Newly-Certified LEED Buildings in MA! (Part 2)

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 May. (If you missed it, here's Part 1)

Click here to learn more about LEED.
Click the certification levels to get more details.

Two Financial Center (LEED Gold)


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60 South Street, Boston
LEED-EB:OM v2009
Constructed April 8, 2015; Certified May 17, 2016
61/110 Points (Gold)
240,321 square feet

275 Wyman Street (LEED Gold)


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275 Wyman Street, Waltham
LEED-CS v2009
Constructed August 12, 2013; Certified May 19, 2016
64/110 Points (Gold)
316,684 square feet

Farm Life Center at Drumlin Farm (LEED Gold)


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208 South Great Road, Lincoln
LEED-NC 2.2
Constructed April 17, 2009; Certified May 20, 2016
40/69 Points (Gold)
1,488 square feet

Old Colony Public Housing Redevelopment (LEED Gold)


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25 James O'Neil Street, Boston
LEED-ND v2009 Stage 3
Constructed February 19, 2015; Certified May 26, 2016
60/110 Points (Gold)
7.89 square feet

UMass Lowell: University Crossing (LEED Silver)


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220 Pawtucket Street, Lowell
LEED-NC v2009
Constructed April 26, 2012; Certified May 4, 2016
50/110 Points (Silver)
227,691 square feet

Craftsman E North (LEED Silver)

77 Musante Drive, Northampton
LEED-HOMES v2008
Constructed October 11, 2013; Certified May 20, 2016
67/136 Points (Silver)
1,528 square feet

Craftsman E South (LEED Silver)

75 Musante Drive, Northampton
LEED-HOMES v2008
Constructed October 11, 2013; Certified May 20, 2016
67/136 Points (Silver)
1,668 square feet

Ayer Shirley Regional High School (LEED Silver)


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141 Washington Street, Ayer
LEED FOR SCHOOLS v2009
Constructed December 21, 2012; Certified May 20, 2016
55/110 Points (Silver)
144,072 square feet

NEBFM 2016: FREE Exhibits, Talks, and Networking!

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

Wednesday, June 29 – Thursday, June 30
Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, Hall B-2
415 Summer Street
Boston, 02210

Register here!

This event will feature over 300 exhibitors displaying products and services necessary for the operation, management, maintenance and renovation of buildings and facilities in the greater New England region. 

Running concurrently with the trade show is an educational conference featuring 40 individual one-hour talks covering a wide range of topics including: LEED, Green, Sustainability, Energy, Building Commissioning, Facility Maintenance, Construction and Renovation Planning.

networking reception is held from 3:00pm – 4:00pm the first day of the show. Attendees & Exhibitors are invited to join IFMA and all the Show Sponsors for drinks and hors d'oeuvres.

Learn more about the event here.

Register for FREE here!

****** Remember to mention USGBC MA when you register! ******


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are You Free Thursday Evening?

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

Join USGBCMA for an exciting design charrette where we will brainstorm for our newest community service project! 

Thursday, June 30, 6:00pm – 7:30pm
130 Bishop Allen Drive
Cambridge, MA 02139

To receive updates on specific details,
RSVP here to this free event.

We are planning to transform a Boston classroom from status quo to super green.

Possible areas for improvement will include maximizing daylight, minimizing energy use, and improving air quality. We will benefit from those with an expertise in design, construction, and products, so please pass the invitation along if you know a prospective volunteer who can be a positive contributor to our team!

You can get involved by signing up as a volunteer or a sponsoring organization! Please join us with your ideas, expertise, material donations, or just a willingness to help out!

To learn more and to RSVP, click here!

Image source: http://sageclassroom.com/

Thinking about the UK? LEED's European Forebear, BREEAM, Arrives in US

By Tristan Roberts

The forebear of all green building rating systems, LEED included, is arriving from the U.K. as an accessible alternative.

Before there was LEED, there was BREEAM.

While the LEED rating systems might have more buzz, the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology is the world’s oldest and most widely used green building rating system. Created in 1990 by the Building Research Establishment (BRE) in the U.K., the system is responsible for 544,600 certified projects worldwide, according to BRE. (By comparison, LEED currently has more than 75,000 certified projects.)

Now BREEAM is coming to the U.S. through a partnership announced by BRE and BuildingWise, a U.S.-based LEED certification consultancy. A new organization, BREEAM USA, will make the BREEAM In-Use standard available to commercial buildings of any size, age, and condition. The standard offers benchmarking and certification for existing buildings.

BREEAM In-Use available to all commercial buildings

According to BREEAM USA, BREEAM In-Use is an “independent, science-based, and inclusive assessment” that gives building managers and owners a framework for improving their operational sustainability as well as reducing energy and water costs.

