Eversource Greens Office Space with Sustainable Office Design Program!

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

Eversource, a Silver Sponsor of USGBC MA, has been working hard on their Sustainable Office Design (SOD) Program! This program provides high-performance lighting solutions to the leased commercial office market. Qualifying projects receive an incentive of $1 per square foot.

Eversource has already worked with ARC (Architectural Resources Cambridge) and Cimpress on improving facilities and reducing energy costs. As a result, the ARC office space will save 34,592 kWh (or 17 tons of CO2 emissions) every year, which is estimated to be about $5,189 annually. The Cimpress office space will save 399,540 kWh (or 196 tons of CO2 emissions) every year, which is estimated to be about $59,931 annually. Read the case studies here and here.

Click here to learn more about the Sustainable Office Design Program!

Sustainable Office Design Benefits

For Building Owners:

  • Saves on operational costs (where lease permits)
  • Improves building values and rents
  • Helps attain LEED® or ENERGY STAR® certification
  • Improves customer service to tenants and enhances sustainability branding in market

For Tenants:

  • Saves on operational costs (where lease permits)
  • Helps achieve corporate sustainability goals and improves brand image
  • Contributes to LEED ID+C: Commercial Interiors credits
  • Improves quality of space and boosts employee comfort and productivity

We're hosting Greenbuild 2017… Get Excited and Get Involved!

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

Let's get ready for the biggest networking event in green building worldwide: right here in Beantown!

The Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, launched in 2002, is the world’s largest conference and expo dedicated to green building. Greenbuild features several days of inspiring speakers, industry showcases, specialty workshops, tours of the host city’s green buildings, and invaluable networking opportunities. The event has been hosted in major cities across the U.S. and Canada, including Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto, Atlanta, and Philadelphia.

Boston hosted Greenbuild 2008, which brought in 28,224 registered guests, 807 exhibitors, and people from 85 different countries. In November 2017, Greenbuild is coming to Boston for the second time, and USGBC MA Chapter is serving as the host chapter!

Reasons to get excited:

It will be hosted in a newly-certified LEED Silver building!
The Boston Convention and Exposition Center (BCEC) just got certified LEED Silver on May 25th of this year for Existing Buildings Operations + Maintenance (EB O+M). 
Congratulations to Vanderweil and SGH (a Bronze sponsor of ours) on this terrific feat! Read more about the BCEC here.
(Bonus: SGH designed the marquee structure at the Summer Street entrance)

It will bring visitors and business to Boston!
We had over 28,000 guests last time, so this is a great opportunity to showcase our city's committment to green building and design.


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How you can get involved:

Join the Host Committee (apply here!)
The Host Committee is led by two Co-Chairs who are the primary leaders of our Greenbuild efforts.  The Host Committee Chairs help to plot our overall vision and work with subcommittees to set and ensure they are meeting their goals and timelines. This Committee will also be populated by the Co-Chairs of each subcommittee, the USGBC MA Executive Director, and a board liaison. Read more about the Host Committee and the subcommittees here.
Apply now to be a member of the Host Committee.

Can't wait for Greenbuild? Register for 2016!

Greenbuild 2016 is in Los Angeles! (October 5 – 7) Register now.

We also have housing accommodations! Reserve your spot now.

Advocacy Update: The Energy Bill is Signed

By Grey Lee, Executive Director

[Note: join our Advocacy Committee on Thursday 8/11/16 at 5:30-7pm at 50 Milk St. RSVP: advocacy@usgbcma.org]

 

Over 200 people gathered this afternoon on the lawn at the Kennedy Statue at the Massachusetts State House for the signing of the 2016 Energy Bill.

Political figures from all corners of the legislative process gathered to share responsibility for the bill, H 4568, which as of approximately2:09pm this afternoon was signed into law by Governor Baker.

Comments reflected the consensus across both chambers of the General Court – that this bill will help assert Massachusetts' leadership in energy policy, in procurement, and in financing new energy efficiency projects.

This last note is in reference to the PACE provisions of the bill. Lt. Governor Polito particularly pointed out how the program will enable MassDevelopment to provide bond funding to small and medium businesses who can use the financing to improve their buildings and make their operations more efficient. PACE wasn't exactly a hot topic just a month ago – good thing it moved up on the agenda!

Senator Downing was lauded for his role as a conferee and for his general leadership on energy policy. He was thanked profusely by his colleagues as he will not be seeking re-election this fall. He spoke to our continued need to promote energy efficiency first, optimization of use second, reductions in fossil-fuel generated supply third, and then the build-out of new renewables.

