resilience. It sets a higher standard for protection and compliance compared to existing federal regulations by choosing to adopt future projections as the new threshold for risk. The zoning overlay will not only require all new construction be resilient, it will also ensure that renovations to existing buildings are performed in compliance with these guidelines. Together the guidelines and zoning overlay create a robust armature to promote preparedness across a range of neighborhoods, building conditions, and communities.
New Science Center – Amherst College Submitted by Payette
Photo Credit: Chuck Choi Photography
Project Team: Design Architect: PAYETTE; Structural Engineer: LeMessurier Consultants; MEP Engineer: van Zelm Engineers; Civil Engineer: Nitsch Engineering; Landscape Architect: Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates
The Amherst College New Science Center is a high intensity laboratory with one of the lowest energy footprints of its typology. The building employs several strategies contributing to energy efficiency including a high performance envelope, abundant natural light, low-energy HVAC chilled beams, fan-coil distribution systems, optimized fume hood control strategies,
demand control ventilation including laboratory spaces, high performance heat recovery with indirect evaporative cooling, and freezer heat recovery for domestic hot water. Indirect-direct evaporative cooling reduces the heating and cooling needed for the ventilation system to reduce peak loads in the laboratories. High performance triple-pane glazing, curtainwall and façade systems implement thermal breaks. Opaque, natural ventilation panels were used in the faculty offices to provide natural ventilation while maintaining thermal integrity of the triple-pane windows. The Commons’ roof monitors integrate architectural and mechanical elements that provide an overall comfort conditioning solution: chilled beams, radiant slabs, acoustic baffles and a photovoltaic array to generate onsite power.
Eversource/National Grid Energy Optimization Award
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Boston University, Center for Computing and Data Science
Submitted by BR+A
We are proud to choose Boston University’s Center for Computing & Data Sciences as the recipient of the 2019 Eversource/National Grid Energy Optimization Award. This award goes to a project that has participated in the Mass Save New Construction Program, is designed to achieve significant energy reductions, is replicable, and shows leadership and innovation in whole building energy efficiency. Boston University’s Center for Computing & Data Sciences meets these criteria and more. BU’s talented design team created a low Energy Use Intensity (EUI), 19 story zero net emissions design in a dense urban environment, which used geothermal as a cornerstone of the design and took a holistic approach to driving down site energy across each end-use. Congratulations!
Eversource and National Grid
Photo Credit: BR+A
Project Team: KPMB Architects, BR+A, Haley & Aldrich, Richard Burck, Dot Dash, Transsolar, The Green Engineer, Nitsch Engineering, Soberman Engineering, Jensen Hughes, Entuitive + LeMessurier, Suffolk Construction
The BU Center for Computing and Data Science will be a 345,000 square foot, 19 story building that will achieve Class D Zero Net Energy. The building has an anticipated EUI of approximately 40 kBtu/sf*yr and will rely on 100% renewable electricity, eliminating fossil fuel consumption. The building will include triple glazed windows, exterior shading, active chilled beams
supplied by fan powered boxes, dual-wheel DOAS, and a central heat pump chiller plant connected to thirty-one 1,500 foot deep closed-loop geothermal wells. Renewable energy will be sourced from on-campus solar and off-campus wind. This was achieved at a cost premium well below 1% of construction cost, compared to the business as usual case. Utility incentives and grants further reduce this premium. The payback period is estimated to be less than two years.
As we approach our Green Building Showcase on the 23rd, we will be releasing a series of project spotlights that will be shown at the event! Check out one from our friends at Gensler. Don’t forget to purchase a ticket for the event!
Green Revitalization: Reinvesting Embodied Energy for a Sustainable Future
Written by Jessica Santonastaso, Associate, Gensler
As advances in green technology bring us closer to the promise of a sustainable future, older buildings in our cities are at risk of getting left behind. Leaking facades, outdated mechanical systems and inefficient structural layouts often mean that older buildings become undesirable. Neighborhoods that were once the most prized lose their vitality as today’s tenants flock to new development in areas further afield. What if we could envision a future for our cities where the embodied energy latent in this aging building stock could be leveraged, as if recycled in place, to create a new generation of sustainable, high performance environments?
The revitalization of One Post Office Square in Boston provides an opportunity to deliver this kind of transformation. Adjacent to the Norman B. Leventhal park (a gem of revitalization in its own right that turned an above ground parking structure into a popular urban oasis), the 1980 precast tower was suffering from a functionally and aesthetically outdated envelope and aging mechanical systems. A multi floor vacancy in the building provided the ownership team with an opportunity to step in to execute a new vision for the property.
The ongoing occupancy of the building necessitates a multi-faceted approach to the design and phasing of the tower. Both overclad (new wall installed in front of existing precast) and reclad (new wall installed after the removal of precast panels) strategies are being employed to deliver a new state of the art triple glazed curtainwall to a building where some tenants are remaining in place with minimal disturbance while others are moving from old space to new. The existing ten level parking garage will be demolished, replaced with 6 levels of automated parking- an innovation that allows an equivalent number of cars to be parked in half the space of a traditionally parked garage- with new leasable space above. State of the art MEP systems, including 4 pipe active chilled beams, groundwater recharge and energy recovery systems round out the modernization.
We hope the new One Post Office Square will be the catalyst in bringing about a new vision for the city of Boston and beyond- one where existing infrastructure is reconfigured and added to rather than replaced, where the trace of time and the city’s history can be read in a new, environmentally responsible and forward-thinking built environment.
A comparison of the One Post Office Square Tower before and after its revitilization.
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The 2019 EPMA Green Building Bike Tour took off from the
Roxbury Crossing station and covered over 9 miles of the woodsy, bike friendly,
community-garden-covered neighborhood of Jamaica Plain.
Jamaica Plain is often referred to as the greenest neighborhood in Boston. “Green” in this case refers to the large area of parks and vegetation, including many emeralds in Boston’s Emerald Necklace. However, after the Green Building Bike Tour, one could argue that the “green” designation also refers to the high concentration of sustainable infrastructure projects and green buildings nestled throughout.
The bike tour followed the Southwest Corridor Park down Columbus Ave where we met with the Assistant Director of the Reuse Center at Boston Building Resources.
Up next we rode to the Roxbury Community College (RCC) solar
parking lot and geothermal well field where the group got to meet with Kevin
Hepner, VP of Admin and Finance at RCC. Tour attendees learned how the Roxbury
Pudding Stone, the rock formation that lies under a large portion of Jamaica
Plain, is an excellent conductor for geothermal.