Barry Giles, CEO of BuildingWise, will lead BREEAM USA as CEO. Giles told BuildingGreen, BREEAM is “a way for getting in this vast number of existing buildings that don’t have an option for a certification program.” LEED for Existing Buildings (LEED-EBOM), the best-known certification of its kind, includes a number of prerequisites. Most significantly, the current version of its energy-efficiency prerequisite requires a minimum Energy Star score of 75, which by definition excludes 75% of buildings from LEED eligibility.

Giles—a LEED Fellow who helped launch LEED-EBOM as a founding member of its Core Committee and who actively consults on LEED-EBOM projects—laments the current market response to LEED. Its uptake has been poor, he notes, and with LEED v4 raising the bar, he worries that relief is not in sight. “Even Class A buildings are beginning to reject LEED recertification because of cost, paperwork, and time,” says Giles. (Recertification is required every five years in LEED-EBOM.) “The smaller they are, the harder it is to offer a fiscally sound package to them,” he says. That’s where BREEAM In-Use comes in: for a flat fee, it helps projects benchmark themselves and gives them a road map forward.

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), for its part, is investing in its LEED Dynamic Plaque as a magnet for attracting building projects. Responding to the news about BREEAM USA, Scot Horst, chief product officer at USGBC, told Bloomberg news, “We need to keep coming up with innovative ways to get people onto a path to improvement. We see the same need. We just have different approaches.”

It starts with an online questionnaire

Engaging with BREEAM USA will start with an online questionnaire that building owners will pay $1,000 to access for up to a year, says Giles. The questionnaire is in three parts:

Part one covers the asset: the building, construction date, materials used, glazing type and percentage, etc. “With that, we’re able to calculate quite well what the energy consumption should be,” says Giles.
Part two covers the operations of the building. “Nine-five percent of the questions are associated with production of operational data,” according to Giles.
Part three covers the tenants. According to Giles, there is “a series of questions to give themselves a rating on how they deal with the space that they lease, rent, or borrow.”

“If you’re savvy with your building, it’s probably not more than a week in total filling the questionnaire in,” says Giles. That’s not a week in front of the computer; plan on fishing around for some data. You get scored as you go, and each question leads to additional questions that, according to Giles, provide a roadmap to the next level of success. For example, if you answer “yes” to having a water meter, the next question asks whether you have a year’s worth of water bills, and a subsequent question asks about submetering. There are no prerequisites, emphasizes Giles.

That initial score is unverified. The next step, if a building owner wants certification, is to hire an independent third-party assessor licensed by BREEAM USA who will come onsite and verify the data (at a cost based on the assessor’s bid). “The assessor’s job is to assess, not to consult,” notes Giles. Their report is sent to BREEAM USA for quality control, and BREEAM may ask the assessor for follow-up information. If it all passes muster, BREEAM will issue an official certification.

[Image: how BREEAM USA scores existing buildings]
Along with energy and water, BREEAM covers a total of nine environmental categories, including waste, materials, pollution, health and well-being, land use and ecology, transport, and management. (Detailed examination of how BREEAM handles these categories is outside the scope of this article.)

Fundamentals unchanged from U.K. origins

While Giles has his eye on what he counts as 5.6 million uncertified existing buildings in the U.S., “Our biggest focus is to have well-trained assessors out in the marketplace before having a flood of buildings.” BREEAM USA will offer assessor training starting in October 2016, but it is also starting an “early adopter” program for buildings now.

BREEAM is being Americanized, says Giles, though its fundamentals won’t change, in order to maintain its international relevance. For example, BREEAM USA will align with the data input to the widely used Energy Star Portfolio Manager, but it won’t use the output of that benchmark. European standards are being replaced with American standards (like ASHRAE’s), and some concepts are being explained differently for the American audience.

BREEAM’s rigor has not been compared with that of LEED-EBOM, according to Giles, but he noted the strong desire by BRE and BREEAM USA to bring more data to the marketplace, working with the U.S. Green Building Council and other organizations.

Original article here: https://www.buildinggreen.com/newsbrief/breeam-usa-jolts-existing-buildi…

From Newsweek: Your Office Air is Killing You

By Douglas Main

Green Buildings intersect with Human Health! Even high-profile news sources like Newsweek are picking up on this message.
If you want to learn about human health and building standards intersect, join us at Intro to WELL or our WELL Exam Prep Course.

An invisible killer had infiltrated Sto-Rox High School.

