Let's Get Hyped For ABX In Two Weeks!

By Alexander Landa


Coming up November 15th to 17th will be ABX 2016! As part of the Northeast's largest building industry conference and tradeshow, the USGBC MA Chapter will be sponsoring multiple panels this year. This expo is going to feature a lot more than just sessions and panels, however. With interactive workshops, speakers, virtual reality, and more, ABX is going to be a great way to engage with the building community before the holiday season starts up.

Big names and startups alike will be in the exhibitor hall throughout the week. Window, hardware, flooring, and other vendors will be bringing out their A-game to inform all in attendance about their new innovative products and strategies. The interactive floor plan can be found here.

There will be three days of demos for a Construction Training Zone so you can see daily demos that show off best practice installation techniques for energy efficient remodeling and construction. Full details here.

If you're going to learn as much as you can, see the full list of workshops here. The sessions we're sponsoring can be found here. For a full list ABX 2016 speakers, go here.

Some of our favorite events we're sponsoring are:
A05: Good Medicine: the WELL Building Standard
B44: Mapping the Materials Universe: Lessons and Strategies
B68: Designing for Net Positive Water and Energy
C21: How Green Building Make Your Clients Smarter – Harvard Study

What would a big event like this be without partying a bit? On Monday 11/14, Amanda Sturgeon will be speaking at the ABX Pre-Mixer: Living Building Challenge. Register for the pre-mixer here. You can also attend the Quebec is Quality Reception + USGBCMA Project Showcase on Wednesday 11/16. Register for this project showcase here.

Two weeks from today is the first day of ABX 2016! We're getting super excited to go and hope to see you there!

 

The Next USGBC MA Mentor Cycle is Going to Launch Soon!

By Rebecca Slocum


The USGBC MA Emerging Professionals committee is working to further develop a mentor program for USGBC MA members. In an effort to foster relationships in the green building community, this program aims to connect Emerging Professionals with Experienced Professionals.

  • Mentee | Would you benefit from having someone to speak about Professional Development with?

  • Mentor | Are you an Established Professional willing to share knowledge & insight?

If you’re interested in becoming a mentee or mentor please submit your information below. The success of this program is dependent on our ability to gather a great group of sustainability professionals – Help us spread the word!

Please direct specific questions to Rebecca Slocum or the EPMA Committee.

Healthy Materials Sponsor Profile: Forbo Flooring

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 Forbo Flooring for really helping to make the Summit happen.

Forbo is a dominant global player in the introduction and service of high-quality, commercial floor coverings & total solution flooring projects that include Linoleum, Vinyl, Luxury Vinyl Tiles, and Flocked Flooring.  You can find their floors in buildings such as healthcare, senior care, education, commercial offices, government contracts, leisure & hospitality, retail, public buildings, social housing, industry, and transport– so basically any and every type of building. 

Forbo's floors can be found in multiple continents and in a variety of settings and contexts.  Their commitment to excellent design and responsible production is unfaltering.  The company is notably interested in how its operations interact with and affect human health and the environment.


The company is committed to its sustainable practices; as they note, “From how they’re made to how they perform, we make truly sustainable floors that are good for people, good for buildings and good for the environment.” Forbo reduces, reuses, and recycles. Consider the following:

Forbo has an internal awareness program, “The Forbo Way to Win,” that fleshes out their sustainability policy and strengthens employee engagement by providing a platform for them to contribute to efforts in reducing energy consumption, the use of raw materials and waste. The company's clear commitment to sustainability and environmental stewardship makes them the perfect partner for us at USGBC MA! 

Read more about the company on its website, and check out their Health and Environment page

USGBC MA Sponsored ABX Session B49 – Thriving in an Age of Rising Seas

By Alexander Landa


Coming up November 15th to 17th will be ABX 2016! As part of the Northeast's largest building industry conference and tradeshow, Architecture Boston Expo, the USGBC MA Chapter will be sponsoring multiple panels this year. This year, we're hosting multiple panels, so let's take a look at Wednesday's panel, B49: Thriving in an Age of Rising Seas.

The City of Boston's Living With Water Design Competition called for international teams to submit designs to increase Boston's climate change resiliency and overall sustainability. A group of green building leaders and social activists issued a challenge, called Thriving With Water, which encouraged participants to set a higher goal for their competition entries, and work to transform the problem of climate change into an opportunity to create a more economically, socially, environmentally, and culturally vibrant and sustainable Boston. Challenge components included: – Work with people and organizations – Explicitly recognize the relationships between human, natural, and social systems – Design for the dynamic nature of coastal areas – Design for long-term resiliency. This session presents a model that is grounded in the belief that to regenerate the vital life of our coastal communities we need to support that life-our life-with a dynamic environment and thriving people and organizations.

Andrea Atkinson Executive Director One Square World

Jim Newman LEED AP O+M Partner Linnean Solutions

Adeola Oredola Consultant

David Queeley Director, Eco-Innovation Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corp

Dr. Sarah Slaughter CEO and President Built Environment Coalition

B49 – Thriving in an Age of Rising Seas
Wednesday, 11/16
1:00 PM – 2:30 PM
Room 157B

Register here!

