The Battle of the Buildings! Comparing LEED for Homes and PassiveHouse on December 15th

By Alexander Landa


LEED for Homes and PassiveHouse have quite a few similarities – as well as noticeable differences. For those who are still confused about how these two differ from one another, come to our morning session in Boston on December 15th @8:00 AM until 10:00AM to learn more.

Register here!

About the event:

Come to our Passive House and LEED for Homes educational session led by Mike Duclos, regional expert and market leader in Passive House design and Mike Schofield, LEED Faculty and LEED for Homes Expert. We will be comparing and contrasting the two systems and also looking at the market response to each. We will ask the attendees to drive the conversation and allow this expert panel to reflect against each system.

We will take a deep dive into the residential market, what drives change and where we are seeing the most effective strategies for adopting green building. We will also have an opportunity to identify the overlap of the two systems, their philosophies and intents.

For those sustainability experts in the room, we should also be able to outline the value of each system as it relates to Scope 1,2 and 3 GHG calculations and which standard might be more effective for different market segments.

Speakers: Michael Schofield – Senior Project Manager Michael Schofield currently oversees projects across New England, supervising LEED certification and ENERGY STAR® (Homes and High-Rise) ratings of Clearesult’s new construction projects. He directs project managers on building methods and strategies to make improvements cost effective, to create more durable buildings, and to transform the market. Schofield’s work is focused primarily on multifamily and affordable projects. He is certified as LEED faculty and a trainer for ENERGY STAR Homes Version 3. From 2010 to the present, he is delivering trainings on the Energy Code and Smart Building Practices to code officials, builders, and design professionals across Massachusetts. Schofield holds a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts and an M.S. in Energy Analysis & Policy from the University of Wisconsin. He also holds a Massachusetts Construction Supervisor License, and is a Certified Building Commissioning Professional (CBCP).

Mike Duclos – A principal and founder of The DEAP Energy Group, LLC, a consultancy providing a wide variety of Deep Energy Retrofit, Zero Net Energy and Passive House related consulting services.

Mike is a HERS Rater with Mass. Residential New Construction Program, a Building Science Certified Infrared Thermographer, the PHIUS Certified Passive House Consultant responsible for the design and certification of the second certified Passive House in Massachusetts, holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from UMass Lowell, and two patents. He is responsible for two NESEA Building Energy Masters Series Passive House online courses on, and currently has three Passive House certification projects in process.

Register here!

Thursday, December 15th
8:30AM – 10:00AM
50 Milk St, 16th Floor, Edison Room
Boston, MA, 02109

The Distillery Tour in South Boston on 12/1/16

By Bill Womeldorf


If you’ve been to Boston lately, I’m sure you have been welcomed by the presence of many cranes and construction sites. The city is currently experiencing its fastest growth rate in decades and is trying to keep up with new residential development.

However, the residential development at The Distillery in South Boston is much different than the rest of these other developments.

So what’s all the hype about this new building? The U.S. Green Building Council lead by the Residential Green Building Committee scheduled a tour with the developer, Fred Gorton of Second Street Associates, LLC, to find out more.

Resilience to Sea Level Rise: The tour started in the parking garage, which of course is not your ordinary parking garage. In fact, the whole building is raised up about a full level from the ground level below to mitigation damage against sea level rise and storm surges. Fred said he made sure to design the ground floor level as “sacrificial” to prepare his building for the years ahead. He also made a special request to the electric utility to raise all the connections to the building up a level so that a flood would not distribute the building’s resilient electric system.

Sustainable Transportation: The garage will also house a fleet of zip cars, a shareable car system popular in Boston, and free electric charging stations for EV vehicles. When the project was first started, Boston required a substantial amount of parking spaces but since then has deiced they don’t want more cars. Fred has since reduced the parking to a focus on car sharing and sustainable modes of transit like biking.

Mixed Use Community: The development will be home to a lively artist community in South Boston and will feature affordable units. It will also feature an art gallery, grocery store and a cafe that will be able to open up to the outdoors during the summer months. Fred mentioned that the placement of these attractions within the development is geared towards encouraging people to walk more and maintain an active lifestyle.

Centralized Amphitheater: The center of the development will feature a large outdoor multi-level amphitheater where the building’s residents can put on musical shows and events. The exterior porches of the units are also strategically positioned to take advantage of this and actually face towards the outdoor theater stage. Basically, you could be sitting in private on your porch, sipping tea, and watching a live band in front of you.

Edible Gardening on Site: The development is also cherishing the open land, rooftop garden, and outdoor spaces to grow vegetables and flower gardens in the summer months. Well how about the winter? Local food can still be grown on site at the three-story greenhouse located a few steps away from the new development.

