By Alexander Landa
Last night at Nitcsh Engineering's Boston office, we held our Greenbuild 2017 Kickoff & Volunteer event, where we put together working groups for next year's massive conference. We decided we couldn't just email people to get things going, nor did we want a stuffy office meeting – that's not our style. We needed to start this off with a bang.
It was great to see our community coming together for this important effort.
The room was packed with close to 100 people – not just people coming to network, but eager long-time sustainability professionals, emerging professionals, students, new volunteers, and more. Anyone and everyone showed up, all to make Greenbuild 2017 the biggest one yet.
Chapter Vice Chair John Dalzell, sustainability lead for the Boston Planning & Development Agency, shared some of his reflections on Greenbuild. He is a past Director of the USGBC at the national level and has been to over a dozen Greenbuilds. He encouraged us to consider how Boston is a real locus of leadership in our industry. We are a shining star of a commmunity of green building professionals. Let us let Greenbuild raise our profile. Let's show off the good work that our people have done over the past decades. We have a lot to be proud of – let's let it shine.
We heard from Judy Nitsch, our Host Committee Co-Chair, how in 2008, Greenbuild in Boston had over 28,000 attendees, the most ever. She thanked us all for being a part of the effort. She was thrilled to see so many people coming from so many different firms all geared up to support our big intentions. We are a force to be reckoned with! She enthusiastically requested us to go for it and break that record: she wants to see 30,000 people here in November!
Volunteers split out into seven different teams after USGBC MA Executive Director Grey Lee, and committee leaders gave their opening remarks. Grey shared how this is an opportunity for us to forge ahead with our advocacy work to transform the industry – through both market-based and legislative initiatives. He urged us to recall our mission: to drive sustainable and regenerative design, construction, and operation of the built environment. No one else is working in a holistic way, across disciplines, so broadly. We are the organization that brings people together to make it happen: to transform the built environment.
The component committees of the overall Host Committee, working as teams, will be focusing on specific areas of support of the conference include:
1. Local Partners & Regional Outreach
2. Green Building Tours
3. Legacy Projects
4. Greening
5. Volunteer Staffing and Coordination
6. Ambassadors
7. Momentum
You can still get involved with Greenbuild! See our Host Committee page for more information.
It is going to be a Wicked Green convention – everyone is needed. Thank you for your support and engagement with this awesome project!
See more photos from the event here.
Please write to us at info@usgbcma.org if you want one of our T-Shirts – let's all show off our Boston pride!
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Sustainability Director, Steven Winter Associates
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
Principal & Director of Certifications and Consulting, Epsten Group, Inc.
Vice President of Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility, Jamestown
Director of Sustainability Programs, DASNY | LEED AP BD+C
Associate Principal, BuroHappold Engineering
Senior Vice President, Sustainability at Kilroy Realty Corporation
Co-Founder, Facilitator at The Laurentia Project | LEED AP BD+C, LFA
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
Workplace Strategy Expert and Researcher, EYP
Principal, Integrated Ecostrategy
Senior Vice President, International WELL Building Institute
Principal, Bruner/Cott
Architect, Associate, and Sustainability Design Leader, Stantec Architecture and Engineering
FAIA, LEED Fellow, Long Green Specs
Products & Materials Specialist, BuildingGreen
Director of Acquisitions and Development
Director of Restorative Enterprise, Interface
Sustainability Manager, Consigli Construction Company