Greenbuild Registration Now Open!

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

Greenbuild is the world's largest conference and expo dedicated to green building. It provides a forum for the green building community to unite, change lives, revolutionize business, and address our world’s most pressing problems. The three-day event, which will be held in Los Angeles Convention Center from Oct. 5-7, 2016, will feature high profile celebrities, activists and political figures working together to promote the ideals and interests of the green building movement.

Learn more about the event here.

Greenbuild offers several conference packages to help you maximize your time onsite at the show. Register before the Early Bird deadline (August 1) to save money! USGBC Members also get discounted tickets.

Register now!

 

USGBC is excited to provide scholarship opportunities to attend Greenbuild 2016: Iconic Green.

Scholarships increase access to Greenbuild and serve as a point of entry for people who are new to the green movement. Scholarships are competitive, and preference is given to individuals from underrepresented audiences and who demonstrate a need. These scholarships allow USGBC to invest in individuals who share our vision and want to be champions for the movement. Hear from several Greenbuild 2015 scholarship recipients to get an insider's look on how you can benefit from a scholarship!

To learn about eligibility requirements and to apply for a scholarship, click here.

Please share this opportunity with anyone you believe would be interested in attending Greenbuild!

Volunteering + Sponsorship Opportunity: Design Charrette!

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

Thursday, June 30, 6:00pm – 7:30pm
Boston/Cambridge area (exact location TBA)

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

Join us for a design charrette on June 30th to brainstorm for our newest community service project: the transformation of 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 courtesy of http://sageclassroom.com/

Gathering at TROY Boston: Learning, Networking, & Refreshments

By USGBC Communications

Tuesday, June 14, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
266 East Berkeley Street Boston, MA 02118

Register here!

It's time for the Chapter's Quarterly Gathering. All our Committees will be attending, and newcomers will have a chance to learn about the many facets of our mission and our work to change the built environment for the better.

This evening of learning will be hosted at TROY Boston, in the South End. TROY is a super eco-friendly apartment complex developed by Chapter Sponsoring Partner Gerding Edlen, a great developer based on the west coast. The complex has attained LEED Gold earlier this year and used 28% less energy than a typical multi-family building like it. We will get to check out many of the features and talk with project team members. We will get to see the rich amenities of this great building and its incredible apartment options.

Join us for this great event to gather our organization — re-connect and make new connections at the same time.

Free for Chapter Members and TROY Boston residents, $25 for the general public.

Click here to learn more and to register.

Refreshments will be provided.

Thank you to Gerding Edlen and TROY Boston for sponsoring this event.

Join us for an Expert Panel on Resilience!

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

Tuesday, June 14, 8:30am – 10:30am
50 Milk Street, 17th Floor, “Milky Way” Room

Register here!

Resilience is quickly becoming a top priority when it comes to designing buildings and systems, with studies showing the dangers of sea level rise, increased storm intensity and other issues connected to resilience.

We are all hearing about the importance of resilience, but how do we actually get it done? What are the practical things we can do as developers, designers, implementers, and users of buildings and building systems?

Learn from our expert panel to explore the topic and the tools we can use, right now, on every building project.

 

 

LEED Exam Prep in 2 Weeks!

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

Wednesday, June 15th, 8:30 am – 5:00 pm
50 Milk St, 18th Floor, “Woolf” Room

Register here!

Any professional who is serious about sustainable building should definitely have their LEED Green Associate accreditation! To help you prepare for your Green Associate Exam, we're hosting an exam preparation course in two weeks. Because we will be transitioning to an updated version of LEED next year, attending this course is the perfect opportunity to get a better grasp of the updated certification information.

Click here to learn more about the event and to register.

If you're already a Green Associate or Accredited Professional, make sure to share this opportunity with your colleagues. 

The Green Associate preparation course will cover most of the material on the LEED Green Associate exam. You should plan to spend an additional 10-20 hours of study time outside of this class. This time will be best spent reviewing the reading materials listed below while paying particular attention to concepts and terminology. The LEED Green Associate Handbook references hundreds of pages of reading materials, while this class will focus primarily on the 106-page LEED Core Concepts Guide.  As part of this fast-tracked course, we will skim some reading materials and skip other reading materials.  

