Early Bird Registration for BuildingEnergy Boston is Open

By USGBC MA


Our friends over at the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA) are putting together a pretty cool event March 7-9. BuildingEnergy Boston Conference + Tradeshow is the region's leading event for those in the field of sustainability, bringing over 2500 local leaders & emerging professionals together.

What makes this conference stand out is its place in the field – it's much more interdisciplinary in content and in audience than other similar tradeshows. Attendees and topics range from architecture, engineering, building design, consulting, policy, finance, auditing, installation, construction, education, and more.

Learn more about BuildingEnergy here.

Support Us and Win an ILFI Membership

By Alexander Landa


With less than two weeks to go in 2016, we can't thank you enough for all the times you've supported us during the year, and how you will support us in 2017.

The USGBC MA is built on the entire community, which means over 600 people working together to advocate for a more sustainable, net-positive Commonwealth. Whether you're an architect, a student, or just a green building enthusiast, we're all working together for the same, shared mission.

To keep doing what we do best – advocating for more green buildings and connecting industry leaders together to make it all happen – we need your help.

Right now, PayPal is adding an extra 1% to all donations received through the end of the year. You can make an end-of-the-year contribution by going here.

You can also support us during our Facebook campaign as well.

This isn't the end of the story, though. This fundraiser is also a silent auction for an ILFI membership. If you're interested in WELL and Living Buildings, then you have an extra incentive to help us out. 

Massachusetts Has Over 100,000 Employed in Clean Energy

By Alexander Landa


At this point, I'm sure anyone reading this knows that the state of Massachusetts is one of the greenest there is. With massive amounts of LEED certified buildings and ongoing sustainability endeavors, this state has made a positive impact on the built environment. What may be news is that the state has over 100,000 individuals employed in clean energy jobs.

Read the full report by MassCEC here.

The Commonwealth recently added 6300 jobs, bringing the total to over 100,000. Clean energy is now at $11.8 billion industry in Mass., making that 2.5% of all gross state product, and 2.9% of the state's overall workforce.

“The Commonwealth’s highly educated and well-trained workforce makes it an attractive place for innovative industries, including clean energy companies,” said Governor Charlie Baker. “Massachusetts’ recently passed comprehensive energy diversification legislation will continue to build on the recent success of the clean energy industry by increasing opportunities for growth and advancement.”

This is a massive achievement for our wonderful state. Part of Massachusett's initiative is to get to 100% renewable energy, which can work alongside our mission for a net-positive future. This report is proof that so many organizations and industries have the same mission in Mass. – a more sustainable, healthier future, through any means necessary.

Healthy Materials Sponsor Profile: Sustainable Performance Institute

By Alexander Landa


The Healthy Materials Summit on October 26th was an awesome event! We couldn't have put everything together without the help of a hosting committee, the volunteers, and especially our sponsors. An extra big thank you goes to the Sustainable Performance Institute for really helping to make the Summit happen.

SPI, lead by our friend Barbra Batshalom, aims to advocate for more green buildings by working with designers and consulting them on how they can construct more sustainable buildings. They fight for LEED, Net-Zero, Living Buildings, and more, to change the root of an organization to want more than just a building, but a sustainable design and a healthier company culture with it.

To do this, they provide design assessments for the building owner's team to see where they're currently at. From there, they educate the team on best practices and to understand the green building industry better. From there, they consult the team on the next steps to take, certify them on what they're learned and how they have changed, and then give a report card on how the group has progressed.

In January, we're hosting a morning educational session with SPI! Join us on the 19th for our Project Mapping Workshop talk. Register here.

Healthy Materials Sponsor Profile: WSP

By Alexander Landa


Following the Healthy Materials Summit in October, we've become more devoted than ever to the subject of healthy materials in sustainable design. Every part of a building's lifecycle is important, and the components going into it are crucial. WSP has proven to be a leader in sustainability, and we want to thank them for being a sponsor of the Summit!

WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff is one of the world's largest leading engineering consulting firms with a genuine devotion to restoring the built environment into a more natural one. Their work includes urban planning, engineering buildings, and more. Their team of over 36,000 people includes engineers, technicians, scientists, architects, planners, surveyors, program and construction management professionals, and various environmental experts.

We're especially appreciative of their sustainability mission, which goes beyond just consultations and advice. They aim to connect with communities directly, to grow the sustainable economy, creating designs that will last for years, and creating the smallest environmental impact possible.

Thank you and we look forward to seeing you again!

Attention Learners: Attend Harvard Extension's Spring 2017 Class on occupant well-being in buildings!

By Alexander Landa


Join Chapter Member, and former Director, Nathan Gauthier for an exciting look at the health effects of buildings.

Anyone interested in improving outcomes in buildings will benefit from this upcoming class at Harvard Extension: “High Performance Buildings for Occupant Wellbeing.” 

Many organizations are requiring better, greener buildings. As a community of practitioners, we are working hard to meet this demand. The class will dive into materials & transparency, renovation trends, equipment, and energy disclosure. 

Students will focus on the impact of the built environment on an individual's well-being, workplace productivity, and comfort levels. You will have a chance to explore what makes a building healthy and comfortable, and how can one influence a building's design for health outcomes. 

This will surely be an engaging class for everyone who takes it! Whether you're new to the green building industry, or already a veteran, your will gain new insight as a professional.

Guest speakers to include:

–        Dr. Steven Lockley from Harvard’s Sleep Medicine Institute – Did you know looking at an iPhone screen before bed can have significant impact on your sleep?

·        Nada Tarkhan from Arup – How can you use DIVA to optimize daylighting?

·        Tom McGraw from Acentech – What’s the best way to improve acoustics in schools?

