Greenbuild: Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Summit

By Grey Lee

Today at Greenbuild, USGBC hosted the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Summit for 2014.  Above is Anisa Baldwin Metzger, the first Green Schools Fellow from the USGBC in New Orleans, who provided guidance to the Recovery School District to implement green schools in the rebuilding effort after Katrina.  She provided an introduction to the dire situation in New Orleans, which while being dramatic, is not unheard of in our country.  She showed how green schools show kids and communities that they matter, that they are important and that they have the potential to do great things.

The summit was an amazing gathering of incredible speakers and advocates for sustainability for the places that matter – our neighborhoods, our workplaces, our schools and where we recreate & socialize.  Kimberly Lewis, USGBC SVP for Community Advancement, outlined the day and gave us a pep talk on how the Chapters can connect on this important dimension of our work – enabling greater sustainability in our communities.
 

 

The best speaker from my perspective was Dr. Antwi Akom of I-SEEED, who has created the Streetwize app to help people crowdsource data about the places they live and frequent.  It is like a yelp for neighborhood features.  His presentation was on the power of Place – how place determines a lot of your chances in life and how community-driven tech powers smart cities of the future.
 

One of his major points is that he can tell, due to statistics, what's going to happen to a kid born and living in his neighborhood in Oakland, California.  The zip code of a young person is the defining indicator of health, wealth and success in life – if you're from certain place, you have certain chances in life – likewise for people from privileged places. 

Not just chances for social mobility, but also for receiving the benefit of government services.  And not just typical things like policing and fire protection, but also investment in civic infrastructure for learning, parks & recreation, and for environmental health.  If you are in certain zip codes, you are missing out.  This is all related to race and ethnicity; thus, we are living in an eco-apartheid situation.

 

He described the cumulative causation of climate injustice and the way the design community creates for the 1% – but we need to create and design our communities for the 100%!  Climate destabilization is one crisis – but the other crisis is of the human imagination, public participation, diversity of democratization and the collapse of our civic infrastructure!

He says it best here at a Greenbuild video.
 

 
We also heard from New Orleans City Council LaToya Cantrell, who was one of the community leaders of the neighborhood Broadmoor, which was one of the sections of the city hit hardest by Katrina.  Months after the disaster in 2006, New Orleans planners developed a map of the city to indicate where some neighborhoods would not “come back” – and would be reborn as urban parks.  Well, the people of Broadmoor didn't quite jibe with that and built a program of outreach and engagement to repopulate, repurpose, and rebuild their community with an “educational axis” and improved amenities.  They are still working hard to recover, but their library and school are important community assets and they are an example of community organizing at its best.  LaToya was truly inspirational!

 

 

Emerging Professionals Tour of Hostelling International – Boston

By Jenna Dancewicz, EPMA & Suffolk Construction

By Jenna Dancewicz, EPMA & Suffolk Construction
 

Last evening, green building enthusiasts from all around attended the USGBC EPMA tour of Hostelling International (HI) Boston.  HI-Boston is the third largest hostel in the USA and is located in the historic Dill Building, which was originally built between 1886-1888.  The building is LEED-Silver certified and it is the City of Boston’s first accommodation provider to achieve LEED certification! You can read about the building's green features here.  HI-Boston has also won several green and sustainability awards, including the 2013 USGBC MA Green Innovation Award.

 

 
HI-Boston emphasizes sustainability and community within its core values.  One of the many ways to learn about the green features in the building is by scanning one of the bar codes in a room and information pops up on your phone with its sustainable features.  Very innovative!  All the wood tables are reclaimed wood from the demolition of the interior of the building.  The metal chairs in the cafeteria are made from 100% recycled soda cans.  HI-Boston also prides itself on a green housekeeping program by using environmentally-friendly products and encourages travel-goers to reuse their linens and towels for at least 7 days.  From the pool tables in the game rooms to an open cafeteria to community rooms, HI-Boston makes it easy for travelers from around the world to connect.
 