Students who have passed the exam have reported that local study partners and/or study groups have been very helpful.

The 8-hour course is devised of the following sessions: 

Chapter #1 – Introduction
This 1-hour chapter will explain the LEED Green Associate credentialing process and serve as an introduction to LEED, sustainability, the USGBC, the GBCI and the LEED rating system.

Chapter #2 – Location and Transportation / Sustainable Sites
This 1-hour chapter will focus on site issues such as connectivity, transportation, erosion, landscaping, and heat island effect.

Chapter #3 – Water Efficiency / Energy and Atmosphere
This 1-hour chapter will focus on water issues (plumbing efficiency, irrigation, process water, etc.) and energy and atmosphere issues (demand, efficiency, renewable energy, ozone depleting substances, etc.)

Chapter #4 – Materials and Resources
This 1-hour chapter will focus on procurement and waste diversion.

Chapter #5 – Indoor Environmental Quality
This 1-hour chapter will focus on indoor environmental quality issues such as indoor air quality, occupant comfort and green cleaning.

Chapter #6 – Innovation / Regional Priority / Certification Process
This 1-hour chapter will explain the LEED certification process and the Innovation and Regional Priority categories.

Chapter #7 – Exam Review
This 1-hour chapter will focus on exam format and registration and sample exam questions.

Chapter #8 – Exam Review
This 1-hour chapter will focus on sample exam questions.

Resilience is Important! Learn about Implementing Resilience with USGBC

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

Tuesday, June 14, 8:30am – 10:30am
50 Milk Street, 17th Floor, “Milky Way” Room

Register here!

Resilience is quickly becoming a top priority when it comes to designing buildings and systems, with studies showing the dangers of sea level rise, increased storm intensity and other issues connected to resilience.

We are all hearing about the importance of resilience, but how do we actually get it done? What are the practical things we can do as developers, designers, implementers, and users of buildings and building systems?

Learn from our expert panel to explore the topic and the tools we can use, right now, on every building project.

 

Click here to learn more about the event and to register.

 

Filippo Masetti of SGH will talk about improving the resilience of buildings subject to coastal flooding and the new LEED resilience pilot credits.

Arlen Stawasz of Perkins+Will will present on the RELi Action List they have developed for designers.

Michael Green of Climate Action Business Association (CABA) will share their “BARS” program of resources for small businesses' response to sea level rise.

Jim Newman of Linnean Solutions will facilitate.

Learn about WELL, a New Building Standard!

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!


Part of our Building Blueprint educational series.

The WELL Building Standard was recently created to help design buildings that are better for human health. We anticipate that this building standard will greatly impact the building process and the types of buildings that are constructed in the future.

To bring as many people up to speed with this new standard, we have organized an introductory session at our headquarters. This session will be beneficial for professionals from all sectors of the building industry: owners, engineers, builders and occupants interested in the new standard are encouraged to attend!

The session will take place next Tuesday, May 31, from 8:30 am to 10:30 am.

We will be watching a segment from the USGBC's Education platform about WELL and then having a moderated discussion on the future, impact, and evolution of the standard.

Register for the event here!

The time has come to elevate human health and comfort to the forefront of building practices and reinvent buildings that are not only better for the planet—but also for people. Please join us for this important and informative session.

LEED Earth Certifies India's First LEED v4 Platinum Building

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

The LEED Earth campaign was created by USGBC to accelerate the uptake of green building and LEED throughout the world. This campaign offers LEED certification at no cost to the first LEED-certified project in countries that have yet to adopt LEED. It also offers certification at no cost to the first LEED Platinum certified project in any country using the newest version of LEED (v4), which was recently the case in India.

The ITC Sankya Data Center is the first LEED v4 Platinum building in India, and the first data center in the world to achieve this level of certification.

Data centers have very few occupants and can consume as much energy as a small town, making for a unique project. Data centers must have massive cooling capacity for their servers, and reducing water usage is important for data centers that use it for cooling purposes.