Prior to the Governor signing the bill, Energy & Environmental Affairs Secretary Beaton spoke to the balance, thoughtful, competitive and regional nature of the package. It was important that the legislation “be fair to ratepayers” – although there was no elaboration on what that meant really. It probably means keeping rates from growing rapidly. Good to know that is one of his priorities! He especially highlighted the provisions to promote energy storage technology development where we have leaders in industry and academia. 

Governor Baker was able to share how the legislation will enable the Commonwealth to make good on its commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and to diversify the energy sources used in Massachusetts. This was noted as important considering the retirement of the Plymouth nuclear plant in just 3 years, which has 680 MW of generating capacity. That would be a lot of wind turbines (or efficiency improvements)!

Many hard working people in the sustainability community were there including Austin Blackmon of the City of Boston and Ken Pruitt of the Environmental League of Massachusetts. Congratulations to the many advocates, legislative staff, expert testimony providers and others who helped the elected officials create legislation that, while lacking in some regards, will help us more forward toward a better energy future in Massachusetts.

We will be back in full force for the next session to continue to promote energy policy which will benefit citizens of Massachusetts. We will push for residential PACE and energy transparency, increased requirements for renewables in the electricity grid, more aggressive standards for building performance, and more funding for cleantech innovation for our built environment. 


Celebrate MA Green Buildings at our Showcase!

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

Join us for our annual Green Building Showcase, where we showcase and celebrate all the green buildings conceived, designed, built & operated by our community of practitioners over the past year.

Over 100 projects will be on display. More than 300 leaders in our industry will be in attendance for this open bar reception and entertaining collection of green buildings.

Thursday, September 22 from 5:30 to 8:00 pm
888 Boylston Street, Boston

Get your tickets here or below!

We also have sponsorship opportunities for companies and firms in the green building industry! The packages include exposure of your company, contest entry, event tickets, chapter memberships, and more. We provide an audience of people in the green building industry eager to hear about your efforts, see your products, and admire all of your accomplishments.

For more information about the Showcase, click here.

To get your tickets, click here.

 

 

Residential Green Building

By Ritchie Lafaille, Office Fellow

The Residential Green Building Committee met on August 8th, 2016. We started off with announcements of events coming up, and some advocacy news from Craig Foley. Some highlights include the signing of the Energy Omnibus Bill by Governor Baker on 8/8, and although the energy audits at the point of sale in MA did not pass, we were still able to see improvements such as Commercial PACE finance. There is still much to be done, but this is a step in the right direction!

We had a guest speaker, Michael Chavez, who is an Enterprise Rose Fellow on Greening the Fairmount Corridor. Michael is working with the Fairmount/Indigo Line CDC Collaborative in an effort to improve economic opportunity for residents, and focus on the benefits that this Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) will bring along this 9-mile commuter rail. The line runs between South Station and Readville through neighborhoods such as Hyde Park and Dorchester, so the goal will be to develop more affordable housing in these neighborhoods and take advantage of the proximity to public transit.  

Michael presented on his work thus far, and focused on the Cottage Brook project in Dorchester, which includes energy efficiency improvements for all 147 units spread across multiple buildings. The buildings are owned by the Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corporation (DBEDC), and Michael and his team initiated this mod-rehab, with the end goal of saving money but also increasing energy efficiency. They were able to redo the roof and install new windows, along with reducing airflow through the doors and windows. They actually installed new windows within the existing window frames of the building, which ended up being a reliable watertight solution. Additionally, they wanted to reduce heat loss through the walls, so they installed insulation between the exterior walls and the heating units. CLEAResult, the consultant on the job, will perform HERS ratings for 3 of the buildings. The tenants who will rent these units will receive continued education on incentives for continuing to improve energy efficiency in these units, through LEAN or MassSave programs for example. Feel free to read more about Michael Chavez and the project (biography found HERE and see PowerPoint attached below)

We then continued our RGBC meeting to confirm our goals for the next few months. We have some exciting projects coming up, so stay tuned for our progress!

Keep an eye out for some events coming up: Our next committee meeting on September 12th, where we will have another guest speaker, so stay tuned on who it will be! Also, the Green Building Showcase is coming up on September 22nd (Register HERE).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Get on those bikes and ride!

By Grey Lee, Executive Director

It's time for our annual Green Building Bike Tour!

Join us on September 17th, 2016.

Link here to register.

This year, our Emerging Professional crew has organized an adventure to East Boston. Have you been there lately?