 

 

Thank you to Martine McDonagh and Paul Kuhne with HI-Boston for having us as well as Dee Spiro (Bergmeyer) and Katrina Walther (Suffolk Construction) for helping with the tour!
 
 

 

This is only a small amount of information about HI-Boston.  To learn more, please visit their website here!

The EPMA continued our tradition of heavy networking at Sweetwater's pub just down the block from HI-Boston and continued to build relationships across industry sectors. #moregreenbuildings!
 

Green Buildings Set the New Standard

By Jessica Roche, Massachusetts Biotechnology Council

by Jessica Roche, Massachusetts Biotechnology Council

Cambridge has joined Boston in enacting a building energy disclosure ordinance, under which owners of buildings more than 50,000 square feet will be required to report their energy use beginning in May 2015. 

Life sciences spaces have higher necessary energy use than typical residential or office buildings as they must accommodate complex air ventilation and water flow systems as well as meet stringent safety requirements. But lab developers and users have long worked
toward greater energy efficiency and impressive developments in lab design and operations have made new lab spaces in Massachusetts showcase projects for replication throughout the world. 
 

The Center for Life Science (above), an 18-floor research building in Boston, utilizes energy sub-metering that allows users to closely monitor use. It was no small effort; it required substantial investment in new systems, consensus protocols among users, and intensive data mapping. 

“With more transparency and accountability, tenants are dialing down on their equipment usage,” said Peter Damiano, Sr. Facility Manager of BioMed Realty Trust, the company that owns the Center for Life Science. The system has changed operating conventions,
reduced energy consumption, and become a roadmap for BioMed in improving efficiencies within its global building portfolio.

At MIT’s Koch Institute building in Cambridge that was completed in 2011, cutting-edge efficiency design was at the forefront. The building is oriented east to west to maximize heat and light from the sun. Light-shelves bounce sunlight to the ceiling, bringing ambient light deep into the building to reduce dependence on electric lighting. Its ventilation system uses a “cascading design” by which office cooling air is reused in lab hoods, air flow rates are at a reduced 80 feet per minute, and labs are aligned to reduce duct work. Electrical systems were “right-sized,” not overbuilt. 

The results are striking. Anticipated 14.6 watts per square foot usage are at 3.8 watts instead. Steam heat that was projected at 35,000 pounds per hour for the coldest days is at 20,000 pounds. The building reduces total energy use by more than 30 percent as
compared to a standard laboratory facility. Walt Henry, MIT’s Director of Engineering at the time, explained in an MIT News article, “To get a building that performs well requires only that you make intelligent choices.”
 

Intelligent choices like those made by Biogen Idec, which has already surpassed its goal of reducing its overall environmental footprint to 15 percent by 2015 even as it adds in facility square footage. Biogen Idec’s greenhouse gas intensity goal is to reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 80 percent by 2020. Its two new Cambridge buildings achieved LEED Gold and Platinum certifications from the U.S. Green Building Council. Biogen Idec’s
campus is powered by its cogeneration plant, which produces 75 percent of the campus’ electricity and 100 percent of its steam. Cogeneration has helped lower emissions by more than 150,000 metric tons of CO2e on the campus since 2006. 

These examples of recent lab developments provide models in energy efficiency that set the standard and point the way for energy sustainability.

[This article originally appeared in the summer edition of MassBio News]

Green Building Tour at UMass Amherst

By Grey Lee

On Wednesday June 25th, the USGBC MA West Branch, in coordination with the Western MA AIA, hosted a Green Building Tour of the UMass Amherst campus.

UMass has seen a major investment in new buildings in the past few years.

The tour focused on 3 facilities: 1) the new Integrated Learning Center 2) the scholars center residential complex and 3) the Hampshire Dining Commons.

Thank you to the UMass Amherst Campus Planning Department and members of the USGBC MA West Branch, especially Ludmilla Pavlova and Lorin Starr of the Western MA AIA for organizing this tour.