Next the tour attendees were delighted when after climbing Fort Ave Hill on their bikes, Evan Smith and Jay from Placetailor Architects had cookies and water waiting for them and educated the group on the details of their Passive House design strategies. Afterwards, Evan (a Fort Hill resident and president of Placetailor Architects) and Jay joined on their bicycles and rode along with the tour while pointing out the many energy positive and Certified Passive House projects in the Fort Hill area.
Afterwards the group continued down the Southwest Corridor
and visited Bikes not Bombs and toured the bike shop and learned about the community
programs offered to promote bicycling as a safe and sustainable mode of
transportation.
Next the group rode over to the Hernandez Elementary School
to learn about the school’s stormwater infiltration system that was designed to
integrate into the landscape and play area as well as spark curiosity and serve
as an educational tool for the students. Frank Stone, a bike tour attendee and
a Hernandez School alum, provided the tour.
Around lunchtime the tour stopped by the City Feed and
Supply on Boylston Street and got to speak with Noah Bondy who manages the
“Mini” Feed.
Next the group took a self-guided tour of the Old Oak Dojo,
New England’s first Living Building Challenge Certified project. Tour attendees
got to sit peacefully in the community space (made entirely of salvaged and
re-purposed materials) as well as ride a rope swing over the Dojo’s abundant permaculture
garden.
The last stop on the tour was the JP Branch of the Boston
Public Library. Utile Architects designed many of the sustainable features of
the new addition. One of the highlights of the addition is the digitally
printed ceramic frit pattern applied to the large front facade, the pattern was
created using an analysis of the sun path across the façade in order to provide
optimal daylight as well as shade. The group happily stumbled upon an ice cream
fundraiser being held in the lower level. Tour attendees were happy to come
away with free ice cream and library books.
The ice cream was a much-needed fuel to energize riders for
the final few stops of the tour as we rode through the vibrant Arnold Arboretum
on our way to Turtle Swamp Brewery where we ended.
Thanks to Blue Bikes for donating the adventure passes and
to all those who contributed to make this year’s bike tour a huge success!
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As the transportation of people and goods moves toward electrification, Massachusetts is offering some of the most generous utility and state electric vehicle (EV) charging incentives in the nation. Qualified commercial properties can take advantage of either Eversource’s $45 million EV Charging Program or National Grid’s $24 million EV Infrastructure Program. Both can then be paired with Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection’s (MassDEP) $3.5 million EV Charging Station Grant for even bigger savings. In this video, ChargePoint program experts walk you through how to navigate and leverage them in your EV charging strategy.
EPMA members enjoy refreshments at SW Corridor Park.
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This past Thursday August 1st 2019, EPMA-ers gathered at the SW Corridor Park for an evening of good food and knowledge. Swapnil, one of our volunteers, did a fantastic job organizing the event complete with sumptuous food from Whole Heart Provisions and lawn games.
The highlight of the evening was getting to know the work done by David Meshoulam and his organization ‘Speak for the Trees’. David has been an educator for the past 15 years and is passionate about having new generations understand the deep links between science, culture, and nature. The main mission of Speak for the Trees is to improve the size and health of the urban tree canopy in the Greater Boston Area. They undertake various efforts for advocacy and outreach, but one of their main initiatives is to map, measure, and account for every street tree in the Boston area with the Tree Urban Teen Corps program (TUTC). For this, they properly train their “volun-trees” (that’s a good one) to identify and measure all attributes of the trees. They use their own software, ‘OpenTreeMap’, where anyone can see the street tree cover in their neighborhood, if it has been mapped. For anyone interested in participating in this and many other activities they do, please see their website https://www.sfttbos.org/. Two of our volunteers got a glimpse of the unique characteristics of the trees around us and how to correctly identify them.
Thank you to David and all the people who made it to the event.
EPMA would like to say thank you to Pare Corporation who generously sponsored this event. Lindsey Machamer was representing Pare Corporation. Pare corporation understands the value of urban open space and trees from the substantial effect they can have on stormwater management. Pare is working with some local sewer authorities to plan green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) in available public open space. GSI can help to improve water quality by removing pollutants from stormwater, reducing flows into the combined sewer system, and mitigating flooding impacts.
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Jennifer Laponte presents about her project on GIS applications to agriculture.
Planning for unpredictable weather and climate patterns is important when determining ideal crop production. There are many farms throughout Central Massachusetts and in the past couple of years has been subject to harsh weather in the growing season. With the crop yields at risk due to drought in 2016 and heatwaves in 2018 farmers ought to prepare their crops for harsh weather in future seasons.
My map and research will explore resilient areas in order to prepare for better crop yields. Through analysis using NAIP satellite imagery, MassGIS Data: Digital Elevation Model (1:5,000), MassGIS Data: NRCS SSURGO-Certified Soils, MassGIS Data: Crop Evapotranspiration and Potential Evaporation Grids this will show how farmers can prepare. The process will primarily be to find fertile and barren agricultural land and to compare it with the soil type and other geographical features to determine the best areas to grow crops. The results will hopefully help farmers plan for more severe weather in the future in order to produce higher crop yields.
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USGBC MA EPMA
Meeting Presentation – May Meeting
Written by Alex Testa
Alex Testa presents on the process behind designing and building geodesic spheres.
Alex Testa, a Project Manager at Siena Construction,
explained how she and her coworkers leveraged their industry skill sets to
construct an interdisciplinary exhibit that exemplified sustainable
construction.
She and a team of employees at Siena Construction combined forces with subcontractors, designers and scientists to build three geodesic spheres as part of the Cambridge Science Festival. The geodesic spheres were both aesthetic structures and interactive camera obscuras. The spheres were used as an exhibit to demonstrate how the human eye works. They played to a multitude of interests and ages–from kindergarteners to retired professors.
The 10-foot diameter structures were built using Red Grandis Eucalyptus, a sustainable, quickly regrowing tree from Uruguay. The team at Siena designed the spheres in-house, managed the construction with highly skilled millworkers, and created media resources to communicate the science and construction of the project to visitors. To learn more about the geodesic sphere’s history, building process, and materials, watch Siena’s exhibition video here.
Through active engagement and education, the spheres were
used to bring the core principles of green building to the public. Alex
explained how skills from the architecture-engineering-construction industry
can be applied to projects outside of everyday comfort zones, and how working
to engage community members outside of the construction industry can benefit
everyone.
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Written by Seung-Hyeok Bae
Thursday, June 6, 2019
Emerging Professionals of Massachusetts (EPMA) hosted the “USGBC MA Advocacy Mixer,” a great networking opportunity event to connect the green building community with local advocacy groups last Thursday. The eight organizations briefly shared their sustainability missions, and how they engage and motivate our local community. There were opportunities to engage in discussions and sign up to volunteer before and after the presentations.
