BE+ Green Building Showcase 2023 Awards Program

2023 BE+ GREEN BUILDING SHOWCASE
AWARDS PROGRAM

Every year, Built Environment Plus highlights the successes of the local green building community with our annual Green Building Showcase Awards Program and Celebration. Projects may be submitted for consideration in the GBS Awards Program, and all entries will be displayed in the GBS ’23 Project Gallery on October 26th. Projects may also be submitted as Display-only Submissions for the Project Gallery.

Key Dates

Awards Program launches July 27th (view award entry guide)
Award Entries due October 6th (purchase here) (submit here)
Change Agent of the Year Nominations due October 6th (nominate here)
Student Project of the Year Submissions due October 13th (submit here)
Display-only Submissions due October 13th (purchase here) (submit here)
Green Building Showcase Celebration October 26th (buy tickets)

GETTING STARTED

Get started by reviewing our Award Submissions Guidelines PDF for key details on the submission process, including submission questions, rules, deadlines, poster requirements, and judging criteria.

Download our Call for Entries & Submission Guide (PDF)

GREEN BUILDING SHOWCASE AWARDS PROGRAM

The 2023 Awards Program will crown one Green Building of the Year, one Change Agent of the Year, and one People’s Choice Award, along with 10 Category Leader Awards:

Carbon and Energy
Equity and Inclusion
Green Home of the Year (1-3 units)
Health and Wellness
Site and Landscape

Student Project of the Year (Free)
Sustainable Building Operations
Sustainable Building Renovation
Sustainable Construction Innovation
Sustainable Interior Fit-out

GREEN BUILDING OF THE YEAR AWARD

This award is designed to highlight the most impressive recent green building within our green building community. A panel of industry peers, outside of Massachusetts, will judge the project entries through a holistic sustainability lens to crown this year’s Green Building of the Year.

The winner of this selective competition will be announced during Green Building Showcase and will receive exclusive PR support after the event in the form of a blog and social media post.

Must be a completed building, built within the last 5 years (as of 10/26/23), and designed or built by a Massachusetts company, or be in Massachusetts.

CHANGE AGENT OF THE YEAR AWARD

The Change Agent of the Year Award recognizes someone who has made a significant positive impact on the environment, social equity, and the economy.

How is this individual’s contributions adding innovation or leadership to the green built environment movement?
How are they influencing and/or mentoring other individuals?

Person must live or work in Massachusetts, or their impact is in Massachusetts. Nominations of others only. No self nomination allowed.

Nominations are free, and can be submitted here.

PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD

This award is voted on during the Green Building Showcase by all of those in attendance. Each attendee gets two votes to cast with the system designed to allow this community to recognize their favorite peer projects in the showcase. The showboard with the most votes earns the People’s Choice Award.

All entries across all categories, including Display-only Boards, are eligible.

CATEGORY LEADER AWARDS

CARBON AND ENERGY

We know as we face the current global climate emergency that significant work is needed within the built environment. In order to meet the Paris targets we must eliminate all GHG Emissions in the built environment by 2040. This award is to recognize a project that drastically reduces it’s embodied and operational carbon through innovative solutions with high impact and high replicability.

EQUITY AND INCLUSION

Social equity in the built environment requires careful attention to justice and fairness. People are directly involved or affected by the diversity of the project team, the engagement with the community and users, and in the workforce responsible for the materials and construction of the project itself. This award is to recognize a project that took clear strides to be just and fair in all aspects of its design, construction, and ongoing operation. This project’s process and design results should be innovative, high impact, and replicable.

GREEN HOME OF THE YEAR (1-3 UNITS)

This award is designed to highlight the most innovative, high impact, and replicable recent residential green building within our community. A diverse panel of industry peers, outside of Massachusetts, will judge the project entries through a holistic sustainability lens to crown this year’s Green Home of the Year.

Must be a completed building, built within the last 5 years (as of 10/26/23), and designed or built by a Massachusetts company, or be in Massachusetts.