ITC is a Kolkota-based conglomerate that has been spearheading green building leadership and LEED adoption in India for years. In fact, ITC is the first hotel chain in India to incorporate green as a business strategy: all of its LEED-certified luxury hotels have achieved Platinum certification.

To date, four countries have their first LEED v4 Platinum buildings: India, China, Mexico and Canada. The countries to have their first LEED certified building are: Burundi, Croatia, Ecuador, Honduras, Kuwait, Latvia, Luxembourg, Pakistan, Serbia, South Sudan, Ukraine, Tanzania, Bolivia, Lithuania, Dominican Republic, Kenya, Ghana, Myanmar and Venezuela and were among LEED Earth participants.

“There are 160 countries and territories currently using LEED,” said Mahesh Ramanujam, chief operating officer of USGBC and president of Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI). “LEED Earth has become a catalyst for other countries where green building is not as prevalent and is an important first step in changing the course of building practice to one that is more sustainable and for markets that are more advanced in this space, we congratulate you on your continued leadership. LEED ON!”
 

If you are interested in reading the full articles, please visit:

LEED Earth Project Pioneers: India's first LEED v4 Platinum building

LEED Earth Participant ITC Sankhya Data Center First LEED v4 Platinum Building in India
 

Join Our Volunteer Network!

By Ryan Duffy, Communications Fellow

Are you passionate about sustainability, efficiency, and the environment?  Do you have familiarity with green building and understand how the built environment affects all of us and the world? 

If yes, then you should consider joining our volunteers!  We have a variety of open positions with different responsibilities, qualifications, and time commitments, and all positions receive some kind of benefit!

Throughout the year, we also have special posts.  Some examples include Boston's Greenfest and the Northeast Building Facility Managers Show coming up this summer – if any USGBCMA friends or members are planning on attending the exposition, we are looking for volunteers to serve as ambassadors at our booth.

We also hold service project volunteer opportunities – usually in the fall with our Green Apple Day of Service – so stay tuned for those programs.


With any of our short-term or long-term volunteer positions, you will be an integral component of our operations and gain a greater understanding of our organization, its mission and its goals, and how we organize our events, advocate, and conduct outreach.

Volunteer assignments include LEED Study Jam Group Instructor, Webinar Proctor, Green Building Analyst/Reporter, USGBC Ambassador, Green Building Tour Coordinator, Outreach Committee Co-Chair, and Committee Leadership

Each position has its own details and specifics, but with any of these opportunities you will get to know the ins-and-outs of our organization, green building, and more!


If you're interested, you can learn more from our volunteer page or fill out our volunteering questionaire form.  We are very flexible with time commitment, the window of time in which you would want to volunteer, and prior experiences and qualifications.  

Volunteering with the Chapter will qualify for credential maintenance hours for GBCI – up to half of your required hours can be earned through volunteering with us. Usually this is much more engaging than sitting through a webinar late at night!

 

 

Register for WELL Exam Prep!

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!


The WELL Building Standard was recently created to help design buildings that are better for human health. In order to become a WELL Accredited Professional, professionals must take the WELL Exam. 

For more information about the WELL Exam, including exam fees, visit the website of the International WELL Building Institute.

We are offering WELL Exam Prep! If you are interested in becoming a WELL Accredited Professional, join us for an in-depth course to prepare for the exam.

On Thursday, June 16th, from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm, we will cover the WELL Building Standard ideology, structure, and certification process. 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.

Reserve your spot for the Exam Prep course now!

You may also be interested in our Introduction to the WELL Building Standard. It will be on Tuesday, May 31 from 8:30 am to 10:30 am. A concise introduction to the building standard will be followed by a roundtable discussion.

 

Important Dates and Deadlines:

May 27: Early Bird Discount ends for Prep Course! (Members and Non-Members save $50)

May 31: Introduction to WELL (Register here)

June 16: WELL Exam Prep Course (Register here)

June 30: WELL Exam Fees Increase (Register for the exam here)