350 Mass
Cory Alperstein, representative of 350 Mass, addresses the audience.
350 Mass is engaging in the “Better Future Project” which is a Cambridge-based organizing nonprofit to help the need for a grassroots climate network in Massachusetts. One of the important campaigns they executed to confront the climate crisis is “Road to a Green New Deal in MA” which were protests and street performances in clown costumes targeted at important decision-makers, such as major American banks, in order to stop investment in fossil fuel infrastructure.
Clean Water Action
Laura Spark, one of the representatives of Clean Water Action, addresses the audience.
Clean Water Action organizes strong grassroots groups and coalitions, and campaigns to elect environmental candidates to solve environmental and community problems. They are campaigning for legislation that would ban flame retardants in building materials, children’s toys, furniture, and other materials and products. Clean Water Action also worked closely with the USGBC MA on speaking at the hearing for this legislature.
MCAN
Drew Grande, representative of MCAN, addresses the audience.
MCAN (The Massachusetts Climate Network) works with and advocates for Massachusetts cities and towns to be the best in the nation at addressing climate change. MCAN recently reported that Massachusetts’ municipal light plants need improvement to meet the state’s clean energy goals.
CRWA
Lisa Kumpf, representative of the Charles River Watershed Association, addresses the audience.
CRWA (Charles River Watershed Association) was formed in response to concern about the environment and the health of the Charles River and its watershed through science, advocacy, education, and engineering. By CRWA and community’s tremendous efforts, the Charles River recently received a water quality report card grade A-, which is considered one of the cleanest urban rivers in the United States.
Mothers Out Front
Representatives from Mothers Out Front address the audience.
The mission is to build their power as mothers to ensure a livable climate for all children. One of the big movements is to reduce the dependence of our system on methane, a potent greenhouse gas, by promoting the shift to clean renewable energy for heating and cooking in the built environment. They encourage people to use an electric stove instead of a gas stove. According to the research, using a gas stove gives us many disadvantages, such as increasing childhood asthma rates and releasing more energy and emissions.
Sunrise Movement
Nick Raab, one of the representatives of Sunrise Movement, addresses the audience.
Sunrise is a movement by young people to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs in the process. Representatives of the organization note that “we live in a climate change era” and that action needs to be taken to stop the effects of climate change. They are pushing for the “Green New Deal” along with other nonprofits, like Mass 350, and pressuring local candidates running for 2020 to support the “Green New Deal” and to not accept campaign donations from companies like Exxon.
Living Building Challenge
Jim Newman, one of the representatives of the Living Building Challenge, addresses the audience.
The Living Building Challenge envisions a thriving and diverse community working together for a living future. They are looking at how we build own homes like a forest; they are not only looking for reducing our carbon footprint, but also giving back to the surrounding environment. They challenge everyone who is involved in the creation of the home (e.g. customer, construction firm, materials vendor, etc) to work for the mission of Living Building Challenge.
City of Boston
Alisha Pegan, one of the representatives of City of Boston, addresses the audience.
Their mission is to enhance the quality of life in Boston by protecting our air, water, and land resources, while addressing climate change. They are continuously updating the city’s climate action plan to be carbon-free by 2050 and figuring out how to achieve this goal.
We would like to give a special thanks to the organizations in attendance as well as Boston Architectural College who provided a great event venue.
Attendees wait for the Advocacy Mixer to begin Photo by Andrew Breiter-Wu
Attendees chat and meet with advocacy groups Photo by Andrew Breiter-Wu
Michael Fiorillo talks about the design of the BAC
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Every year for Earth Day, the Charles River Watershed Association mobilizes an average 3000 Bostonians to organize the annual Charles River Cleanup, which stretches from the downtown Boston up to Milford/Hopkinton in the suburbs. It is a part of the nationwide ‘National Rivers Cleanup’ organized by American Rivers – a national advocacy organization dedicated to protecting and conserving rivers. Now in its 20th year, the Charles River Cleanup has had tremendous success in the past, winning the ‘Most pounds of trash collected’ award for collecting about 100,000 pounds of trash and the ‘Most volunteers mobilized’ award last year.
This year, the EPMA committee, along with other organizations, were tasked with cleaning up the riverbank at Lederman Park, next to the Massachusetts General Hospital. Located in the heart of Boston, this park is heavily used by the community and easily accessible by public transport.
EPMA members posing with the trash they collected from the Charles River.
The day started with all volunteers meeting up at the riverbank by 9.00 am. The volunteers signed in and were given gloves and trash bags to start. We scoured the area for anything that did not belong, picking up cigarette stubs, metal pieces, coffee cups, straws, plastic, and paper. A lot of the trash going into the river often ends up entangled and collected within the rip-rap stones. The volunteers had to climb down on the rip-rap to collect trash from the crevices, which made the work harder, but even more fulfilling. The Charles River Clean Up Boat made an appearance and collected trash at various spots in the river. After about 3 hours of work, the results were starting to show as the area looked cleaner.
These events offer a great opportunity to give back to the river and to mother Earth, while meeting like-minded people who share our passion. The EPMA team wishes to thank all volunteers who showed up on this cold, windy, Saturday morning to make a difference.
Annie is widely regarded within the marketplace as an expert in third-party verification and sustainable program development. She previously held positions like Vice President of Certification Services at GreenCircle Certified, LLC until starting her own independent organization in 2017. She sits as a technical advisor to: the US Green Building Council’s Materials and Resources TAG, the International Living Future Institute (ILFI), Clean Production Action and the GreenScreen Program, the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council, the ASTM E 60 Committee, and the Collaborative for High Performing Schools National Technical Committee.
LAUREN HILDEBRAND
Sustainability Director, Steven Winter Associates
Lauren Hildebrand is a Sustainability Director at SWA. Her work focuses on sustainable and high performance residential and commercial building design, construction, renovation, and operation. Ms. Hildebrand’s expertise includes: sustainable design integration; indoor air quality and energy performance testing; and implementing project certification for both commercial and residential programs, such as LEED®, ENERGY STAR®, NYSERDA, NJ Clean Energy, and Enterprise Green Communities. Awards presented to her clients include the 2013 USGBC NJ Urban Green Project Award. Ms. Hildebrand works as a LEED® for Homes Green Rater and verifies implementation of the LEED® for Homes criteria. She is an integral part of the initial strategic planning sessions and workshops with builders, architects, and homeowners based on the LEED for Homes program. She also partners with and implements criteria for Enterprise Green Communities (EGCC), NYSERDA’s Multi-Family Performance Program, and the ENERGY STAR® Multi-Family High-Rise Program Certification. Ms. Hildebrand also has experience with a variety of commercial and mixed use projects, including LEED® for New Construction, Commercial Interior, Core and Shell, and Schools. In addition to her project experience and program guidance, Ms. Hildebrand manages classroom training and curriculum development for architects, owners, developers and building management staff on green and high performance building design strategies, cost effective building system operation, and energy-saving maintenance practices.