·        Dr. Robin Dodson from Silent Spring Institute – Did you know harmful semi-volatile organic compounds used in fireproofing stay in your house for a very long time?

Learn more here.

GRESB Announces New Leadership

By USGBC

Amsterdam, Netherlands—(Dec. 20, 2016)—Today, GRESB announced the appointment of Sander Paul Van Tongeren as its new managing director. Sander Paul will assume responsibilities on Dec. 20, 2016, succeeding Nils Kok, who announced his plans to leave GRESB earlier this year. Van Tongeren has been part of GRESB since the company was founded in 2009 and was formerly head of EMEA. 

GRESB was acquired by GBCI in October 2014 in an effort to provide an unprecedented view of global real estate to help protect and enhance the value of its investments, while simultaneously contributing to a more sustainable built environment. “I want to acknowledge Nils and his significant contribution to GRESB over the last seven years. After his transition, he will act as my strategic advisor,” added Ramanujam. “Nils’ vision for the real estate and infrastructure sectors to create more efficient buildings and assets, in ways that make good business sense and reward innovation, will carry forward as we continue to position GRESB as a unique global information platform for real assets and define the financial value of the green building movement and industry.” 

“I greatly look forward to the opportunity that lies ahead for GRESB,” said Sander Paul Van Tongeren, managing director, GRESB. “The ability to lead this next chapter is exciting, and I am focused on accelerating the innovation in ESG that our members are expecting from us. I also plan to continue to help GRESB fulfill its mission to enhance and protect shareholder value by assessing and empowering sustainability practices in the real asset sector.”

Read the full press release here

Call for Nominations: Board of Directors for 2017

By Grey Lee, Executive Director

We are looking for a few good people to serve on our Board!


 

Read about the elections process here.

 

You can nominate yourself or recruit someone great to run.

 

We are reserving three seats for specific new industry sector representing roles:

  • Community Base Organization
  • Building Systems
  • Energy Sector

If you have any questions about our process after reading the description, please direct your questions to info@usgbcma.org

Thank you!

 


Tomorrow Night's Presinar: How to Achieve Foam Free High Performance Building Enclosures

By Alexander Landa


Foam Free High-­Performance Building Enclosures presents a clear and practical guide to achieving the highest levels of resilient and sustainable building enclosures while eliminating foam. The growing performance demands of air control, vapor control, thermal control, health and sustainability are examined. Foam insulation, dominant in today’s high­performance marketplace, is increasingly recognized as hindering many of these building performance goals. Practitioners are therefore wanting and finding new solutions that virtually eliminate foam and provide greater performance. This presentation is a careful look at how to do it.

Register here!
Wednesday, December 20th, 2016
4:30pm-6:00pm
50 Milk St., 17th Floor, Hercules Room
Boston, MA, 02109

Attendees will learn to:

1. Define what qualities differentiate high­performance enclosures from typical construction and how those qualities are evolving.

2. Describe practitioner concerns of foam insulation hindering efforts to meet the evolving high-
performance qualities.

3. Describe how a foam free enclosure can more robustly achieve the qualities of high­performance.

4. Describe practical methodologies practitioners can implement, to successfully produce a high-
performance enclosure that is foam free.

The Road to Greenbuild 2017 is Officially Kicked Off!

By Alexander Landa


You heard that right and you heard it here first – the Road to Greenbuild 2017 is kicked off!

Last night at Nitcsh Engineering's Boston office, we held our Greenbuild 2017 Kickoff & Volunteer event, where we put together working groups for next year's massive conference. We decided we couldn't just email people to get things going, nor did we want a stuffy office meeting – that's not our style. We needed to start this off with a bang.

It was great to see our community coming together for this important effort.

The room was packed with close to 100 people – not just people coming to network, but eager long-time sustainability professionals, emerging professionals, students, new volunteers, and more. Anyone and everyone showed up, all to make Greenbuild 2017 the biggest one yet.

Chapter Vice Chair John Dalzell, sustainability lead for the Boston Planning & Development Agency, shared some of his reflections on Greenbuild. He is a past Director of the USGBC at the national level and has been to over a dozen Greenbuilds. He encouraged us to consider how Boston is a real locus of leadership in our industry. We are a shining star of a commmunity of green building professionals. Let us let Greenbuild raise our profile. Let's show off the good work that our people have done over the past decades. We have a lot to be proud of – let's let it shine. 

We heard from Judy Nitsch, our Host Committee Co-Chair, how in 2008, Greenbuild in Boston had over 28,000 attendees, the most ever. She thanked us all for being a part of the effort. She was thrilled to see so many people coming from so many different firms all geared up to support our big intentions. We are a force to be reckoned with! She enthusiastically requested us to go for it and break that record: she wants to see 30,000 people here in November!

Volunteers split out into seven different teams after USGBC MA Executive Director Grey Lee, and committee leaders gave their opening remarks. Grey shared how this is an opportunity for us to forge ahead with our advocacy work to transform the industry – through both market-based and legislative initiatives. He urged us to recall our mission: to drive sustainable and regenerative design, construction, and operation of the built environment. No one else is working in a holistic way, across disciplines, so broadly. We are the organization that brings people together to make it happen: to transform the built environment.

The component committees of the overall Host Committee, working as teams, will be focusing on specific areas of support of the conference include:

1. Local Partners & Regional Outreach
2. Green Building Tours
3. Legacy Projects
4. Greening
5. Volunteer Staffing and Coordination
6. Ambassadors
7. Momentum

You can still get involved with Greenbuild! See our Host Committee page for more information.

It is going to be a Wicked Green convention – everyone is needed. Thank you for your support and engagement with this awesome project!

See more photos from the event here.

Please write to us at info@usgbcma.org if you want one of our T-Shirts – let's all show off our Boston pride!