Shining Light On ReVision Energy- A Word From Our Sponsors

By USGBC MA


We're always incredibly proud of those we partner with, especially when we can see tangible proof of their devotion to sustainability. ReVision Energy recently released their stats from 2016, showcasing how much they did last year and the impact their efforts made.

Here's a rundown of some of the stats that really stood out:

  • 668 solar project installed, translating to 8 megawatts of solar energy
  • 2016's installations will result in 10,160,000 kilowatt of clean, renewable energy, every year, for 25+ years. That's a LOT of energy.
    • Because of this, 16,531 barrels of oil and 7,619,277 pounds of coal were offset; 6,759 acres of forest and 185,047 tree seedlings grown for 10 years were restored.
  • They designed an orchard, a brewery, 9 schools, 1 coffee shop, 5 battery systems, 22 electric car charging stations, and even 1 veterinary office. 

 

They also recently introduced a 100% Solar Household (image to the right) that will help individuals transition completely from fossil fuels to 100% clean solar energy.

If you have time, we totally recommend you learn more about ReVision and attend some of their events.

Listen to Thursday's Webinar on Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Capturing the Sun Roadmap

By Alexander Landa


This coming Thursday from 3:00pm-4:30pm, our friends over at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will be giving a presinar on their upcoming project “Capturing the Sun: A Roadmap for Navigating Data-Access Challenges and Auto-Populating Solar Home Sales Listings.”

From the event page:

There are now over one million homes in America with solar photovoltaic (PV) panels.  Yet real estate listing services (known as multiple listing services or MLSs) lack a standard way to report on the solar features of a home when it is placed on the market.  Without this information, sellers may be losing out on value, and buyers may not know what they are getting, and real estate agents have a harder time bringing solar sellers and interested buyers together.

This new Roadmap from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) proposes a way to fill that gap.

The report, entitled “Capturing the Sun: A Roadmap for Navigating Data-Access Challenges and Auto-Populating Solar Home Sales Listings,” guides solar and real estate professionals through the key challenges and the best path forward to get solar data into MLSs. Experts from the real estate, appraisal, and solar data industries collaborated to write the report.

Join us as the authors present the findings from this new report.

Ben Hoen, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Laura Stukel, LW Reedy Real Estate
Sandra Adomatis, Adomatis Appraisal Service
Craig Foley, Sustainable Real Estate Consulting Services (and USGBC MA Chapter Member)
Laura Parsons, Center for Sustainable Energy

Register here.

We're excited to see such progress happening with solar panels – it's a huge, important step towards more net-zero buildings. Solar energy is going to be a game changed in the future of our cities as a whole, as demonstrated by smart cities. If you're not familiar with smart cities yet, attend our upcoming event Building Tech Forum to learn all about them!

Levi + Wong Designs Memory Care Center in Worcester

By Emily Kingston

After three years in the making, the Oasis at Dodge Park is ready to welcome those facing dementia or Alzheimer’s to a state-of-the art, $12 million facility that its co-owners believe is a home away from home for people with memory ailments.

Following a brief ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday, local official and legislators including State Sen. Harriette L. Chandler, D-Worcester, Mayor Joseph Petty and City Manager Edward M. Augustus Jr., toured the 50-bed rest home at 102 Randolph Road – the site of the former Odd Fellows Home building.

Co-owners Ben Herlinger and Micha Shalev said they shared the vision of creating a facility that would provide people with memory ailments a safe place to live with dignity in a warm, relaxing environment.


They called on architect Ruth Neeman, of Levi & Wong Design Associates of Concord, which specializes in designing such facilities to design a space that is friendly and supportive for elders. Ms. Neeman said every detail counts when dealing with the elderly population including such design decisions as color contrast that can make the difference between seeing where they are going and what they are doing, for the visually impaired.

“Every decision makes a difference between residents thriving and struggling,” Ms. Neeman said at the ceremony. “The goal was to make a building feel like home, residential and comforting.”