MICHAEL GRYNIUK
PE | Associate, LeMessurier
Michael Gryniuk, PE is a Structural Engineer at LeMessurier in Boston. As the leader of LeMessurier’s Sustainability practice, he is responsible for strategy, project consulting, and education for LeMessurier. He is currently on the Steering Committee of Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) Sustainability Committee of ASCE and currently serves as Chair of the Structural Engineers (SE 2050) Commitment Program Working Group whose aim to establish a national commitment program for structural engineers for the purpose of achieving net zero embodied carbon in structural systems by 2050. Mike taught for many years at the Boston Architectural College. His current projects include the 2 million square foot Hub on Causeway development as well as upcoming developments of Kenmore Square. Mike has also led several other projects for institutions including Boston College, Holy Cross, RISD and UNH. Mike attended Syracuse University and Tufts University.
ANNE PECK
Vice President, AEW’s Architecture & Engineering group
As Vice President in AEW’s Architecture & Engineering group, Ms. Peck is responsible for physical property inspections, engineering and mechanical system evaluations and environmental audits on potential investments for all commercial property types. She is also responsible for the review and analysis of energy audits and LEED gap analysis with respect to acquisitions, and oversees the scope and results of third-party due diligence reports on property acquisitions. For development projects, Ms. Peck is responsible for the evaluation of construction documents to assess the constructability and recommend sustainable products and practices. She is responsible for overseeing the construction of new development projects from AEW’s initial involvement through closeout and warranty completions. Ms. Peck assists asset managers with large capital improvement projects or physical problems at various properties. In addition, Ms. Peck Co-Chairs AEW’s Sustainability Committee and provides guidance and assistance with most sustainability initiatives with the objective of reducing operating costs, improving indoor air quality and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. She sits on the GRESB Real Estate Benchmark Committee in North America and assists with all sustainability reporting for AEW. Ms. Peck is a licensed Massachusetts Construction Supervisor with LEED AP Certification, and passed her FE exam towards a mechanical engineer/registered professional engineering license.
ANDREA ALAOWNIS
Interior Designer, Jacobs, Boston
Andrea Alaownis is an Interior Designer with the Jacobs, Boston, MA office. After graduating from Radford University, she has concentrated on commercial projects through all phases of design and construction. As a WELL Accredited Professional, she participated in assisting the Jacobs Boston office to achieve WELL V1 Gold, Fitwel 3 Stars, and LEED V4 Gold certifications and continues to educate the design community and clients on wellness through design.
KIMBERLY LEWIS
Senior Vice President, Market Transformation and Development U.S. Green Building Council
As Senior Vice President for Market Transformation and Development in North America, Kimberly Lewis knows better than anyone that market transformation begins with community. Kimberly is laser focused on diversity, inclusion, equity and advancing transparency and excellence. By honing our community’s focus on collaborative impact, Kimberly incorporates people‐centric strategies to provide the organization and movement with a strong foundation of stakeholder based support.
Kimberly’s efforts encourage innovation in the market and challenge all of our community members to go above and beyond what was possible yesterday, to define the built environment of tomorrow. Kimberly knows that when we celebrate our leaders and advocate for growth across sectors, regions, and programs, taking care to bring our best to underserved populations and communities, we achieve real and lasting market transformation of the highest order.
To this end, Kimberly directs all of USGBC’s local communities, volunteers, and emerging professionals around the world, delivering on the USGBC mission to improve the quality of life for all through more sustainable cities and communities worldwide.
Kimberly was the founder of the Greenbuild International Conference & Expo, which is now globally represented in five international markets. She has served on the advisory boards of Starwood Hotels, Marriott International Hotels and the convention and visitors bureaus in New Orleans, Atlanta, and Denver. She is a member of the International Association of Exhibitions and Events (IAEE), the Green Meeting Industry Council (GMIC) and the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA), where she has served on the CSR task force.
Kimberly serves on the board of directors for Groundswell and is the former chair of the board of trustees of the Green Building Foundation. Committed to healthy communities and equitable access to green buildings regardless of income level, Kimberly has been recognized with numerous awards. In April 2011, Kimberly received prestigious recognition as the White House Champion of Change for Clean Energy. She was also named Glamour Magazine 70th Anniversary 70 Women Leaders to Know in Sustainability. Most recently Kimberly was recognized with GB&D Magazine’s 2018 Women in Sustainability Leadership Award.
JIM STANISLASKI
AIA LEED AP BD+C | Senior Associate, Gensler Boston
Jim Stanislaski, AIA LEED AP BD+C is an Architect at Gensler in Boston. As co-leader of Gensler’s northeast region Design Resilience practice, he is responsible for strategy, project consulting, and education for over 1,000 staff in four offices. He is currently a Director on the Board of USGBC MA and a member of the Architecture Boston Magazine Editorial Board. Jim is a former President of AIA MA and has served on two National Academies research panels for renewable energy and energy efficiency at airports. As a past co-chair of the Boston Society of Architects Committee on the Environment (BSA/COTE), Jim led the AIA 2030 Professional Series at the BSA, serving to educate local designers on strategies to achieve net positive energy goals for buildings. Jim has also testified before state and city government committees to advocate for environmental legislation and regulation. Jim started his career as a US Air Force officer and attended Syracuse University.
CARLIE BULLOCK-JONES
LEED Fellow, WELL AP | Founder and Principal, Ecoworks Studio
Carlie Bullock-Jones, LEED Fellow, WELL AP, is the founder and managing Principal of Ecoworks Studio and has dedicated her entire career to bringing about a greener, healthier built environment. As a nationally known expert in sustainability, Carlie has facilitated on numerous award-winning projects. With a passion for green sports, Carlie has spearheaded LEED certification efforts for several stadiums, arenas, and training facilities for the NFL, NHL, NBA, MLS and higher education projects. Most notably, Carlie was the LEED consultant for the new home of the Atlanta Falcons, Mercedes-Benz stadium, which achieved the highest LEED Platinum score of any sports facility in the world.