Below: the Integrated Learning Center – which will hold 20% of the campus' classes next year. It is on track to meet LEED NC Gold and correspond with the state's LEED Plus program.
 

 
Thank you to Jeff Quackenbush for leading the tour of the facility. Here is a link to read more about the ILC.
 

The ILC has a great green roof – very well established plantings already.
 

 

 

Next we went to the Commonwealth Honors College Residential Complex. This will be a landmark component of UMass Amherst welcoming ambitious students from the entire state university system.
 

 

The Honors Complex has numerous sustainability features and you can read more about it at Sustainable UMass.
 

We ended the tour with a dinner at the Hampshire Dining Commons which has recently been renovated to be a state-of-the-art facility linking local food production to the dining experience on campus. We heard a few brief presentations and enjoyed a great meal. This place takes the concept of a college cafeteria to a whole new level!
 

Thank you again to to the UMass Amherst Campus Planning Department, members of the USGBC MA West Branch, and Western MA AIA for organizing this tour!

Quinn Middle School – Green Building Tour

By Grey Lee

In the evening of May 29th at Hudson, Massachusetts, the USGBC MA Central Mass Committee convened an amazing tour of a recently finished super-green school. Quinn Middle School demonstrates the kind of care and concern for the “crystalized pedagogy” that all schools can be. At any given moment, students and others in the school are exposed to great lessons on how they relate to the greater world. The building went for the LEED innovation credit to provide educational signage throughout and the teachers and staff are committed to using the school's green features as an educational tool.

Over 40 people, many of them students, showed up for the evening tour. We went through two different parts of the building to explore features representing the different LEED credit categories.  One of the students was taking notes in order to write up an article for their school newspaper – we'll try to get that connected to this blog in the future.

It was a great to see the Central Mass Committee working together on this tour – I think we're all looking forward to the LEED Plaque ceremony sometime this fall for a mini-reunion.
 

 

 

Thank you to the project-related sponsors who put together and facilitated the tour; special thanks to David Harris from OMR Architects for leading the event!

The sponsors were:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Thank you to the sponsors:
 
 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 

BERDO Boost – Advocacy for More Green Buildings

By Grey Lee

[UPDATE: 5/15/14 – the BERDO 120-day extension amendment has passed. We received the following note from Chief Swett:

I just wanted to quickly thank you all for your efforts on this.  City Council unanimously approved Mayor Walsh's amendment to BERDO, and we are now back to work on implementation. This unanimous vote would not have been possible without your outreach and support.

 
Thanks,
Brian

…thank you to our volunteers and peer organization partners for supporting building energy reporting.]

Boston City Council held a hearing to continue to tweak the Building Energy Reporting & Disclosure Ordinance today [5/12/14]. You can read a number of pieces regarding the background of the ordinance at our Advocacy Resources page.

On April 30th, the Council voted to delay implementation of the ordinance, which was enacted in May 2013, for one year. A few entities were concerned that the reporting deadline, of 5/15/14, was coming up quickly and their constituents wouldn't be prepared. Greater Boston Real Estate Board suggested the delay and the council felt that it was prudent.

However, doing so would dramatically change the information gathering process for building energy use, and the major utilities had recently come on board with being able to provide building-by-building data for ordinance compliance. With a one-year delay, the City would lose out on information trendlines regarding greenhouse gas emissions that are needed for the triennial Climate Action Plan Update due later this year.

The City's Office of Environment & Energy worked with the Mayor to create a compromise to meet more stakeholders' needs. They introduced a 120-day delay amendment. USGBC MA is proud to support this amendment.
 

Today, the City Council held a hearing for testimony in support of the new amendment. I represented the Chapter along with Board Member David Straus, who was there on behalf of his constituents at A Better City. The Chapter's testimony can be read here. Tedd Saunders of the Saunders Hotel Group also testified very eloquently on the benefits of BERDO.

