The Moment You've Been Waiting For: Showcase is Back!

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

Our annual Green Building Showcase attracts and unites over 300 leaders in the building industry in our love for green buildings. Join us in celebrating all that our community has achieved in the past year!

Thursday, September 22 from 5:30pm to 8:00pm 
888 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02116 

Register here or below. ***Early Bird Discounts end August 20!!***

Check out the video we put together from last year's Showcase:

 

Green Building Showcase 2015! from USGBC MA on Vimeo.

For more information, please check out the links below!

General Info
What is this event? // Who attends this event? // Event Details // Board Details

Registration
Package Selection Process

Sponsorship Opportunities
Packages and Deals

Contest
Details & Award Categories // Past Winners // Voting // Why Enter?

 

 

Join the Eco-District Movement! Come to our Workshop!

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

In the workshop, you'll learn how to transform existing neighborhoods into ones that are resilient, sustainable, and socially just.

Tuesday, August 16 from 8:30am to 10:30am
“Woolf” Room, 18th Floor, 50 Milk Street, Boston

Register here or below.

Our speaker, Eric Corey Freed, is an envoy for Ecodistricts. Join us as we get the latest on how the program is expanding, supporting improved communities and the neighborhood scale. 

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

  • discover a new process for bringing together community leaders, developers, architects and planners to develop sustainable neighborhoods
  • find ways to plan and incorporate district scale, net zero energy and water systems
  • develop a roadmap for planning goals, development targets and methods to galvanize support for your community

 

 

Image source: http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/dumai/61765562/47662/47662_original.jpg

Intrigued by the idea of a Living Building?

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

You can tour two of them for free! We're touring 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. 

 

 

 

This Thursday: come on out for a nice BBQ with colleagues

By Grey Lee, Executive Director

Join friends from the Climate Action Business Association (CABA) and the US Green Building Council (MA Chapter) as we come together to celebrate legislative and regulatory progress on a variety of issues! (Energy Policy, Net Metering reform, Building Codes, Flame Retardants, and more!)

Thursday, July 28 from 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm
Old West Church: 131 Cambridge Street, Boston

Register here.

$15 for Members, $25 for everyone else!

      

 

 

Doubleshot this week: WELL and LEED Exam Prep

By Grey Lee, Executive Director

Come on down to our HQ in Boston for some serious green building education!

Are you considering taking either the WELL AP or the LEED Green Associate Exam? You're in luck! We're hosting day-long exam prep courses. Learn with us and meet potential study partners!

LEED Exam Prep will also have time at the end for questions about specific LEED AP Exams.


WELL Exam Prep:

Thursday, July 28 from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm

WELL is the newest building standard to arrive in the building industry! Get ahead of the curve by getting your Accredited Professional (AP) certification. This day-long course will cover in depth all you need to know for the exam.
Register here.

 

 

 

 


LEED Exam Prep:

Wednesday, July 27 from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm

The LEED Exam Prep Course is a comprehensive course which will prepare attendees for the Green Associate and other specialty exams. The day long curriculum is designed to cover the segments of the Green Associate Exam and to lightly cover the AP specialty exams.
Register here.

 

If these workshop times don't fit in your schedule, check here for future course times.

 

Ecodistricts are the Thing!

By Grey Lee, Executive Director

Are you ready for a little Eric Corey Freed? Yes, that one with the huge ego and even better jokes!

Eric is an envoy for Ecodistricts. Join us as we get the latest on how the program is expanding, supporting improved communities and the neighborhood scale. 


It will be a great session.

The workshop will detail how to transform existing neighborhoods into ones that are resilient, sustainable, and socially just.

Tuesday, August 16 from 8:30am to 10:30am
“Woolf” Room, 18th Floor, 50 Milk Street, Boston

Register here.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

  • discover a new process for bringing together community leaders, developers, architects and planners to develop sustainable neighborhoods
  • find ways to plan and incorporate district scale, net zero energy and water systems
  • develop a roadmap for planning goals, development targets and methods to galvanize support for your community

One Week Until WELL Exam Prep!

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

WELL is the newest building standard to arrive in the building industry, focused on designing buildings that are better for human health! Stay ahead of the curve by getting your Accredited Professional (AP) certification. In this full-day course, we'll be going over topics you'll see on the AP exam, and you'll meet local professionals with whom you can form study groups.

Thursday, July 28 from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm
50 Milk Street, Boston (“Anchor”, Floor 1)

Register here or below.

A light breakfast, full lunch, and snacks will be provided throughout the day, and a hard-copy exam study guide will be provided to all students.