As a LEED Faculty mentor for the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), and the first external WELL Faculty for the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), Carlie is a highly sought-after speaker and writer for national events and publications. She has been extensively involved in the development of LEED standards over the years, serving as a Subject Matter Expert for USGBC and GBCI, assisting in course curriculum, exam development and reference guide creation. In 2012, Carlie was inducted by USGBC as a LEED Fellow, one of 77 in the world at that time. Carlie is also one of the first WELL Accredited Professionals on the planet, demonstrating expertise and extensive knowledge of human health and wellness in the built environment. As an early adopter of the WELL Building Standard, Carlie facilitated WELL certification efforts for the 27th, 37th and 100th WELL certified projects in the world (Silver, Gold and Platinum respectively). Most recently, Carlie was the recipient of the 2018 Inaugural IWBI WELL Leadership Recognition Award.
KOMAL KOTWAL
AIA, LEED AP BD+C, WELL AP
Komal Kotwal is a Sustainable Design Leader and Project Manager at HOK with over 13 years of experience. Komal has led sustainable design and LEED Certification efforts for over 2M square feet including 1+M sf. of LEED Platinum projects and two Net-Zero projects. With the intent of bringing the human connection to sustainability, Komal currently focuses on intentional design to address human behavior and foster physical, mental, and emotional health. As a WELL AP, Komal is one of HOK’s leads in promoting and practicing health and wellness in architecture. Komal has served on the AIA Houston Chapter’s Board of Directors, Texas USGBC Regional Council and on USGBC’s Greenbuild Program Committee among others. A strong advocate for equity and inclusivity, Komal serves on HOK’s firm-wide Diversity Advisory Council and is a recent addition to HOK’s Management Board.
Speaking Engagements
TSA Convention 2016: Design for Healthy & Livable Communities
Gulf Coast Green Conference 2015: Integrating LEED ND Communities
CSI Chapter Annual Meeting 2014 : 2030 Commitment and how to get there
American Society of Indian Engineers ( ASIE) 2016: Getting to LEED Platinum
University of Houston, 2018: Staying Ahead of the Commercial Energy Code
Texas A&M University, 2016: Integrating Sustainability: A path to Net-zero
ANITA SNADER
LEED AP BD+C | Environmental Sustainability Manager, Armstrong World Industries
Anita Snader is the Environmental Sustainability Manager of Armstrong World Industries in Lancaster, PA. She manages the sustainability strategy for Armstrong Ceiling and Wall Solutions, and serves as an internal environmental advocate, and environmental spokesperson. She is a LEED accredited professional, and well versed in the LEED rating systems and USGBC initiatives. As co-chair of Armstrong’s LEED EB team, she led the corporation to a LEED EB Platinum for their Headquarters building in Lancaster, PA in June 2007, and served on the team obtaining LEED EB recertification in 2014.
Recently, Anita has led Armstrong in a new initiative focusing on the Health and Wellbeing of occupants called Better Spaces. She drives the material health and transparency efforts, and created and manages Armstrong’s commitment through our SUSTAIN™ portfolio of high performance ceiling systems.
Anita joined Armstrong in 1997. Her experience is in Marketing, Research, Product Development and Customer Satisfaction both in the consumer goods, hospitality, building products and advertising industries. Her passion centers in developing strategies for reducing our impact on the environment through product and process innovation, and is always looking at opportunities to share knowledge and innovation with others.
Speaking Engagements: • Mindful Materials Series (2018 – NYC, Chicago)
• USGBC Central PA – 2017 – Green Con – Healthier Buildings
• USGBC GreenBuild – 2016 – Los Angeles, CA – LEEDv4 and Material transparency
• Living Future – Seattle 2016 – Declare and Living Building Challenge
• Costa Rica Green Building Congress – May 2015 – Materials and LEEDv4
• Canada Green Building Conference – June 2015 – Panel on Material Transparency
• USGBC GreenBuild – 2014 New Orleans, PA – two sessions
• State of Green Business – 2011
• PA Green Growth Partnerships, Pittsburgh, PA 2009
• PennTap, Green Workshop, Harrisburg, PA 2008
• Central PA USGBC Chapter Construction Waste Workshop, 2008
• LEED for Existing Building Workshop, Lancaster, PA, November 2007
• NeoCon East, Green Building Workshop, Baltimore, MD, October 2007
• ICA International Conference – Madrid- Acoustics and Green Building, September 2007
• ASHRAE ‘007 Conference – Long Beach, CA – Acoustics and Green Building, May 2007
• GreenBuild 2006 – Got LCA?, November 2006
• Local Green Building Council of PA –LEED for Schools Workshop, October 2006
• Various Recycling Summits throughout the nation
• Customer and sales presentations each month
Tune in:
Listen to a podcast interview with Anita Snader here.
DR. JOSEPH ALLEN
Assistant Professor of Exposure Science | Director of the Healthy Buildings program
Dr. Allen researches community and occupational exposures and health risks related to a broad range of chemical, biological, physical and radiological stressors. In particular, he focuses on the built environment, emissions from building materials and consumer products, and building system performance, each of which has the potential for both positive and negative impacts on human health, well-being and productivity. He is the Director of the Healthy Buildings program at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health and faculty director of the Harvard Sensors for Health research group. Dr. Allen teaches a class on the Impact of Buildings on Human Health, and is the faculty advisor for a new initiative out of Harvard’s Office for Sustainability – the Harvard Healthier Building Materials Academy.
HEATHER HENRIKSEN
Managing Director, Harvard University Office for Sustainability
Heather Henriksen has served as Harvard University’s chief sustainability officer since 2008, advising the President and senior leadership on strategy and building an organizational change enterprise. Heather leads the Office for Sustainability which oversees the implementation of the Harvard’s comprehensive Sustainability Plan (co-created with faculty and students in 2014) and the University’s ambitious new Climate Action Plan (to be fossil fuel-free by 2050 and fossil fuel-neutral by 2026) which builds upon the 2016 achievement of Harvard’s initial science-based climate goal.
The Office for Sustainability has expanded a multi-disciplinary living laboratory research program that partners with faculty and students to use the campus as a test bed for piloting and sharing innovative solutions to real-world sustainability challenges. A nationally recognized leader in healthier building materials, Heather is leading an effort with faculty within Harvard to translate research into practice related to heath in the built environment including a focus on addressing the use of chemicals of concern in common building products. Through this work, Harvard is partnering with business and non-profit leaders as they strive to transform the marketplace for a healthier built environment. Heather also advises courses throughout Harvard College and the professional graduate schools and speaks nationally and internationally on sustainability.
Heather is on the Board of Directors of the Health Product Declaration Collaborative. Heather serves as Advisory Committee Co-chair of the International Sustainable Campus Network (ISCN), and she is a member of Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2). Heather holds a Master in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School.
LAUREN M. WALLACE
Principal & Director of Certifications and Consulting, Epsten Group, Inc.