Biking is one of the best ways to see the city in all its varietal wonder, and this tour is a unique opportunity to hear insights into recent sustainable building and development projects. 

We will ride along the East Boston Greenway, to hit a diverse spread of sights and scenes. We'll consider climate exposure risks that need to be evaluated in the development process. 


 

Come view how some projects are getting that right, and be prepared for an atypical and highly informative exploration of landscape architecture along our bike tour stops.

 Bring your helmet for safety, bike lock for when you go in the buildings and good vibes for this fun event. Sign up now!

 


 

 

 

One Week from Today: Tour 2 Living Buildings for Free!

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

Join us on our tour of the R.W. Kern Center and the Hitchcock Center in Amherst!

Friday, August 12 from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm
893 West Street, Amherst, MA 01002

Register here or below. (It's free, but feel free to donate!)

The Living Building Challenge is the built environment’s most rigorous performance standard. Its goal is to create building projects “that operate as cleanly, beautifully and efficiently as nature’s architecture.” To be certified under the Challenge, projects must meet a series of ambitious performance requirements, including Net Zero energy, and Net Zero waste and water, and avoiding the use of any ‘Red List’ materials.

Bruner/Cott's R.W. Kern Center, an LBC project at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA and the Hitchcock Center (also in Amherst, MA) are new, low-impact flagship buildings. Read about Bruner/Cott, a Silver Sponsor of ours, here!

During the three-hour event, we will spend 90 min at the R.W. Kern Center, then transition to the Hitchcock Center for the remainder of the event. Each site will have a walking tour of the mechanical rooms, floor plan and landscape. The tour will be lead by the builders, designers and Living Building Collaborative members who contributed to the project. 

 

 

Newly-Certified LEED Buildings in MA! (July)

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

We love hearing about all the Green Building that's going on! Here are some of the buildings that were LEED Certified in July.

Maybe we'll see some of these buildings at our Green Building Showcase this year!

Click here to learn more about LEED.

Aspuru-Guzik Laboratory (LEED Gold)

12 Oxford Street, Cambridge
LEED-CI v2009
Registered December 8, 2014; Certified July 28, 2016
63/110 Points (Gold)
4,664 square feet

Nichols College Academic Center ( LEED Gold)

Nichols' year old Academic Building
image source
124 Center Road, Dudley
LEED-NC v2009
Registered November 18, 2013; Certified July 27, 2016
61/110 Points (Gold)
29,339 square feet

New East Bridgewater Jr/Sr High School (LEED Silver)

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11 Plymouth Street, East Bridgewater
LEED FOR SCHOOLS v2009
Registered November 22, 2010; Certified July 25, 2016
51/110 Points (Silver)
213,584 square feet

TripAdvisor Center 128 (LEED Silver)


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400 First Avenue, Needham
LEED-CS v2009
Registered August 13, 2013; Certified July 25, 2016
58/110 Points (Silver)
288,092 square feet

Western MA Regionial Women's Correctional Center (LEED Gold)

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701 Center Street, Chicopee
LEED-NC v2009
Registered June 10, 2011; Certified July 18, 2016
63/110 Points (Gold)
28,477 square feet

22 Federal Street (LEED Gold)

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22 Federal Street, Nantucket
LEED-NC v2009
Registered October 27, 2014; Certified July 14, 2016
60/110 Points (Gold)
5,597 square feet

265 Franklin Street (LEED Gold)


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265 Franklin Street, Boston
LEED-EB:OM v2009
Registered November 20, 2009; Certified July 12, 2016
65/110 Points (Gold)
368,061 square feet

Educational Opportunities at USGBC MA!

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

Looking to maintain accreditation or become accredited? Look no further; we've got you covered!

We have educational opportunities ranging from exam preparatory courses for LEED and WELL, to in-person webinar presentations, to general informational sessions about WELL, the Living Building Challenge, and other building standards!

Check out:

Pictured above: Jennifer Taranto leads part of our WELL Exam Prep Course on June 16.

Showcase Countdown: Get Your Early Bird Tickets!

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

The Green Building Showcase is an excellent opportunity to showcase and celebrate exceptional green buildings! Join us for an entertaining evening of learning, networking, and rejoicing. Early Bird tickets are on sale for a little more than two weeks, so get yours now!

Register here or below.

Over 100 projects will be on display, and more than 300 leaders in our industry will be in attendance for this open bar reception and entertaining collection of green buildings.

We have Sponsorship Opportunities and special deals for anyone looking to display a project or win an award! Check out our Green Building Showcase webpages for more details.