USGBC MA Sponsored ABX Session B44 – Mapping the Materials Universe: Lessons and Strategies

By Alexander Landa


Coming up November 15th to 17th will be ABX 2016! As part of the Northeast's largest building industry conference and tradeshow, Architecture Boston Expo, the USGBC MA Chapter will be sponsoring multiple panels this year. This year, we're hosting multiple panels, so let's take a look at Wednesday's panel, B44 – Mapping the Materials Universe: Lessons and Strategies.

Living Building Challenge teams, as well as LEED V4 teams, find a selection of high-quality, healthy products, but the range is limited. What benign, high performing products do we need to complete our projects? We explore the hardest specification sections and the most opaque market sectors, inviting discussion and exploration of the greatest challenges. Low toxicity, high performance, durability, and affordability… how can these and other factors be achieved simultaneously? How have working project teams addressed this challenge?

Speakers

Lisa Carey-Moore Sustainability Analyst Integrated Eco Strategy

Lisa Goodwin-Robbins RA, CCS, LEED Architect Specifier Kalin Associates

Jason Jewhurst AIA, NCARB Senior Associate Bruner/Cott & Associates

Charley Stevenson LEED AP BD+C Principal Integrated Eco Strategy

B44 – Mapping the Materials Universe: Lessons and Strategies
Wednesday, 11/16
1:00 PM – 2:30 PM
Room 109A

Register here!

 

Last Night's EPMA HallOlympics Was a Good Time!

By Alexander Landa


Last night's EPMA HallOlympics event was a blast!

Decked in our best athlete costume (or in the Behr Pro guys' case, Colonial attire), the Peadbody Office floor welcomed our Halloween party. We had good food, drinks, healthy competition, and an informative presentation by Behr Pro on their devotion to creating green-friendly paint products.

Thanks to Peabody Office for hosting the event at your awesome Boston location, and thanks to Behr Pro for sponsoring.

(Thank to Brian Fontaine for the group picture!)






Chapter Member Profile: SMMA's Chris Davis

By Caitlin Forbes


Beginning his career as a mechanical design professional, Chris’s transition to SMMA’s Commissioning Group Leader stemmed from the growing importance of sustainability in the design community. In 2006, as the USGBC was gaining in momentum, Chris was exposed to commissioning and its significance to the LEED process. Since commissioning matters at each stage of LEED, Chris sees it as a critical component for maintaining healthy buildings.

This hands-on, comprehensive approach defines Chris’s goals for the future – he is passionate about communicating and educating the public, a goal he sees the USGBC as critical in maintaining. Only the people on the ground can commit to truly sustainable design practices; they are the ones left to maintain what designers implement. For Chris, commissioning, and its focus on training the right people for system’s maintenance, complements and informs future sustainable practices.

While working at SMMA, Chris acts as the chief liaison with clients, and guides SMMA’s commissioning approach on a day-to- day basis to ensure coordinated responses. He has provided commissioning services for a variety of sustainable schools and commercial buildings, but he cites his work for the Lilla G. Frederick Middle School as one career milestone. A 144,000-square- foot building, constructed in 2001, the Lilla G. Frederick Pilot Middle School was chosen by the City of Boston’s Environment, Energy & Open Space Cabinet and its utility partners—Eversource and National Grid—to undergo a retro-commissioning study. Working in tandem with SMMA’s sustainability group, Chris and his commissioning team were able discover the systems responsible for energy spikes and comfort control issues. Discoveries like these highlight the importance of retro-commissioning and post-occupancy analysis for future energy savings.

Not Only Are Green Buildings Healthy, But They Also Make You Smarter

By Alexander Landa


Researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and SUNY Upstate Medical University had a simple question they wanted to answer: Can better thinking and better health be found in green-certified buildings? Their findings may (or may not) surprise you. Spoilers: Green buildings are even more awesome, and science proves it yet again. All info is taken from the COGfx Study.

The researchers studied 109 workers at ten buildings in five different cities in the U.S. to find out that in addition to being generally healthier, working in green-certified buildings can lead to higher cognitive functioning, fewer sick building symptoms, and higher sleep quality scores.

Green-certified buildings can lead to…

  • 26% higher cognitive function test scores
  • 31% increased strategy skills
  • 38% increased focus
  • 44% higher applied activity level
  • 73% higher crisis response.
  • 30% fewer sick building symptoms.
    • Workers in these buildings had fewer complaints about temperature, air movement, air dryness/humidity, and chemical, tobacco, or other odors.

At ABX 2016, one of the sessions we're sponsoring will cover this in greater detail. Researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health will be presenting.

ABX C21: How Green Building Make Your Clients Smarter – Harvard Study
Thursday, 11/17
10:00 AM – 11:30 AM
Room 107A

See what other sessions we're sponsoring at ABX 2016.

Announcing Our November LEED and WELL Exam Prep Courses

By Alexander Landa


If you missed out on any of our previous LEED and/or WELL exam prep courses, you're in luck – we're holding another session for each in November!