The 34,000-square-foot facility has two grand sitting areas that include a grand piano and electric fireplace, as well as two dining areas, a library, spa, hair salon and two outdoor courtyards with heated cement floors so the snow melts, that make it feel more like a luxury hotel than a medical facility. There are only a handful residents living there currently, but at full capacity, Mr. Herlinger said, the facility will have 62 full-time employees.


Mayor Petty said that although the city went back and forth for a few months with Mr. Herlinger and Mr. Shalev, it was “well worth it.” He added that the city would support them with any future expansion.

“We’ll be there for you,” he said.

This post was adapted from the Worcester Telegram article “Oasis at Dodge Park provides memory care in Worcester

How a City Can Become a Smart City One Apartment at a Time

By Alexander Landa


The good news regarding smart cities is that like many other cities, they can form one building – or even one apartment – at a time. We don't need to demolish an entire city and start from the grid up just to future-proof our environment.

CNET is taking a unique approach to designing a smart city by starting with a smart apartment. Similar to their Smart Home, the smart apartment is a bit of a testing grounds for smart technology – a playpen of sorts for futuristic gadgets that play well with one another. All devices and technology they used in this design are available for the average Joe – so don't look at this pad and think to yourself “I can never afford this,” or “Is this even physically possible to install?”

Their ideas are rather simple, yet genius. They ditched the idea of smart light switches in favor of lamps, since lamps are much easier to control and can be used with their phones, like talking to Siri. For security, CNET installed a motion- and sound-detector that enables you to watch your apartment in real-time. 

They put a lot more into the apartment, but the big picture is how it connects to the city. The light bulbs used talk to the city of Louisville where it's located, by changing color based on the air quality in the city. Amazon's Alexa is pretty neat in that you can ask it for updates from the city (a daily report from the Mayor), or asking when the next garbage pickup date is.

Right now, this is still in the ver early stages of development. Though, it's already showing progress with residents from around the city all working towards pushing Louisville to the future.

Interested in learning more about smart cities? Attend our upcoming Building Tech Forum to see how the future of architecture and sustainability is changing.

Building Tech Forum 2017 Partner Announcement – Boston Properties

By Alexander Landa


We're pleased to announce that Boston Properties has become a Sponsoring Partner of the upcoming Building Tech Forum in February! It's exciting to be partnering with this awesome developer of office properties for another event, and can't wait to see them again in a few weeks!

Boston Properties has been a Chapter sponsor of ours for a while, now with the upcoming Building Tech Forum proving even more how devoted they are to sustainability and innovation. Last year, we were honored to have Ben Myers, Sustainability Manager of BXP, act as the keynote speaker for the event.

Always staying busy, BXP is making plenty of headlines in both the architecture and stock market spheres. Recently, they were tapped alongside The Bernstein Cos to build Marriott International Inc.'s new home near Washington D.C. 

Thank you again, Boston Properties! See you soon.

Environmental Legislation Co-Signing Fair

By Grey Lee, Executive Director

This morning, the USGBC MA joined with our colleagues in the environmental advocacy community to garner support for legislation which will advance our mission. The event is organized by the Environmental League of Massachusetts. At the opening of each legislative session, there is a period after the deadline for filing bills (which was this past Friday) and the assigning of bills to committees, during which legislators can demonstrate their interest to a bill by becoming a co-sponsor. The more co-sponsors a bill has, the “stronger” it is.


Many of our comrades attended, including the Climate Action Business Association, Conservation Law Foundation, Clean Water Action, Sierra Club, Transportation For Massachusetts, Acadia Center, Audubon, Environment Massachusetts, and the Nature Conservancy.

It was great to meet up with legislators such as newly-elected Mike Connolly (of Somerville & Cambridge)(left, below, with nice pin on lapel). Mike was the instigator of the Citizens Petition for Net Zero Buildings in Cambridge – which has resulted in that city's new net zero building policy plan. We're going to be following Mike a lot in the coming months as he get used to his new role as a State Rep. Congrats again, Mike! 


Here we see Chapter Member, and all-star advocate staffer of Clean Water Action, Amanda Siebert, ready to meet legislators to pitch them on carbon pricing. This is one of our priorities and we have with joined her organization to be a part of the Clean Energy Future coalition in MA.