Passive Design: The building is designed in such a way so that units take advantage of passive design features like solar heat gain from the sun in the summer, passive ventilation from strategic placement of windows and doors to shading devices like those on the south porches that can be controlled by the residents.

High-Performance Mechanical Systems: The heating systems for the units are air source heat pumps, which are typical for passive house developments. But what’s also important is that all the units are equipped with their own heat recovery ventilation system. This will allow the residents to be exposed to clean and filtered air. Fred has done a lot of research on the topic of the negative health effects from people living near highways and pollution. He hopes that with these ventilation systems, the residents will be sick less frequently and will also have a much more comfortable living environment.

65 Solar Powered Units: Due to the passive house construction style, the building will be requiring much less energy to maintain that the typical new development. Because of this, all the new units can be accommodated by on-site renewable energy systems. Fred also has plans to buy additional land out in Western Mass to build additional solar power for when he decides to add more units to the development.

You can learn more about the Distillery project by contacting ICON Architects or Fred Gorton. The Distillery is a 65 unit LEED-H Midrise Platinum with Passive House Certification in South Boston.

About the Author:

Bill Womeldorf is an energy efficiency designer in Boston, MA. He’s typically the one with the reusable water bottle in business meetings. When we all work together, he believes, it’s possible to solve the climate crisis. You can follow Bill on twitter @BillWomeldorf and read more about carbon neutral buildings on his blog.

Lots Went Down in November, More to Come in December

By Alexander Landa


Read the full December 2016 USGBC MA Newsletter here!

November was a huge month for us. We shared good times at ABX, winterized homes with Youthbuild for elderly citizens to prepare for the winter, and now we're starting to ramp up to go all-in for Greenbuild next year!

Take a look at the list of events below. The big one is 12/15 in Boston: our Greenbuild volunteer recruitment meeting. Join a committee to make a difference.

Did you hear about ARC – the new platform USGBC has created to facilitate data collection to enable existing buildings to go green?

Thanksgiving may have just passed, but that doesn't mean our thankfulness for you has ended. Every day we're thankful for our community. Three days ago was Giving Tuesday, and we raised $2000 thanks to your generous contributions! You're all awesome. 

The USGBC MA is nothing without our community of green building advocates, and I love seeing your smiling faces at events, and connecting with you via social channels.

We have a number of ways that you can get involved still. 

1)  You can still give to our #GivingTuesday campaign  – growing our movement for #MoreGreenBuildings!

2) You can help with our  student scholarships and advocacy campaigns.

3) Our 2017 mentoring program is starting to get into gear. If you're interested in mentoring someone – or being mentored – learn more here.

4) If you have been looking to get involved with  Greenbuild 2017 – come out on 12/15. Also, we're building out sponsoring partners now, so if you want to be featured as part of the biggest green building event of the year, contact us to learn more.

Thank you again for your ongoing work with us!

Read the full December 2016 USGBC MA Newsletter here!

December 1st South Boston Distillery Tech Talk and Building Tour

By Alexander Landa


Last's nights building tour of the South Boston Distillery was a good time. On this chilly – but not raining for once – night in Boston, we explored the inside of an up-and-coming Passive House, and learned what goes into designing these types of buildings.

Right before we walked through the building, Fred Gordon – manager behind the Distillery – gave us a tech talk on the meaning behind a Passive House, and how this design will be making an impact on the built environment. Thanks for taking the time to teach us!

The walkthrough itself was really cool! Seeing a building in its raw, in-process progress showed off the differences between a Passive House, and a non-sustainable building. Everything from the materials used to the construction methods all contributing to making a difference.

Thanks to everyone for coming, and we look forward to seeing you at future tours!

If you want to learn more about Passive Houses and how it differs from LEED for Homes, we're holding a morning session on Thursday, December 15th from 8:30AM to 10:00 AM comparing the two. Learn more and register here.

One of the attendees, Betsy, had this to say after the tour:

The development is indeed one of the most impressive I’ve ever seen. It’s not just PassiveHouse. It’s creating an entire community, attracting all sorts of artists who will be able to afford to live close to Boston. The outdoor performance space is brilliant, and will become host to performing artists. The café and greenhouse are equally brilliant for their community-building common spaces. Fred Gordon has designed a development that won’t just house people, but that will build creative thought and expression which otherwise would be not represented (priced out) in that neighborhood.

 

Biomimicry & Resilience 4-Day Workshop Hosted by Biomimicry New England June 2017

By Alexander Landa


Next summer, our friends over at Biomimicry New England will be holding a four-day workshop on biomimicry & resilience in Gloucester, MA. From June 4th to 8th, 2017, you can learn how to build a resilient world, but you'll be learning in a unique environment. Really. You'll have the chance to learn about biomimicry by taking courses in a kayak, among other natural settings.