When workers installed a cell tower on top of the school outside Pittsburgh, no one realized the exhaust spewed by its diesel generator was being sucked into the building’s ventilation system and inhaled by everyone inside. This is stuff you really do not want in your teen’s homeroom: Diesel fumes contain particulate matter and chemicals like benzene and arsenic, which in the long term increase the risk of lung cancer and in the short term cause breathing problems and dull the mind. But lucky for the Sto-Rox students, they had Joe Krajcovic—and a Speck.

Krajcovic had installed this new device in his science classroom as a school project. The Speck measures airborne particulate pollution, which increases the risk for and exacerbates symptoms of respiratory problems like asthma. Krajcovic’s class was analyzing the data gathered by the sensor to learn about indoor air quality when they noticed spikes in particle levels every few hours. Those coincided with the generator’s daily schedule: Whenever it kicked on to power the tower’s battery, particulate pollution increased, says Speck developer Illah Nourbakhsh, a robotics researcher at nearby Carnegie Mellon University. After parsing this unnerving data, Krajcovic filed a grievance, and the tower was moved.

Your life depends on good air. Every year, air pollution causes the premature deaths of between 5.5 million and 7 million people, making it more deadly than HIV, traffic accidents and diabetes combined. The majority of these deaths—about 4 million—are caused by indoor air pollution, primarily in developing countries. But it takes a toll in developed countries as well. In Europe, for example, air pollution shortens the average life expectancy by nearly one year. Worldwide, more than 80 percent of people living in urban areas breathe air that exceeds pollution limits advised by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Particulate matter is the prime villain. The most lethal are the smallest particles (also known as PM2.5, for particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter, about one-third the diameter of a red blood cell), which are produced by combustion and household activities like cooking. These specks can get deep into the lungs, tarring the airways and weathering the heart, disrupting its ability to beat properly: Many studies have linked exposure to PM2.5 with heart attacks, cardiac arrhythmias, strokes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, worsened symptoms of asthma and an increased risk of respiratory illness. Worldwide, particulate matter contributes to about 800,000 premature deaths each year, according to the WHO, making it the 13th leading cause of death worldwide. Other pollutants also cause major problems, especially indoors—radon, a gas produced naturally in the Earth, is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the U.S., and additional gases like carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) cause myriad health effects.

Poisonous indoor air is almost completely ignored by the press, the public and those who bankroll scientific research—it gets about 100 times less research funding than outdoor air, even though the average American spends about 90 percent of the time inside. “Outdoor air is a political hot topic,” but it means less for public health than indoor air, says Jan Sundell, a researcher at the Technical University of Denmark. “You get sick due to indoor air. You die due to indoor air.”

While the federal government has a nationwide network of sensors perched atop towers that sniff for particulate matter, these cost around $100,000 each and aren’t exactly mobile—there’s simply no way the program could be expanded into schools, homes and offices, even if we could overcome all the red tape necessary for that to happen.

The Speck, however, costs $150 and is the size of an alarm clock. It’s just one example of a new generation of devices that measure air quality, many of which are priced at $200 or less and can quantify levels of particulate matter, VOCs, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and other gases. Although many of these devices aren’t yet 100 percent accurate (and certainly aren’t as precise as the fed’s monitors), they have already allowed people to improve the air they breathe in ways that would’ve been impossible even a few years back.

 

Original article: http://www.newsweek.com/2016/06/10/indoor-air-pollution-revolution-46553…

Welcome The Architectural Team as our New Sponsor!

By Ritchie Lafaille, Office Fellow


We are honored to announce The Architectural Team (TAT) as our newest Silver-Level Sponsor. We love how they are committed to sustainability and how they really “get it” in regards to our mission.

 

Driven by a commitment to exceptional design and an unyielding focus on achieving client objectives, TAT's distinctive portfolio is a result of the firm’s ability to understand and draw inspiration from our client’s goals. Their insightful, pragmatic design solutions reflect their respect for site, context and environmental sustainability. While their work has been honored with many awards, they are most proud of their lasting client relationships, and their part in those successes.

Inspired design doesn’t happen in isolation. It’s the result of a committed partnership between the client and the design team; where respect for the character and quality of the natural and built environment is fundamental. Distinctive solutions begin with client goals. These goals evolve through collaborative relationships and come to life through the insight and expertise of our design teams. How could they help you realize your design vision?

 

Welcome to our sponsoring partner community, TAT. We are proud to have you as a partner and look forward to accomplishing great things together. 

 

What You Need to Know about BREEAM

By Molly Wilder

LEED-EBOM (now known as LEED O+M for Existing Buildings) has been the premiere rating system used in America for over a decade, but a new player is coming to town!  The Building Research Establishment, located in the UK, and BuildingWise, a Bay Area based LEED consulting company are partnering up to bring the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology (BREEAM) In-Use system to the US, dedicated to commercial properties only.  Created in 1990, it predates LEED, and has almost four times as many certified projects as LEED does worldwide.  