The benefits of these courses are obvious. Yes, you can (and still should) read and study the hard way, but by going through each and every topic, and what to prepare for during the exam, in real-time with a group of other industry professionals and leaders will really help you walk into your exam confidently.

Our LEED exam prep courses have always been incredibly successful. See for yourself with a recap of our October 2016 LEED exam prep course. We have proven success, as evident by testimonials by past attendees:

“I just wanted to say thank you again for organizing the LEED review session last week- it was extremely helpful. I took the GA exam this morning and passed without too much trouble! I look forward to attending more USGBC events in the future,” – C.A.

“Thank you very much for the training!  It was clear and informative–I am looking forward to taking the next steps.  It was also just nice to meet the other people in the training and to be in such a beautiful space. Thank you very much,” – L.S.

“My notes had things in them like 'be sure to know this' and 'expect questions about these numbers.' I focused on those items as I studied material, and they all turned out to be accurate.  Your practice exam questions, too, were very helpful and gave a good feel to what to expect,” – T.H.

Attend our next events and go into your exams prepared!

WELL AP Exam Prep Course
Tuesday, November 22nd, 2016
8:30 AM – 4:30 PM
50 Milk St
17th Floor, Hercules Conference Room
Boston, MA, 02109

LEED Exam Prep Course
Tuesday, November 29th, 2016
8:30 AM – 5:00 PM
50 Milk St
18th Floor, Hemingway Room
Boston, MA, 02109

Thank You For An Awesome Healthy Materials Summit!

By Grey Lee, Executive Director


Wow! What a great day. Thank you to all who participated. We had a healthy conversation ranging widely across the territory of healthy materials.

It all comes down to demand. We need market participants to care enough to demand and pay for healthy options. It was noted, repeatedly, that healthy materials do not need to cost more than conventional materials. We may just need to adjust our aesthetics and functionality requirements. Not lower our standards, but morph toward more suitable applications for non-toxic materials.

But I digress! 

Overall, we had an excellent event. Hats off to our content organizing committee of Blake Jackson (who also served as MC), Steven Burke, and Shawn Hesse. They convened an excellent panel which people intently listened to for over 2 hours. 

Thank you to the speakers: Greg Norris, Denny Darragh, Brent Ehrlich, Doug Brown, Barbra Batshalom, Monica Nakielski, and Rebecca Callahan Klein. Each was able to provide insight into how researchers, producers, and end-using owners are addressing toxicity in materials. And not just removing toxic components of buildings, but also looking at health holistically – how materials and design choices influence and require new strategies.  It was exciting to hear from them and learn.

We had a great selection of demonstrating partner organization who were meeting and greeting people all morning – including Sustainable Minds, Beachstone, Cold Spring, Purline, Armstrong, and Tremco. It was important to have real healthy materials right there for everyone to check out.

I was especially happy to face the audience – half full of familiar faces, but half full of new members of our Chapter community. People who are all working on health in buildings, who came from places as far as Portland Maine and New Haven Connecticut. I asked: how are we using the built environment, which we have roles in designing and developing, to result in net positive outcomes for our communities?


How are we going to stimulate demand for non-toxic products in buildings? The manufacturers are getting on board – they have the technology to switch the chemistry in their products. And the Living Product Challenge helps identify what to do. Let's push for greater adoption.

The poll we took at the end indicated that we know the products are out there, we just need owners to fit them into project budgets. It is an exciting time to be working on this stuff.

Thank you again to our sponsoring producer partners – lead sponsor Forbo Flooring, and Cold Spring, Shaw, Mats Inc, USG, Beachstone, Sustainable Minds, Armstrong, Triumph, and Tremco

We had great support from our practitioner side sponsors, including: Brightworks, HDR, Perkins+Will, Bergmeyer, Goody Clancy, Linnean Solutions, SPI/Building Ease, Prellwitz Chilinski, and WSP

For four hours in the afternoon, Greg Norris of the International Living Future Institute provided an in-depth workshop on handprinting under the auspices of the Living Product Challenge. There were about 25 participants who took away a much more solid understanding of how their firm can embrace the Challenge for their products and for designers, how to communicate with and look for producers who can get in the game.

We then proceeded to Ryles Jazz Club for a fabulous evening reception hosted by Mohawk Group! They really know how to treat people right – it was awesome. We had great food and a generously open bar, and incredible conversations. It was really the cream of the crop from the community of practitioners – Harvard, USG, Partners, Commonwealth of MA, Bruner Cott, P+W, HMFH and a lot of leading consultants that we all know. The Mohawk team was there in force and shared a brief presentation highlighting their commitment to healthy materials. We also watched their catchy “Believe in Better” video. Thank you to Mohawk for connecting with the Chapter and the ILFI Collaborative here in Massachusetts – we, too, Believe in Better!

During the cocktail reception, a number of us agreed to continue to grow this conversation around healthy materials in buildings. We will start an opt-in list and curate a discussion leading to a follow-on event in three months. I look forward to supporting this effort to shift our built environment to net positive outcomes for health. Stay tuned, thank you all, and keep up the great work!

See more photos at our Flickr page.