In between networking sessions, we saw Grey Lee, Yann Lamarche, Keith Kalinowski, and a couple of heartening testimonials by customers who are picking up the accent. We also brought back the showboards from our Green Building Showcase in September – lots of cool projects to share with the community encore!
We look forward to working with Quebec here in Boston more!
“It's going to be a wicked green conference, and we are psyched to collaborate with our friends at the Boston Society of Architects.” said Grey Lee, Executive Director of USGBC MA – the local Chapter of USGBC, based in Boston, “We are thrilled to maximize the potential of our community to manifest as a force for good: to go ALL IN for MORE GREEN BUILDINGS! It is awesome that we can come together in a great LEED Silver-certified building to connect across industry sectors to learn, network and advocate for a more sustainable and just world, through the transformation of the built environment for net positive results.”
To connect with our community, come to our events, join us as a member, or connect with us on 12/15 for our “Road to Greenbuild” volunteer recruitment event.
Read more from the press release by Informa:
Today, November 15, 2016, Informa Exhibitions, the US Green Building Council (USGBC), and the Boston Society of Architects/AIA (BSA) announced Greenbuild and ArchitectureBoston Expo (ABX) will be co-located for 2017. The events will take place the week of November 6-10 and both will be held at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (BCEC) in Boston, creating one of the largest events for the building community in North America.
“Greenbuild and ABX co-located back in 2008 in Boston, both shows happening at different venues but the same week, creating significant, lasting synergies between the two events as well as holding the record for the largest attended Greenbuild to date,” said Lindsay Roberts, group director, Informa Exhibitions. “This is an incredibly positive opportunity for us to bring two very significant events together again, this time in the same facility, and allowing us to better serve the building community by offering more educational, networking, and exhibition opportunities throughout the week.”
Greenbuild annually attracts more than 18,000 attendees and more than 500 exhibiting companies with a broad audience that spans the sustainable building community. ABX draws more than 8,000 attendees and more than 400 exhibiting companies.
“ABX is the largest annual building industry event in the Northeast and it thrives because of our robust cross-industry partnerships,” said Josiah Stevenson FAIA, 2017 BSA president. “By co-locating with Greenbuild, we can ensure an even greater depth and diversity of ideas and topics presented to the full spectrum of building industry professionals.”
Specific details are currently in development and will be released as they become available. Each show will contact its exhibitors in the coming weeks to begin discussions for formal plans for the 2017 exhibit hall, which will be one comprehensive space accessible to attendees of both events.
“Greenbuild 2017 will be aptly themed, “All In,” to encompass the breadth and diversity of the sustainability and green building movement. When we come together, we are one community of professionals, advocates, and practitioners, students and teachers, designers and builders, and everything in between,” said Kate Hurst, vice president, Community Advancement, Conferences & Events, USGBC. “Partnering with a respected regional event like ABX will provide our audience with more dynamic opportunities to engage, learn, and interact with other professionals and leaders in the industry.”
More information on Greenbuild can be found at greenbuildexpo.com. The Call for Proposals and Reviewers for Greenbuild 2017 is open through January 13, 2017for those interested in speaking and/or participating in the conference program at Greenbuild.
ABX 2016 runs November 15-17 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in Boston. More information about ABX can be found at abexpo.com. The 2017 Call for Proposals opens in December 2017.
Please read the full press release here (including information about each organization).
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.
Tonight is our Pre-Mixer with ILFI's CEO Amanda Sturgeon. We'll be discussing the Living Building Challenge, share stories, network, and eat & drink. Come to Cambridge from 530-730 tonight to join the fun! Registration.
Tuesday through Thursday is ABX proper, and we're sponsoring multiple sessions each day. You can learn about LEED, WELL, why building green makes you smarter, and more.
See all of our sponsored sessions here.
Learn more about the speakers and individual sessions by going through our ABX blogs.
Wednesday night we're holding a party with the Quebec government's office here in Boston. Learn how climate change causes architects and developers to think of new strategies to combat the natural world. Register and learn more.
This is going to be a really fun week, and we hope to see you here!
Jose Guillermo Cedeno Laurent Researcher Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Jennifer Taranto LEED AP ID+C, BD+C, WELL AP Director of Sustainability Structure Tone, Inc.
Augusta Williams Researcher Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
C21: How Green Building Make Your Clients Smarter: Green Buildings have measurable positive effects on brain function. The ability to provide data on how design impacts occupant productivity is key to moving client towards valuing and advocating for green building features. This presentation will share the key findings from the Harvard Cognitive Function study and will review outcomes of the industry transforming research where cognitive function scores were better in green building conditions compared to the conventional building conditions across multiple functional domains, including crisis response, strategy, and focused activity level. On average, cognitive scores were 101 percent higher in enhanced green building conditions. CO2, VOCs, and ventilation rate all had significant, independent impacts on cognitive function. Because this study was designed to reflect indoor environments encountered by large numbers of people every day, these findings have far ranging implications for worker productivity, student learning, and safety.
Thursday, November 17th, 2016
10:00AM – 11:30AM
Room 107A