By Alexander Landa
Thank you to the Living Building Collaborative, New England, and our colleagues who helped to organize the evening. We had some great locavore beers & ciders, huge app platters, and a ton of hot food from a local Indian restaurant. Thank you to Workbar Cambridge for hosting us in their main hall. People came from Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut and of course Washington!
Much of the night was filled with networking, sharing stories and strategies, and planning out the future of the USGBC MA Chapter for the coming months. Later on in the evening, the USGBC MA Chapter Board Chair, Shawn Hesse of emersion DESIGN, gave a thoughtful speech on how we can use recent events grow our mission and our industry further – rather than take a step back. The world needs green building more than ever. It's time for us to step up and step out even more as leaders!
After that, Jim Jones of Skanska took the mic to echo Shawn's statements on us needing to engage with the broader community of practitioners, especially the building operator crowd. He has been working on an intitiative linking us with YouthBuild to develop a new track for them – beyond the construction trades and into trainings for high-tech building operating systems.
Finally, Amanda Sturgeon of ILFI closed off the night, discussing how ILFI and the work we are doing in New England as the Living Building Collaborative, is challenging what it means to be working on sustainability in our built environment, and what Living Buildings can do to really propel the industry forward. Let's look forward to doing more with ILFI and the various Living Challenges and the component criteria systems organized as “petals.” Stay tuned for our “PetalPalooza” this summer!
Our fun for the year doesn't stop here! See our calendar for more events, and become more engaged by becoming a member of our Chapter.
See more pictures from the event here.
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PE | Associate, LeMessurier
Vice President, AEW’s Architecture & Engineering group
Interior Designer, Jacobs, Boston
Senior Vice President, Market Transformation and Development U.S. Green Building Council
AIA LEED AP BD+C | Senior Associate, Gensler Boston 
LEED Fellow, WELL AP | Founder and Principal, Ecoworks Studio
AIA, LEED AP BD+C, WELL AP
LEED AP BD+C | Environmental Sustainability Manager, Armstrong World Industries
Assistant Professor of Exposure Science | Director of the Healthy Buildings program
Managing Director, Harvard University Office for Sustainability
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Vice President of Sustainable Development, Shaw
Founder and President, Board of the Healthy Building Network
Building Technology Director, Kingspan North America
LEED® AP ID+C, BD+C, USGBC Faculty, WELL® AP, WELL Faculty and Fitwel Ambassador
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Senior Vice President, International WELL Building Institute
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