Taken from their event page:

Biomimicry is the practice of emulating life’s time-tested strategies and deep patterns to generate sustainable designs. Resilience is the ability of a system to continue to function following a disturbance such as those brought on by climate destabilization, economic bursts, and social instability. Biomimicry offers a lens to learn about resilience in natural systems, and provides tools to help build community resilience. Biomimicry offers a new way of valuing nature and designing in life-friendly ways that can help us address our pressing need to design and maintain resilient systems in an ever-changing world.

In this 4-day course, we’ll explore the foundations and practice using the tools of Biomimicry to solve resilience challenges. Your instructors will guide your discovery of life’s amazing strategies in local ecosystems and how these strategies can inspire solutions to human challenges. This course is designed for students and professionals who want to learn the core principles and practices of Biomimicry and how they relate to resilience.

Register by February 15th
Sunday 6/4/2017 – Thursday 8/8/2017
Gloucester MA

Look Forward to Building Cleantech: Smart Cities in Early 2017!

By USGBC MA


Last year's Building Tech Forum was so much fun, that we decided to do it again in 2017! This event will focus on real estate industry leaders coming together to address the problems of building performance, and working on ways to improve it. Firms and individuals will all meet to tackle these issues head-on and move forward. 

We are in a period of extreme urbanization. Around the world, urbanization is taking form with new development. How does this need for more space, converge with resilience, limited/dated grid infrastructure, and emissions? As we pursue, net-zero energy or push on to net-zero carbon, how do our singular building designs connect with the grid of the future? What challenges, emerging technology or opportunities do we see on the horizon of this transition?

We're still solidifying the details of next year's event, but we want you to save the date and get psyched for the details to come!

See pictures from last's years event here.

Healthy Materials Sponsor Profile: Mats Inc.

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. Mats Inc. has proven to be a leader in sustainability, and we want to thank them for being a sponsor of the Summit!

For more than 40 years, Mats Inc. has been a leader in commercial matting and flooring solutions, known for their award-winning product designs, deep stocking levels, and top of the line service. Their products are a great mix of functionality, aesthetics, and being environmentally-friendly.

What makes Mats Inc really stand out in our community is their devotion to green solutions and sustainability. Their flooring options support LEED design strategies and the environmental goals of their clients. Their products contribute to LEED projects and Living Building Challenge initiatives involving fiber products that are Green Label Plus, rubber products made from recycled tires, and long-lasting distinctive flooring options. We can get beyond this!

We thank Mats Inc. and hope to see them again at a future event!

We Thank YOU For Helping Us on Giving Tuesday!

By Alexander Landa


Yesterday was Giving Tuesday, and it was a massive success – all thanks to YOU! Our community is awesome, and we're so happy to have great people interacting with us every day, all for #MoreGreenBuildings. With all of your generous contributions and time, we raised nearly $2000 – all going to our community, such as student scholarships and advocacy campaigns.

It's contributions like this that give us a reason to keep fighting for net-positive buildings and a more sustainable future, for us, and for future generations. You're the reason we do what we do, through your support, and as motivation to keep pushing.

We hope that you continue supporting our organization. If you're still moved to help us, you can donate to our Facebook campaign here.

If you missed out on what Giving Tuesday is exactly, you can learn more about this charitable day by reading here.

Read Grey Lee's thoughts on what we're fighting for in our organization.

Women in Design Mistletoe Mingle & Holiday Charity Party 12/7

By USGBC MA


On December 7th, the Women in Design group in partnership with the USGBC MA will be hosting the Mistletoe Mingle, meant to benefit Rosie's Place.

Rosie's Place supports poor and homeless women by collecting monetary and material donations to give to women in need. Everything gathered from this event will go right to this generous charity.

Come next week, bring donations, bring a friend, and get ready to have some fun!

Register here
Wednesday, December 7th, 2016
6:00PM – 9:00PM EST
290 Congress Street
#200
Boston, MA, 02210

What is Giving Tuesday and How Can You Help?

By Alexander Landa


We've been talking a lot about Giving Tuesday the past week, but it's all for a good reason. This is the biggest day of the year for non-profits such as ours, as we celebrate our contributions towards our community, and our plans moving forward. Everything we do is for the greater good – a mission that can't be done alone, which is why we rely on our contributors to make all of this happen. 

If you donate through Facebook, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will match your gift. That's a HUGE deal for us. $5 becomes $10, $25 becomes $50, and so on. We can really make massive strides in one day.


Giving Tuesday is recognized as the first Tuesday following the string of Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and then Cyber Monday. On this global day of giving, observed primarily on social media and group collaboration, non-profits make a call for holiday and end-of-year giving. Now is also a good time to get involved as a volunteer.

Your support makes a difference. Everything goes into our organization, and in turn, we use it for student scholarships, advocacy, service projects, and more.

Thank you for being a part of our community!

What do we want? More Green Buildings!