Heading the national endeavor is Barry Giles, who was named the CEO in May of this year.  His extensive history in green building practices, including being a founding member of LEED-EBOM, make him an ideal candidate for the position.  He and his associates see implementing BREEAM as the next logical step in expanding accreditation, as this classification reduces restrictions and prerequisites for existing, and often older buildings, allowing more to get certified.  Up to 85% of structures don’t meet LEED standards, and the third party, onsite, benchmarking method is more flexible, as it considers local science specific to that construction and location.  

“Many of today’s buildings are not equipped for the future and underperform against their potential, wasting resources and unnecessarily impacting the environment,” said Gavin Dunn, Global Director of BREEAM. “In a real estate market that considers value based on a wide range of metrics these assets risk devaluation or becoming stranded. With BREEAM we provide a system that can cost-effectively be applied to any property to enable managers to improve and get recognition for the performance of their existing real-estate assets. Whether improving the performance of older inefficient properties, or ensuring new high-performance properties meet their potential, BREEAM eliminates wasted resources at all levels.” (quote courtesy of http://facilityexecutive.com/2016/06/breeam-green-building-tool-us/).

Certification begins with an online assessment done by the building owner, who does a self-rating in the fields of energy, health and well-being, innovation, land use, materials, management, pollution, transport, waste, and water, analyzing procurement, design, construction and operation of the structure.  Once a score is obtained, if the owner wishes to make it official, an independent, licensed assessor is hired to certify this, and rates and certifies the project on a scale of Pass, Good, Very Good, Excellent and Outstanding.  This initial accreditation is good for a year, and can be renewed for up to three years, before requiring a new evaluation.  

BREEAM benefits include lower operational costs, reduced investor and developer risk, it presents a more attractive property, as well as a more productive, healthy environment for tenants.  A leading development undertaking BREEAM USA In-Use is the BLOC in downtown Los Angeles.  Presently, the BLOC is being upgraded into the destination space for Los Angeles residents including a shopping mall and Sheraton hotel.  With major projects like this showcasing the rating system’s success, the USGBC and the US as a whole can look forward to more and more locations receiving green certifications, providing healthier and happier environments for everyone.

Save Money & Time Becoming WELL Certified!

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

Exam fees are increasing soon! Here are some important dates to keep track of.

June 28: WELL Intro/Discussion. Not sure what WELL is? Wondering if it's worth your time? Register for our introductory session now!

July 1: WELL Exam fees increase (So register ASAP!) You can register now and schedule your exam for when you're prepared. If you register between now and June 30, you can save up to $200!

July 28: WELL Exam Prep Course. Does the thought of studying for the exam alone overwhelm you with a sense of dread? Save yourself some time and stress by coming to our day-long exam prep course! We will be covering the exam content in depth, and you'll be able to meet a group of local study partners!

Learn more about WELL here or here!


Building Tour? Networking Night? How About Both??

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

Our Outreach Committee has organized a joint building tour and networking night! Free for Members and $25 for Non-Members!

Thursday, July 21 from 5:30pm to 8:00pm
75 State Street, Boston

Register here or below!

During the tour, we’ll explore the building, including tenant spaces and the roof deck. After the event, we'll be discussing all things sustainable!

Schedule:

5:30 PM – Initial Gathering in Lobby
5:45 PM – Project Presentation
6:00 PM – Building Tour
7:30 PM – Chapter Networking

About the Venue:

75 State Street, Boston, MA (Brookfield Properties)
LEED O+M: Existing Buildings Gold Certification in 2009
LEED O+M: Existing Buildings Platinum Re-Certification in 2014

The building is also Energy Star Certified.

Living Product Expo: Crafting the Future of Materials

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

Want to learn about the world's newest “living” products? Consider coming to the second annual Living Product Expo this year!

Register- September 13-15, 2016 in Pittsburgh, PA

The Living Product Challenge re-imagines the design and construction of products to function as elegantly and efficiently as anything found in the natural world. The Living Product Expo is a groundbreaking new event that brings together leading minds in the product industry to inspire a revolution in the way materials are designed, manufactured and delivered.

At the first event in 2015, sustainability directors from the world’s leading design firms, prominent manufacturers, and sustainability consultants learned about and shared game-changing innovations in product design.

Chapter members who attended the 2015 Living Product Expo include Jason Jewhurst of Bruner Cott (one of our sponsors!), Charley Stevenson, and John Warner.

This second annual event moves from inspiration to action. The Expo is an opportunity for participants to share and discover disruptive new ideas and technologies that are reshaping the materials landscape, accelerating the pace of innovation and making Living Products possible today.

Join us, and together we will craft the future of materials.