HEALTH AND WELLNESS

There is a duty of care that comes with designing a project, and it is especially important when considering the health and wellness impacts the built environment can have on us. Healthy materials, water quality and access, active design, lighting, biophilia, ventilation, and other design considerations all come together to create the indoor environmental conditions. This award is to recognize a project that made a significant enhancement in its ability to support occupant health. The result should be high impact, and replicable.

SITE AND LANDSCAPE

The site is an integral part of the holistic project, but often the connection between the built architecture and the land itself is often not integrated for true localized ecological cohesion. This award is to recognize a project whose approach to site and landscape design was done with deep consideration of the local ecology, biodiversity, and regional integration, with an outcome that is high impact, innovative, and replicable.

STUDENT PROJECT OF THE YEAR (Free)

The next generations are inheriting the current built environment as well as the challenges we face in its transformation to positively impact the environment, social equity, and the economy. Students K-Graduate are thinking up extraordinary visions and solutions, and with this new award, we look to spotlight and celebrate their contributions to our future. Submissions are free and can be submitted here.

SUSTAINABLE BUILDING OPERATIONS

How we operate and live and work in a building over its lifetime can have greater environmental impact than the building’s initial construction. This award is to recognizes the amazing innovation and leadership bringing sustainability to operations through things like improvements in health and wellness, water and energy efficiency, lighting, maintenance, waste, commuting, acoustics, and adaptability. The submitted project should have a product or practice that is high impact, innovative, and replicable.

SUSTAINABLE BUILDING RENOVATION

The embodied carbon and environmental degradation reductions achieved by choosing renovation instead of new construction are significant. Nearly two-thirds of the building area that exists today will still exist in 2050. How we renovate these buildings is critical. Renovating buildings, however, can come with significant challenges. Approaching renovation requires creative thinking and execution to meet programmatic needs while also achieving sustainability goals. This award recognizes innovative strategies for building renovation with significantly reduced carbon emissions, water use and environmental degradation and an emphasis on enhancing human health and equity. The submitted project should have a product or practice that is high impact, innovative, and replicable.

SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION INNOVATION

The construction of the built environment, and it’s buildings, is often overshadowed by the opening of the finished project and then is lost to time. We know that this phase of the project’s life is monumental, challenging, and of very high impact. This award is to recognize the amazing innovation and leadership bringing sustainability to construction through things like waste management, site remediation, IAQ, ecology preservation, and reducing emissions during construction. The submitted project should have a product or practice that is high impact, innovative, and replicable.

SUSTAINABLE INTERIOR FIT-OUT

The interior of a building often uglies out or times out, in terms of tenant turn-over, before it wears out. This award recognizes exceptional approaches to reducing environmental impact from interior fitouts, while improving human health, that are both innovative and replicable. These may include strategies for adaptability, deconstruction, material reuse and more. The submittal could be a part of a project, a whole project, a product or even an initiative that is high impact, innovative, and replicable.

Award Entries:

Cost: $350 (student entries are free)
Deadline: October 6th, 2023

1) Purchase Award Entries through Eventbrite below (event sponsors will be provided promo codes)

2) Choose Award Category and Gather Project Info

3) Submit Project Info and Project PDF through Submission Form (use Eventbrite Order #) by 5pm, October 6th.

4) Purchase tickets to attend (event sponsors will be provided promo codes)

Display-only Submissions:

Cost: $175
Deadline: October 13th, 2023

1) Purchase Display-only Boards through Eventbrite below (event sponsors will be provided promo codes)

2) Submit Project PDF through Submission Form (use Eventbrite Order #) by 5pm, October 13th. (View guide)

3) Purchase tickets to attend (event sponsors will be provided promo codes)

Display-only submissions are eligible for the People’s Choice Award.

Included in the price, BE+ will print and mount all showboards. You save on labor, supplies, and the courier to get your board on site!

PURCHASE AWARD ENTRIES AND DISPLAY-ONLY SUBMISSIONS

Award Entries must be:

Purchased through Eventbrite by 5:00 PM October 6th, 2023
Submitted through our Project Submission Form by 5:00 PM October 6th, 2023
Student Project of the Year entries do not need to be registered through Eventbrite, just submitted directly to the Project Submission Form.