If next week's session doesn't work for you, we have one in August:

Thursday, August 18 from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm
Register here.

If neither of these work, check back on our Eventbrite page in a month or two!


Other helpful links:
WELL Intro + Discussion
What is WELL? What does it mean for the building industry? Is it worth your time? Get all your questions answered at our introductory session!

WELL AP Exam Registration

Learn more about WELL

 

 

We're touring TWO Living Buildings– Join us!

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

In 3 weeks, you can join us on a free tour of the Hitchcock Center and the R.W. Kern Center!

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. 

 

 

Obama Administration Announces Clean Energy Savings for All Initiative

By Office of the Press Secretary, the White House

President Obama is committed to ensuring that every American family can choose to go solar and to cut their energy bills – and that every American community has the tools they need to tackle local air pollution and global climate change.

Since President Obama took office, solar electricity generation has increased 30 fold and solar jobs are growing 12 times faster than the rest of the economy. Last year, we announced a set of actions to increase access to solar and create a more inclusive workforce, but there is still more work to do. That is why, today, the Obama Administration is announcing a new cross government partnership – the Clean Energy Savings For All Initiative – between the Departments of Energy (DOE), Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Agriculture (USDA), Health and Human Services (HHS), Veteran’s Affairs (VA), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to increase access to solar energy and promote energy efficiency across the United States and, in particular in low- and moderate- income communities.

Through the Clean Energy Savings for All Initiative, the Administration will work to ensure that every household has options to choose to go solar and put in place additional measures to promote energy efficiency. To continue along this track, the Administration, in collaboration with state agencies, is announcing a new catalytic goal to bring 1 gigawatt (GW) of solar to low- and moderate- income families by 2020. This goal is a 10 fold increase and an expansion of the initial target President Obama set in his Climate Action Plan to install 100 MW of renewable energy on federally-assisted affordable housing by 2020.  The Clean Energy Savings for All Initiative will help achieve the goal by promoting innovative financing mechanisms, bolstering technical assistance for states and communities, driving innovation, scaling up workforce training to make sure low- and moderate-income Americans can take advantage of the jobs that come with a transition to clean energy, convening stakeholders, and working with the private and philanthropic sectors. The key components of the initiative that the Administration is announcing today are:

  • HUD and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) are releasing new guidance to unlock residential Property-Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing by outlining how properties with PACE assessments can be purchased and refinanced with Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage insurance and by welcoming the use of PACE financing for Veterans Affairs (VA)-insured mortgages. In addition, DOE is releasing a draft of their updated Best Practices Guidelines for Residential PACE Financing for public comment. PACE is a tool that allows American homeowners, including low- and moderate- income households and veterans, to finance solar and energy efficiency improvements at no upfront cost and to pay back the cost over time through their property tax bill;
  • DOE is developing a Community Solar Challenge that will award teams in dozens of communities up to $100,000, in cash prizes and technical assistance, to develop innovative models to increase solar deployment and cut communities’ energy bills, in particular in low income communities;
  • HHS and DOE are making it easier to use hundreds of millions of dollars for energy efficiency improvements by providing technical assistance to Low Income Housing Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) grantees on their ability to access 15 – 25 percent of their annual LIHEAP funding for low cost energy efficiency improvements, including renewable energy;
  • DOE is making sure low- and moderate-income Americans can take advantage of the jobs that come with a transition to clean energy by launching the Solar Training Network, which will help create a more inclusive workforce by connecting solar workforce trainers, solar employers, and individuals interested in working in the solar industry;
  • EPA, DOE, and HUD are bringing people together to share best practices on how to finance and overcome barriers to creating healthier communities; and
  • More than 120 housing authorities, rural electric co-ops, power companies, and organizations in more than 36 states across the country are committing to investing $287 million and putting in place more than 280 megawatts (MW) of solar energy projects, including projects to help low- and moderate- income communities save on their energy bills and further the deployment of community solar.

The announcements today will result in lower energy bills, more empowered consumers, and cleaner communities.

Read the full article here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/07/19/fact-sheet-obama-…

 

Image source: http://www.eqmagpro.com/ygrene-energy-fund-applauds-the-obama-administra…

Next Thursday: Legislative Celebration BBQ!

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

Join friends from the Climate Action Business Association (CABA) and the US Green Building Council (MA Chapter) as we come together to celebrate legislative and regulatory progress on a variety of issues! (Energy Policy, Net Metering reform, Building Codes, Flame Retardants, and more!)

Thursday, July 28 from 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm
Old West Church: 131 Cambridge Street, Boston

Register here or below.
$15 for Members, $25 for everyone else!