Lauren M. Wallace is a Principal and the Director of Certifications and Consulting at Epsten Group, Inc., where she has helped facilitate sustainability and wellness measures for thousands of projects around the globe. Ms. Wallace is a USGBC and WELL Faculty member, WELL AP, LFA, LEED AP BD+C, LEED Project Reviewer, BREEAM USA In-Use Assessor, Fitwel Ambassador, Parksmart Advisor, and TRUE Advisor. With a background in Architecture, Ms. Wallace has more than ten years of experience in sustainability. She speaks regularly to audiences with varying expertise about implementing change in the building industry, focusing on technical information and application.
BECCA RUSHIN
Vice President of Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility, Jamestown
Becca Rushin is the Vice President of Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility at Jamestown where she leads ESG initiatives through the Jamestown Green program and the Jamestown Charitable Foundation. Prior to joining Jamestown in 2012, Ms. Rushin worked as a local government consultant for Clark Patterson Lee, where she served as Community Development Coordinator and Sustainability Commission Staff Liaison for the City of Dunwoody. She is a Certified Energy Manager (CEM) and holds a LEED AP O+M credential. Ms. Rushin is an active volunteer with the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish and Environmental Policy from Sewanee: the University of the South and a Master of Science in Sustainable Development: Environmental Policy and Management from Utrecht University.
JODI SMITS ANDERSON
Director of Sustainability Programs, DASNY | LEED AP BD+C
Jodi Smits Anderson is the Director of Sustainability Programs for DASNY, an architect, LEED AP BD+C, AIA member, lifetime member of NESEA, past regional and national U.S. Green Building Council committee member, wife, mom, hiker, kayaker, knitter, and storyteller. She has spoken at the ILFI unconference in Seattle, WA, at the NACUBO conference in Austin, TX, at the first Wellness in Design conference in San Diego, CA, and several times each at Greenbuild, NESEA’s Building Energy Boston, and the NYS Green Building Conference, and has been a guest teacher at SUNY ESF, RPI, Ithaca College, NYU, Cornell, and SUNY Albany. She is a NY Energy Code trainer, the 2018 recipient of the Green Building Advocate award, and has assisted in research and writing for Project Drawdown, which cites the 100 market-proven ways we already have in our toolkit to reduce CO2 in our atmosphere. She has a featured article appearing in the Journal of Green Building’s V14 N3 in July of 2019, on Excellence in Building Envelopes, and is currently working on a ZNE renovation to an existing residence hall, a project intended to change how we do renovation projects in New York state. Jodi’s goal is to understand and incorporate informed sustainable practices into design, construction, and living, and to share whatever she has learned and learn still more from whomever will talk with her.
JIM NEWMAN
Founder and Principal, Linnean Solutions | LEED AP, O+M; EcoDistrict AP
Jim is the Founder and Principal at Linnean Solutions, a mission-driven firm that helps local governments, organizations, and communities reach sustainability and resilience goals. Jim’s twenty years of experience includes carbon mitigation planning and life cycle assessment; sustainability and resilience building certification; climate action and adaptation planning for municipalities, agencies, and organizations; resilience analysis, policy, and design standard development; EcoDistrict planning and management; and stakeholder engagement processes to strengthen communities. As a Living Environments in Natural, Social, and Economic Systems (LENSES) Facilitator and Trainer, Jim regularly leads community planning workshops, and trains others in becoming effective facilitators.
Previous to Linnean, Jim worked with BuildingGreen as the Director of Strategy, where he led the development and introduction of most of BuildingGreen’s online products including LEEDuser.com, BuildingGreen Suite, and the High Performance Buildings Database. Jim is a founding board member of the Resilient Design Institute, and a key author of several influential resilience reports and tools—including the Building Resilience in Boston report and
the Enterprise Community Partners’ Ready to Respond: Strategies for Multifamily Building Resilience manual. He is a member of the RELi/USGBC Steering Committee, where he has worked to bring a social equity lens to the development of the new certification standard for resilient buildings.
JULIE JANISKI
Associate Principal, BuroHappold Engineering
Julie Janiski leads integrated teams of engineers, designers, analysts, and subject-matter experts at BuroHappold Engineering for projects with ambitious goals related to design innovation, building performance, and the health, wellbeing and experience of building occupants and community. Julie’s recent work includes: Cornell Tech’s new Verizon Executive Education Center with Snohetta; Glenstone Museum with Thomas Phifer and Partners, St. Ann’s Warehouse theatre in Brookyln with Marvel Architects; a number of U.S. Embassy projects internationally for the U.S. State Department; a new corporate headquarters campus in Baltimore for Under Armour; an integrated “roadmap” plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80% by the year 2050 (80×50) for the City of New York; and The House at Cornell Tech – a residential high-rise in New York City which is certified Passive House. Julie also teaches at Columbia University’s GSAPP in the first-year core studio, and has been a guest critic/lecturer at other universities including MIT, Tulane, and NYU.
SARA NEFF
Senior Vice President, Sustainability at Kilroy Realty Corporation
Sara Neff is Senior Vice President, Sustainability at Kilroy Realty Corporation. Sara took Kilroy from having no sustainability program to being named the #1 publicly traded real estate company on sustainability in North America by GRESB, and under her leadership the company recently committed to becoming the first carbon neutral real estate company in North America by the end of 2020.
At Kilroy, she oversees all sustainability initiatives such as solar and battery deal-making, the implementation of energy and water efficiency initiatives throughout the existing and development portfolios, the integration of sustainability standards into annual financial reports, the launch of the Kilroy Innovation Lab, and the award-winning green leasing program. She holds a BS from Stanford and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
TRISTAN ROBERTS
Co-Founder, Facilitator at The Laurentia Project | LEED AP BD+C, LFA
Tristan Roberts is responsible for leading staff support for HPDC’s Technical Committee, education programs, and the evolution of the HPD Open Standard. Mr. Roberts is a leader in the advancement of green building practices. Prior to joining HPDC in May 2018, he was part of BuildingGreen, Inc. for eleven years, where he most recently served as Chief Strategy Officer, moderating and leading the community development of LEEDuser forum which supports over 10,000 users. He is the author of hundreds of articles and in-depth reports on building industry trends and technologies, and is a frequent speaker and educator in the areas of green building and sustainable design. His objective stance and focus on practical tools has earned him the trust of a wide spectrum of stakeholders in the industry, including architects, sustainability professionals, manufacturers, and nonprofit groups. Mr. Roberts has taught sustainability and building science at the Boston Architectural College.
