We know, we know—it’s odd to hear that from a car sharing company. But hear us out.
Human activity is accelerating climate change at a dangerous rate, and the transportation industry is the second-largest and fastest-growing contributor. In fact, passenger cars are the largest source of transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions. These aren’t our personal beliefs or anything. They’re just facts.
But trust us, we have personal beliefs on the subject, too. We believe in enabling simple and responsible urban living. We believe in a future in which car sharers outnumber car owners. We believe that car sharing programs should and will be a requisite part of how our cities grow and develop.
These beliefs have kept us going for 17 years and have brought us one million members sharing 12,000 cars in 500 cities and towns around the world. So far, these members have prevented 1.6 billion pounds of CO2 emissions, and together, we’ve kept almost 415,000 personally owned vehicles off the road.
We’re pretty proud of that, but it’s not enough. So this Earth Day—and every day, really—we’re asking everyone to fight climate change by simply driving less. Lace up those kicks. Dust off that bike seat. Carpool with a neighbor or coworker. And show us how you’re making these (and other environmentally friendly) tweaks to your routine with #DearWorld.
Because let’s face it: Right now is when the Earth needs saving the most—and no action is too small. That’s just fact.
AHA Consulting Engineers has been a true ally in our mission of sustainability for over five years, and we're happy to say that they are a Silver Sponsor of our organization. Their work always impresses us and the surrounding community, and we're incredibly proud to continue working with them for #MoreGreenBuildings!
The group has been serving its clients for over 20 years across the country and internationally, with an expertise in mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire protection design as well as LEED administration, commissioning and energy modeling. With over 130 professionals, AHA is committed to the creation of environments of enduring quality and value.
If you're happy to have more seating options at Fenway Park to see the Red Sox knock it out of the park, you can thank AHA for that one. In late 2016, AHA's unique engineering approach led to 258 more seats available at Fenway, with 222 in the right-field pavilion, or the 36-person Infiniti Suite, where AHA's mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire alarm design experience is on display. AHA has been involved with Fenway upgrades, renovations, and expansions since 2009, such as the Royal Rooters visitors' clubhouse and concession stand expansions.
AHA provides consulting services in:
Mechanical
Electrical
Plumbing
Fire Protection
Building Commissioning
Sustainability Consulting
LEED Project Administration
MEP Design Documentation
Energy Modeling
Building Information Modeling
Last night (April 26th), the USGBC MA community took an evening tour of the highly-innovative Eddy, a high-end apartment complex developed by Gerding Edlen. The 250-unit building is proof that not only can a building be beautiful and functional, but it can also be incredibly good for the environment, as evident by its LEED Gold Certification.
Starting off with a casual networking session with drinks and refreshments, attendees were excited to explore the lower levels of the building, primarily common space for residents to enjoy, such as an outdoor patio, a pool table, chairs by the water, and more. Thank you to Renee Loveland for opening up the night and talking about Gerding Edlen's devotion to sustainability, and what makes The Eddy so unique.
From there, the large crowd broke off into two groups to see what really makes this building tick. One of The Eddy's most exciting features is the state-of-the-art co-generation plant on site, that generates the electricity and hot water for the entire building. It's amazing to see this up-close and personal – building design has come a long, long way in recent years.
Once the tour circulated to all of the display apartments, most of the time all you could hear were whispers of “oh, wow” – these are amazing layouts.
One of the unique things the crowd has ever seen was the robotic parking system, which is a clever way of having someone park their car onto a landing platform, pulling it into a vertical row of cars (3 cars high!) and arranging the cars robotically. This way, so much space is conserved by condensing the space taken up as opposed to a full parking lot. It's like Tetris, except your thumbs and eyes don't hurt afterward.
There was so much to see during this tour, and it really left a lasting impact on everyone who attended. Between the mechanical rooms, outdoors facilities, common spaces, roof decks, and apartments, The Eddy raises the bar for what a residential complex can achieve.
Thanks to all Eddy staff and Gerding Edlen guests for holding this tour for us!
We are incredibly proud to announce that Elkus Manfredi Architects is renewing as a Silver Sponsor of the USGBC Massachusetts Chapter. For years, they have been a great friend and ally in our fight for a net-zero future, and we're incredibly happy to be engaging with them even more.
Elkus Manfredi is an architectural firm committed to the principles of green building and sustainability. The group is well-versed in the ways that connectivity, location, market pressures, sustainability, and other elements play into the unique matrix that each project represents. Elkus Manfredi has gained insight into what has historically worked and what hasn’t, and can take an educated look into the future to anticipate needs not yet evident. This adds enormous substance to their work.
In recent memory, Elkus Manfredi developed the beautiful New Balance HQ located in Brighton, Massachusetts, which won the Green Building of the Year award at the 2016 Green Building Showcase. This five-story, 350,000 square-foot design is the sole LEED v2009 CS Platinum project in the United States to achieve all Indoor Environmental Quality credits, and only the third in the world.
Nothing makes us happier than seeing our friends and allies making headlines for their monumental achievements to sustainability. Bruner/Cott's R.W. Kern Center at Hampshire College has made the 2017 AIA COTE Top Ten Awards, a program that celebrates sustainable design and building excellence. The R.W. Kern Center is pursuing Living Building certification – and making great strides towards it.
The AIA and Committee on the Environment (COTE)'s Top Ten Awards program is now in its 21st year, always highlighting projects that are models for what a great design should hope to achieve. By aligning with COTE's criteria for social, economic, and ecological value, designs can be entered into a competitive pool with only the highest-performing candidates making the list.
The R.W. Kern Center is an archetypal example of what it means to be a sustainable design and pinnacle of excellence. The new 17,000-square-foot campus welcome center was constructed using materials that were chosen to comply with the LBC Red List. The building is designed to supply its own power and water and process waste on-site.
Bruner/Cott has a distinguished 40-year sustainability record and a clear commitment to excellent green building. The firm approaches each project in the context of its community, program, and mission, and looks for ways to maximize projects’ positive impact.
Can a building designed to meet LEED certification be adapted to meets Passivhaus standards?
Recent research released by FXFOWLE into how New York City buildings can meet energy efficient Passivhaus standards featured contributions from two Simpson Gumpertz & Heger (SGH) staff members. Senior Principal Sean O’Brien and Staff II Brienna Rust were coauthors on “Feasibility Study to Implement the Passivhaus Standard on Tall Residential Buildings,” which explored the impact of adapting a building designed to meet LEED certification to one that meets Passivhaus.
Passivhaus is a design concept developed in Germany that uses architectural solutions like stringent air tightness and minimized thermal bridging to create buildings that consume very little energy. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority sponsored this project to explore the viability of this approach for energy efficiency in the local construction industry. FXFOWLE led the study, and several other engineering and consulting firms contributed to the project.
The researchers compared a base case high-rise, mixed-use building in Queens, NY, seeking LEED v.3 Silver Certification with an adapted design to meet Passivhaus requirements. “The study examines the impacts of achieving the standard from architectural, enclosure detailing, mechanical, structural, constructability, resiliency, zoning, and code perspectives,” wrote the authors. They found a 47% reduction in primary energy consumption from the base model and an 85% reduction in heating demand, offset by a 2.4% initial cost increase and a 24-year payback.
“The findings of this study suggest that it is viable to design large high-rise residential buildings in New York City to meet the Passivhaus standard” with minimal aesthetic changes, the authors conclude.
Sean will present the results of this study as part of an expert panel discussion on 29 April at the AIA Conference on Architecture 2017 in Orlando, FL.