Councillor-at-Large Michael Flaherty chaired the meeting. Brian Swett and Carl Spector introduced the amendment and described how over 120 buildings have already reported as of this morning. Many are smaller owners and institutions like a catholic high school and a convent that have reported – not the ones you'd expect to have an elaborate energy reporting capacity. Swett described how the amendment includes a provision exempting owners from the original sanctions during their first year of reporting – so if for some reason the reporting is not achievable for a particular building, they will get a pass in the first year on any fines or energy audit requirements.

Chairman Flaherty noted that at the council meeting on 4/30 they were faced with an option of the impending deadline or a 1-year delay. He felt that at the time they had to vote for the delay, but was glad that they now have this 4-month compromise, which will make everyone happy. Councillor Tim McCarthy was also present. Both thanked the supporters of the amendment, the only side to testify, although GBREB was in attendance. I hope that means that their constituents can live with the change. As I testified, BERDO means energy reporting and the EPA has found that will lead to energy savings; who can't be happy with spending less on energy?

The USGBC MA will continue to follow the issue and work, as Darien Crimmin of Winn Development noted, to bring all parties together. Energy efficiency in buildings is good for owners, users, the city at large and of course, the environment. I look forward to working with the owners and operators of buildings in Boston (and beyond!) to create high-performance buildings so Boston can stay #1 in energy efficiency and be a leader on climate response & sustainability.

I will keep you posted!

 

The inside scoop about the Green Building Awards

By Grey Lee

Want to know more about the many entries in our Green Building Awards contest? Want to see more from the many excellent sponsors? You can read through the 20-page printed program of the Earth Day Gala using this link. It's like “Sports Illustrated” for green buildings…seriously!

Thank you to the New England Real Estate Journal for publishing this great summary of the event and highlighting all the contestants for the Green Building Awards!

Here is my intro article about the awards, with an added paragraph about the event in general:

US Green Building Council Massachusetts Chapter Celebrates Building Performance and Green Innovation with 7th Annual Green Building Awards

In honor of Earth Dayeach year, the USGBC MA Chapter community gathers to recognize superior achievement in the green building industry. We have two awards: the Green Building of the Year and the Green Innovation Award. The Chapter seeks to recognize and encourage higher-level performance in buildings. Thank you for your interest and your work for green buildings!

High-performance buildings are all around us because we see them every day. However, they don't always get the attention they deserve considering the effort that has gone into their creation and into their ongoing management. Our awards program is designed to highlight these achievements and provide recognition to the parties responsible for the green buildings in our communities which are making the world a better place.

The Green Building of the Year is a competition among buildings that are saving energy, conserving water, and improving the user experience. Achievement on these metrics also results in a building that costs less to operate and is more beneficial to occupants than conventional structures. By comparing buildings against each others' measured performance, we help push the entire industry towards improved performance and value.

Similarly, the Green Innovation Award acknowledges that significant creativity and expertise can go into a component of a building project, which can set the stage for future superlative performance.

Green buildings are a significant part of the Massachusetts “innovation economy.” Our members are working with new technologies, new design, construction and facility management techniques to configure buildings in better ways with improved results for all.

This year's entries include a wide variety of buildings designed, built and operated by Chapter members and sponsors. The industry of green buildings brings together teams from a wide variety of disciplines.

Our entries for Green Building of the Year include major downtown office towers, residential facilities and academic centers. Each has demonstrated incredible attention to detail on the part of the facility managers.

In Massachusetts, we have a tremendous amount of talent in the building industry as well as many individuals and firms committed to sustainability. Working on thousands of projects here and beyond, our community of green building professionals is pushing the envelope on achievement in the built environment.

Our Green Innovation Award helps to recognize and reinforce this collective effort. This year we highlight innovations in rainwater management and building project re-use. These are just a sampling of the way Massachusetts is a leading innovator in the green building and real estate arena.