TIM CONWAY
Vice President of Sustainable Development, Shaw
As a flooring industry expert, Tim Conway is focused on the positive affects that sustainable flooring products have on our buildings, and more importantly, the people that occupy and live in the spaces we design. Tim has worked closely with Bill McDonough and the internal team at Shaw for the past twelve years developing and maintaining Shaw’s Cradle to Cradle certifications, HPDs and EPDs. His unique role at Shaw enables him to drive the communication between clients’ requirements and the product development team at Shaw. He has presented at GreenBuild, Living Future, and Design Future Council and has been an integral part in the development of healthy carpet specifications for clients all over the world. Tim is passionate about collaborating with clients to develop flooring specifications that are safe throughout a product’s entire supply chain, from raw material chemical building blocks to end of life replication. He has a unique ability to translate complex systems like Cradle to Cradle and HPDs into simple stories that empower change and deliver buildings that have positive intent for the future of our people and our planet.
BILL WALSH
Founder and President, Board of the Healthy Building Network
Bill Walsh is the Founder and President of the Board of the Healthy Building Network (HBN). Since 2000 HBN has been defining the leading edge of healthy building practices that increase transparency in the building products industry, reduce human exposures to chemicals in building materials, and create market incentives for healthier innovations in manufacturing. He has been Visiting Professor at Parsons The New School for Design, is a Fellow of the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production at the University of Massachusetts, and a founding board member of the Health Product Declaration (HPD) Collaborative. Bill and HBN have been awarded the Design for Humanity Award by the American Society of Interior Designers (2019); WEACT for Environmental Justice Leadership Award (2018); Healthy Schools Network Hero (2013); US Green Building Council’s Leadership In Advocacy Award (2012). Previously he served as a national campaign director at Greenpeace USA, and held staff attorney positions with the US Public Interest Research Group and the Institute for Public Representation at Georgetown University Law Center. He holds a J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law and LLM in Public Interest Advocacy from Georgetown University.
BRENT TRENGA
Building Technology Director, Kingspan North America
Brent has truly run the construction industry gamut serving in various roles including Architect, Construction Manager, Developer and even project owner, allowing him to fully understand the sustainability ecosystem. As Building Technology Director for Kingspan North America, Brent is committed to reducing the environmental impact of business operations, products and services through continuous improvement and environmental transparency.
JENNIFER TARANTO
LEED® AP ID+C, BD+C, USGBC Faculty, WELL® AP, WELL Faculty and Fitwel Ambassador Structure Tone, Director of Sustainability
Jennifer Taranto ensures the principals of sustainability, wellbeing, and Lean construction are incorporated into client projects and everyday work practices throughout the STO Building Group.
Jenn is a passionate advocate for reducing environmental impact of the built environment and enabling organizations to improve people’s health and wellbeing while reducing the construction and operating costs of facilities. She gets involved in the early stages of client projects to define the needs and the overall sustainability goals in order to create an internal road map to team success.
Jennifer brings more than eighteen years of experience in the commercial real estate and construction industry, and joined Structure Tone in 2001. Her previous roles included superintendent and project manager prior to becoming Structure Tone’s Director of Sustainability in 2008.
As a founder of the USGBC Massachusetts Chapter and the former Chair of the Chapter’s Board of Directors she is recognized as a leader in the sustainable built environment. She has lectured at Wentworth Institute of Technology and Boston University and spoken at Labs21 Conference (I2SL), Delaware Valley Green Building Council’s Sustainability Symposium, Living Futures and Greenbuild. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Construction Engineering from North Carolina State University.
Jennifer has a Bacon number of 2.
LEIGH STRINGER
Workplace Strategy Expert and Researcher, EYP
Leigh Stringer is a workplace strategy expert and researcher whose work has been covered recently by BBC News, The Globe and Mail, Fortune, CNN and Good Morning America. She works for EYP, an architecture and engineering firm. She is the author of two best-selling books, The Green Workplace and The Healthy Workplace. Leigh is currently collaborating with Harvard University’s School of Public Health on a new Health and Human Performance Index and the Center for Active Design in New York on their Fitwel building certification program to create new tools, connect like minds and blur the boundaries across industries in order to advance our improve our well-being at work. Leigh is on the board of directors of a new non-profit, Global Women for Wellbeing, an organization that aims to give women a voice to create better health and wellbeing for themselves, their businesses, and their communities.
CHARLEY STEVENSON
Principal, Integrated Ecostrategy
Charley Stevenson has been delving deeper and deeper into healthier building materials since beginning work on his first Living Building Challenge project in 2011. With the team at IES, he has developed process and software to integrate better materials selections into all project types and to transform the market as quickly and easily as possible. The Red2Green platform has reduced Red List research and documentation effort by a factor of three while building up a library of over 10,000 products screened for compliance.
PETER SMITH
Senior Vice President, International WELL Building Institute
Peter is engaged with leading organizations and institutions seeking to transform their real estate portfolios to enhance health and business metrics. As Senior Vice President at IWBI, he leads a team driving the global growth and adoption of the WELL Building Standard, the first performance-based building standard to exclusively focus on human health. Peter is also an active speaker and educator, promoting health in the built environment through industry events and technical workshops. Previously, Peter served as Vice President of Delos Solutions, a team of consultants and subject matter experts incorporating health and wellness strategies into the pioneering WELL Certification projects. Working closely with Delos Labs, an internal research group, he identified best-in-class design solutions, products and technologies to improve the built environment and optimize for human health, well-being and environmentally sustainability. Peter has an extensive background in building science and energy efficiency. Prior to joining Delos and IWBI, he worked as a Sustainability Consultant at Steven Winter Associates, an industry leading green building consulting firm. Focusing on affordable housing in the greater New York City area, Peter worked with multifamily developers to implement sustainable design principles and energy efficiency measures into new construction projects and validate high-performance building criteria. Peter holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a Bachelor’s degree from Colgate University in Environmental Economics. He also maintains accreditations for WELL AP™ and WELL Faculty™.
JASON JEWHURST
Principal, Bruner/Cott
Jason’s passion for reconnecting with the natural environment informs all of his work as a specialist in sustainable and high-performance building design. With a strong technical background in building systems, technology, and sustainability, Jason is driven by a deep respect for craftsmanship and the art of making and by the possibilities created by merging tested traditions of construction with new fabrication technologies and material production. He leads design teams to explore possibilities inspired by a shared set of values and goals to create high-performance contemporary architecture that is beautiful and inspiring. He is a recipient of a 2017 Living Hero Award.
BLAKE JACKSON
Architect, Associate, and Sustainability Design Leader, Stantec Architecture and Engineering
Blake Jackson is an architect, Associate, and Sustainability Design Leader with Stantec Architecture and Engineering in Boston, Massachusetts. His work focuses on the nexus between sustainability, wellness, and resiliency, and he has over fifteen years’ experience in planning, retail, hospitality, labs, healthcare, commercial, higher-education, and multifamily projects. Blake is a prolific author and speaker on his three main areas of focus, is an adjunct faculty at the Boston Architectural College and at Mount Ida College, and he currently serves as the Vice President for Advocacy for the Boston Society of Architects. He was named a national top “40 Under 40” built environment professional by Building Design and Construction Magazine in 2015.