All in all, a great opportunity to see a lot of legislators in a short amount of time. Also good to see what our colleagues are up to and figure out ways we can help each other move forward with sustainability in Massachusetts.


If you're interested in becoming more engaged with advocacy, attend our next roundtable on February 9th.

Reminder – Annual General Meeting this Thursday!

By Alexander Landa


We're starting to get really excited – this Thursday is the USGBC MA Chapter Annual General Meeting!

This is a really special night for all of us. It's a gathering of a wide mix of individuals from our Chapter, from the active volunteers who show up at every event we hold, to the emerging professional who rarely gets a chance to break away from coursework in college. We will celebrate our victories in 2016, look forward to the upcoming year, elect our new Board members, and announce a new game that will put the spotlight on the individuals that made the biggest impact in Massachusetts.

Come on out to Payette on Thursday and join the fun!

Register here for the annual general meeting
Thursday, January 26th, 2017
5:30pm-8:00pm
Payette
290 Congress Street
Boston, MA, 02110

 

Getting To Know Fellow USGBC MA Member, Chris Schaffner of The Green Engineer

By USGBC MA Chapter


We're an organization built by our members, who range from students and emerging professionals to senior level executives at massive architectural firms. Today, we want to shine the spotlight on Chris Schaffner, LEED Fellow, Founder & President of The Green Engineer, Inc., a sustainable design firm. Chris has been a huge part of our community for a while now, frequently attending meetings, presenting at our morning educational sessions, and supporting us in everything we do.

A long time promoter of sustainable design, Chris was a charter member of the US Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED Faculty(TM), training more than 9,600 building industry professionals in the use of the LEED Rating System since 2001. He is a currently an elected member of the USGBC Advisory Council, as well as a volunteer with the LEED Advisory Committee. He previously served on the USGBC Board of Directors, as Chair of the Energy and Atmosphere Technical Advisory Group (TAG) and as a member of the Indoor Environmental Quality TAG, among other volunteer roles with the USGBC.

The Green Engineer, Inc. is a sustainable design consulting firm specializing in solutions to design, build, and operate buildings with improved energy efficiency and reduced impact on the environment. 

Reminder – WELL Exam Prep Course Next Tuesday

By Alexander Landa


The WELL Building Standard is commanding the attention of property owners throughout our market area. The Chapter invites any professional who is interested in taking the WELL AP exam to join us for an in-depth professional exam preparation course.

Register here!

If you are interested in taking a comprehensive day-long class of the WELL Building Standard, sign up now. You can be a part of the earliest wave of WELL Accredited Professionals in Massachusetts. We welcome professionals from all sectors of the building industry: owners, operators, designers, engineers, builders and occupants interested in mastering and practicing the new standard.

The WELL AP Exam Prep Class will have nine sections which will be given over the course of one day (see content section below). A light breakfast, full lunch, and snacks throughout the day will be provided. A hard-copy exam study guide will be provided to all students.

WELL AP Exam Prep Course
Tuesday, January 24th, 2017
8:30am-4:30pm
50 Milk St, 18th Floor, Hemingway Room
Boston, MA, 02109

Call for Greenbuild 2017 Session Proposal Reviewers Extended Friday 1/20

By Alexander Landa


Attention those interested in Greenbuild 2017! If you or someone you know is interested in engaging with biggest green building event of year, then you might be interested in becoming a reviewer to evaluate proposals for educational sessions.

The most current news is that the submitting due date for applications has been extended to this Friday, January 20. That's tomorrow – but there's still time for any of you procrastinators to get it in.

Find more information about the application process here.

You will be notified of your status as soon as next Wednesday, January 25th. From there, you will start to receive proposals to review on Monday, January 30th. Proposal reviews are due by Friday, February 20th.

It should be known by now, but Greenbuild 2017 is going All-In… and coming to Boston this time around! As the host Chapter, we're going to be doing a lot beween now and November to get psyched for the big event. Follow our Road to Greenbuild here.