The community that coalesces around the USGBC is expert, exacting and passionate. We share a common engagement on green building projects and a common vision of the future. Our mission is to promote the design, construction, and operation of sustainable buildings and communities in Massachusetts through education, mutual support, and advocacy; this helps with enabling an environmentally and socially responsible, healthy and prosperous environment that improves the quality of life.

As an organization, we welcome anyone interested in sharing this mission to join us and participate in our many programs and activities. We support professional development and general green building education.  Our organization advocates for state & local regulations and legislation which will support our green building industry.  At the end of the day, we convene the community to facilitate relationships and connections that can help solve the challenges we face in the building industry.

Thank you for being a part of our work, participating in our mission, and coming together for the Earth Day Gala to celebrate the best work of our peers through the Green Building Awards!

We held a great Earth Day Gala at the LEED Gold Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Congratulations to the winners of the Green Building Awards!  Green Building of the Year: One Beacon Street by CBRE-NE. Green Innovation: Waltham Watch Factory rainwater management by Richard Burck Associates. Thank you to all the entries and to all who attended. It was a fabulous gathering of our community!

See you at an upcoming event soon!

Green Building Awards are here!

By Grey Lee

With a little over two weeks until the Earth Day Gala, we are well on our way to a successful Green Building Awards contest for 2014. We do hope to see you there!

Brian Swett, Chief of Energy & Environment for the City of Boston, will offer a few remarks on how Boston and Massachusetts demonstrate leadership for green innovation in our industry.

This is an opportunity for you to revel with your peers over a great meal and open bar at the roof deck of the Federal Reserve in downtown Boston. The LEED EBOM Gold Fed Building, that is!

Mark Richey Woodworking has just delivered the awards for this year and they are beautiful, as always:
 

Now the big question is: who will win? We have a lot of contenders from all around the state, representing many types of buildings and excellent innovations for our green building industry.

You can read more about the Green Building of the Year entries here. Recent past year winners are also listed on our website.

You can read more about the Earth Day Gala on April 22nd here. Tickets are available on that link to our flyer or directly at our event registration page here.
 

The R3build Design Competition – from a Chapter Member's perspective

By Sebastian Downs, (EIT, LEED GA, Boston Green Schools Volunteer Management Coordinator)

My Experience with the R3build Design Competition
 
By Sebastian Downs, EIT, LEED GA, Boston Green Schools Volunteer Management Coordinator
 
The Competition
 

 
Last November, New York’s USGBC chapter Urban Green opened registration for their emerging professional design competition “R3build.” The design was for a new home on Breezy Point, NY, which was one of many communities devastated by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The objective of this competition was to design a home with a focus on resiliency, energy, environment, and economy in order to create an affordable, scalable, modular home that could be quickly built in coastal communities impacted by natural disasters; this home would be resilient enough to withstand extreme weather events. The design also had to meet all local codes and LEED v4 for Homes Gold standard.
 
When I decided to sign-up, I figured it would be a fun way to engage with some of my far-flung friends in architecture and engineering programs, get some good hands-on experience in working with a cross disciplinary team on a design project, and a chance to flex my newly accredited Green Associate skills. It proved to be all of those things and more.
 

 

The Design
 
 
 
Coordinating primarily via Google Drive and Hangout, we ended up with a design that was truly a melding of many individuals’ inputs. Our final design was inspired by the dynamic, yet resistant nature of the sand dune, which is simultaneously shaped by the ocean, and protects itself as well as the surrounding area from storm damage.
 
 
 
 
We used shipping containers as a primary building element since they are water and wind proof, highly durable, modular, and relatively inexpensive for the size and durability they provide. The roof system mimicked sand dunes in shapes and was lofted above the structural elements, which would reduce wind speeds, increase solar exposure for panels, and provide some cover for the upper deck level. The interior had an open layout that could be rearranged to suit the needs of the occupants, including a mobile kitchen island to distinguish the kitchen from living space. Even the landscaping resembled dunes with bio-swales infiltrating stormwater on site. The building systems provided resiliency through redundancy, such as integrating both solar hot water and an electric heating element, so if one system broke there would be a back up. We anticipated the design achieving 71 points on the LEED v4 for Homes, including all the potential regional priority credits.
 