ANNE HARNEY
FAIA, LEED Fellow, Long Green Specs
Anne Hicks Harney has over 30 years of experience, focusing on high quality design imbued with a solid technical and sustainable foundation. Formed in 2016, Long Green Specs provides sustainability focused construction specifications and building science material expertise to Architectural firms across the country. She is a member of the AIA COTE Advisory Group. She was a founding co-chair of the Baltimore – Building Enclosure Council, chair of the AIA Materials Knowledge Working Group, and a member of the USGBC Materials & Resources Technical Advisory Group. In 2016, Ms. Harney was awarded fellowship by the AIA and became a LEED Fellow.
Speaking Engagements
Living Future unconference 2019 – Using the AIA COTE Toolkit to Elevate Every Project –
Living Future unconference 2019 – Entering the material pool – deep end jump or shallow slide?
2019 AIA Women’s Leadership Summit – Go Forth and Prosper, While Changing the World
Greenbuild 2018: Chicago IL, November 2018 – Closing the Transparency Loop: Collaboration in Action
AIA Conference on Architecture 2018, New York NY: Holding Ourselves to Higher Standards – Healthy Materials Every Time
BRENT EHRLICH
Products & Materials Specialist, BuildingGreen
Brent is the products & materials specialist at BuildingGreen, where he has been researching and writing about green building products, materials, and their health and environmental impacts for more than a decade. He brings a nuanced understanding of materials, their constituents, and lifecycles to his work as a consultant and speaker and leads a team of editors that selects products for the company’s BuildingGreen Approved database and annual Top 10 Products Award.
Speaking Engagements
• Annual BuildingGreen’s Top 10 Products award at Greenbuild (8 years as presenter)
• Northeast Sustainable Energy Association: NESEA 2014: The Forest and the Trees
• NESEA 2011: Materials Track Chair + Cool New Products presentation
MATT EDLEN
Director of Acquisitions and Development
Matt Edlen oversees acquisitions and development in the Midwest and East Coast for Gerding Edlen’s various investment funds. Matt is responsible for sourcing, negotiating and executing on investment opportunities across key urban markets within those regions.
Prior to his role in acquisitions, Matt was focused on the development and management of the firms internal multifamily marketing and sales platform. His efforts have helped the firm invest over $1 billion worth of real estate across the country in cities such as Seattle, Los Angeles, Portland, San Francisco, Boston, and Chicago.
Matt currently serves as national chair of the board for Design Museum Foundation and as a board member for Boston’s NOAH (Neighborhood of Affordable Housing), and The Oregon Sports Authority. He has also served as board member and chair of the site selection committee for PHAME Academy, board member and co-chair of the Arts Connector Program of Business for Culture and the Arts, and alumni board member of Young People’s Theater Project. Matt earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Loyola University of Chicago.
MIKHAIL DAVIS
Director of Restorative Enterprise, Interface
Mikhail Davis is Director of Restorative Enterprise at Interface, a world-leading modular flooring company with a fully integrated collection of hard and soft flooring. Interface’s mission, Climate Take Back™, invites industry to commit to making a profit in a way that is restorative to the planet and creates a climate fit for life. Mikhail is responsible for advancing Interface’s mission in the Americas by building internal leadership capacity, facilitating strategic alignment of efforts, and creating external partnerships that shift the marketplace toward sustainability. He leads Interface’s product transparency efforts in the Americas and was lead author and editor of Interface’s Radical Industrialists column at GreenBiz.com for two years.
An expert in sustainable materials and NGO collaborations, he represents Interface in many organizations focused on sustainability innovation, closed-loop systems, recycling, and chemicals of concern, including serving as 2016-18 Chair of the US Green Building Council’s Technical Advisory Group on Materials and Resources (MR TAG), Co-Chair of the Materials Working Group of BizNGO and Program Advisor to the Next Generation Bio-based and Sustainable Chemicals Summit.
STEVEN BURKE
Sustainability Manager, Consigli Construction Company
Steven is a Sustainability Manager at Consigli Construction Co., Inc., an 800+ person construction firm based in Massachusetts. His position involves management of company sustainability processes and sustainable construction projects at Consigli. He has a Master of Science in Sustainability Management from Columbia University, and has delivered many presentations on how to integrate health and wellness into the design and construction of the built environment.
Green Building of the Year
SITE – MARKET LEADER
INNOVATION – MARKET LEADER
HEALTH & WELLNESS – MARKET LEADER
ENERGY & WATER EFFICIENCY – MARKET LEADER
RESILIENCE – MARKET LEADER
PEOPLE’S CHOICE – MARKET LEADER
Global Head of Sustainability, Superior Essex
Sustainability Director, Steven Winter Associates
PE | Associate, LeMessurier
Vice President, AEW’s Architecture & Engineering group
Interior Designer, Jacobs, Boston
Senior Vice President, Market Transformation and Development U.S. Green Building Council
AIA LEED AP BD+C | Senior Associate, Gensler Boston 
LEED Fellow, WELL AP | Founder and Principal, Ecoworks Studio
AIA, LEED AP BD+C, WELL AP
LEED AP BD+C | Environmental Sustainability Manager, Armstrong World Industries
Assistant Professor of Exposure Science | Director of the Healthy Buildings program
Managing Director, Harvard University Office for Sustainability
Principal & Director of Certifications and Consulting, Epsten Group, Inc.
Vice President of Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility, Jamestown
Director of Sustainability Programs, DASNY | LEED AP BD+C
Associate Principal, BuroHappold Engineering
Senior Vice President, Sustainability at Kilroy Realty Corporation
Co-Founder, Facilitator at The Laurentia Project | LEED AP BD+C, LFA
Vice President of Sustainable Development, Shaw
Founder and President, Board of the Healthy Building Network
Building Technology Director, Kingspan North America
LEED® AP ID+C, BD+C, USGBC Faculty, WELL® AP, WELL Faculty and Fitwel Ambassador
Workplace Strategy Expert and Researcher, EYP
Principal, Integrated Ecostrategy
Senior Vice President, International WELL Building Institute
Principal, Bruner/Cott
Architect, Associate, and Sustainability Design Leader, Stantec Architecture and Engineering
FAIA, LEED Fellow, Long Green Specs
Products & Materials Specialist, BuildingGreen
Director of Acquisitions and Development
Director of Restorative Enterprise, Interface
Sustainability Manager, Consigli Construction Company