The Results
 
On March 12th, two of my teammates and I attended the Urban Green spring reception as one of five finalist teams in the emerging professional design competition (working from Boston, upstate New York, and Rome, not every team member could make it in to NYC on a Wednesday night). As it turns out, we were the only finalist team with no professional architects or engineers. Although we did not rank in the top three, the design was noted by the judges for being the only in the competition to use shipping container architecture and bio-mimicry.
 
The winning design, a self-titled “Bayside Bunker,” came from an architecture duo out of Queensland, Australia.
 
You can learn more about the competition, and the winning design at http://www.urbangreencouncil.org/UGCInteraction?key=VuPr1ULj4D3YuIxaVgYqfA_3D_3D
 
 
 

Deep Energy Retrofits with Brian Butler and the Residential Green Building Committee

By Rose Brakesman

By Rose Brakesman
 
What better time to talk about Mass Save Deep Energy Retrofit than on a cold February evening with the Residential Green Building Committee. Brian Butler walked us through how Boston Green Building does a Deep Energy Retrofit (DER).
Some DER “rules of thumb”:
1.5 air changes per hour (ACH)
R5 windows
R10 basement slab
R20 foundation walls
R40 walls above foundation
R60 in the roof/attic
DER is documented and looks for a reduction in energy use between 50-90%, so the process starts with determining a baseline on energy use and a blower door test to document the number of air changes per hour (ACH) in an existing older house. Many of these houses are what Brian calls “gushers”, which are houses that leak air and energy at an alarming rate. One house that Boston Green Building is tackling for DER just went through a blower test and had 9 ACH. (DER is 1.5 ACH).  9 ACH is equivalent to leaving a two foot by two foot hole in the exterior wall year round! 
Jokes abounded… “Did you leave the bathroom window open during the test?” Nope, double checked. Many older houses are just that leaky from gaps around the windows and doors, leaks where the basement meets the frame, and so on. This is the kind of house that can most benefit from a Deep Energy Retrofit and there are many like this. 
Additionally, most of the current housing stock in Boston will still be here in 2050, so building better new homes won’t help nearly enough. Happily enough for Brian and his cohorts, it doesn’t look like they’ll run out of work anytime soon! Even nicer is the DER “guidebook”- the Mass Save Deep Energy Retrofit Builder Guide; this is more helpful than a long process of repeated submittal, revision, and re-submittal so that the guidebook streamlines the process. Hopefully more builders will jump on board and provide some DER competition!
 
After addressing the building envelope, there are typically additional complications and hazards that go along with “tightening things up.” One such issue is indoor air quality. In the original leaky building there’s a “stack effect” where supposedly “fresh” air starts in the basement (along with mold and mildew), then it moves upward through the house via temperature stratification. Once the building envelope is at 1.5 ACH or less, then there is no stack effect. Facilitated ventilation is required and that is a very good thing. Now stale air can be taken from one area of the house that will be moved through heat recovery ventilation (HRV). A high efficiency HRV unit is the best way to go and can have an efficiency of 90%, which means stale air at 72o is exhausted and fresh air is drawn in at around 65o.

In the end, Brian and Boston Green Building are “dragging poorly performing homes kicking and screaming into the 21st century and hopefully addressing all the issues to keep from killing the occupants.” Originally, only one utility company participated in Mass Save DER, but now there are six participating utilities. Conspicuously absent from the list is NStar….but there is some carbonated bottle shaking going on to hopefully bring them back on board.
 

See you at the next Residential Green Building Committee meeting on Monday, March 10th at 5:45pm at 281 Summer St, Boston!