Being Fearless: Design Professionals to the Front Lines!

By Steven Burke, USGBC MA Treasurer

As part of the green building community in Massachusetts, I am happy to serve as the Co-Chair of the Boston Society of Architects Committee on the Environment (COTE). We held our regional leadership summit on June 1 & 2, 2016, at the BSA headquarters in Boston. Over 100 sustainability practitioners gathered to build their leadership capacity and connect to share their experiences in sustainable design and green building practice.

 

We have developed a retrospective video and white paper of the procedings available here.


Keynote speaker Paul Hawken challenged the community to embrace fearlessness.  The time for hoping and waiting for change is behind us, and we must take it upon ourselves as individuals and as a community of practitioners to follow through with bold thinking and bold actions.  As Paul demonstrated, and as we know, the solutions are here, today.  It is on us to see them into implementation.

 

One of the amazing things of having 100 sustainability practitioners come together from various sectors of the AEC industry and Owner / Developer spaces, is that for us, we have redefined what competition looks like.  We are all working towards the same goal of a net positive future.  We realize that to get there, we must disregard the traditional boundaries of competitiveness across companies or hierarchies of position and title, and enable each other to be the absolute best we can be.  For us, competition is directed inward, pushing ourselves to help drive our projects, our companies, our peers, and our communities to maximize our positive impact.

 

Thank you for joining us on this work. We look forward to the next COTE Leadership Summit in 2018, to be held in Burlington, Vermont.

Reminder – Annual General Meeting this Thursday!

By Alexander Landa


We're starting to get really excited – this Thursday is the USGBC MA Chapter Annual General Meeting!

This is a really special night for all of us. It's a gathering of a wide mix of individuals from our Chapter, from the active volunteers who show up at every event we hold, to the emerging professional who rarely gets a chance to break away from coursework in college. We will celebrate our victories in 2016, look forward to the upcoming year, elect our new Board members, and announce a new game that will put the spotlight on the individuals that made the biggest impact in Massachusetts.

Come on out to Payette on Thursday and join the fun!

Register here for the annual general meeting
Thursday, January 26th, 2017
5:30pm-8:00pm
Payette
290 Congress Street
Boston, MA, 02110

 

Join TechSandBox on 1/12 for a Panel on High Performing Green Buildings

By Alexander Landa


On January 12th, our friends over at TechSandBox will be holding a meeting with a panel session to discuss High Performing Green Buildings. On this Thursday evening gathering, learn from local industry leaders about new technology, how to use them properly, taking environmental/financial impacts and effects, and considering ROI.

The panel will feature Elijah Ercolino (Director of Building Automation Services at Boston University), Michael Fitzgerald (General Manager at MIT Endicott House Conference Center), and Chriss Schaffner (PE, LEED Fellow, Founder & President of The Green Engineer, Inc.) This discussion will be moderated by Brad Rolph. 

Register here!

Thursday, January 12th, 2017
5:30pm – 8:30pm
 

Jan 11 – Discuss Exponential Thinking in Creating Healthy Buildings with Eric Corey Freed

By Alexander Landa


Before the new year really picks up and you're still decompressing from a busy holiday season, enjoy a morning away from the office and meet Eric Corey Freed as he discusses the power of exponential thinking when designing healthy buildings.

Register here!

Wednesday, January 11th, 2017
8:30am-10:15am
50 Milk St., 18th Floor, Hemingway Room
Boston, MA, 02109

Full details:

The way buildings are built today has remained relatively unchanged for nearly two hundred years. The $9 trillion a year global construction industry is responsible for nearly 60% of climate change emissions, a third of landfill waste and a shocking array of negative health effects.

Even the most advanced construction projects in the world continue to use ancient techniques of modular assembly, relying on painstaking human effort to construct dead & ancient materials of wood, steel, and concrete. Construction is driven by standards and codes to ensure economy and safety, but in the process fail to protect people from larger risks.

In 2016, the XPRIZE Foundation set out to establish a “moonshot” for construction by creating the XPRIZE for Healthy Buildings. In this talk, you’ll learn how the team approached this unique opportunity to develop a way to (literally) grow buildings by fusing synthetic biology, genomics, parametric modeling and 3D printing to create a disruption and paradigm shift that could switch us from a PETRO-chemical world, to a BIO-chemical one.

Eric Corey Freed: 

Named as one of the Top 10 “Most Influential Green Architects” in the world, Eric is an architect, author, and speaker, as well as a frequent guest on CNN, Fox News, PBS and HGTV. He’s published 11 books, and has dedicated his career to helping people create sustainable and healthy buildings. In addition to being an award-winning architect, he advises manufacturers, developers, and Fortune 500 companies on how to improve the health, energy, and water impacts of their products, portfolio and systems.

Licensed Architect; LEED Fellow, US Green Building Council; Voted “Best Green Architect” by San Francisco Magazine

– Arc – is here: connecting the building performance

By Marisa Long, USGBC

Arc’s mission is to connect all actions through a single platform that delivers a higher quality of life

Washington, D.C. — (Dec. 1, 2016) — A new technology company, Arc Skoru Inc., officially launched today by Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI). This new venture will be the official host for Arc, a state-of-the-art digital platform available at arcskoru.com. Arc allows any project — whether a single building, a community or an entire city — to measure improvements and benchmark against itself and projects around it.

Scot Horst, who has overseen and led the development of LEED since 2005, has been appointed as the CEO of Arc.

“GBCI developed Arc as a way to provide new and more transparent ways to share information,” said Mahesh Ramanujam, president and CEO, U.S. Green Building Council and GBCI. “Scot Horst brings many years of leadership and expertise to Arc, and we celebrate him in his new role as the CEO. For the past 11 years, Scot has led the evolution of LEED through LEED 2009 and LEED v4. He was also the chief inventor of the LEED Dynamic Plaque, a system designed to tie ongoing building performance to initial certification.”

The goal of Arc is to support the missions of USGBC and GBCI. LEED-certified buildings can use Arc to improve and benchmark against other certified buildings around them. Existing buildings that have not certified can use Arc to make incremental sustainability improvements to eventually achieve LEED certification.

“Arc allows buildings, communities and cities to compare their performance against their peers and also connect to vetted green building strategies,” said Scot Horst, CEO, Arc. “Over the last two decades LEED certification has become a symbol of leadership, signifying that a project is saving energy, resources and water, and is healthier for occupants and the community. A LEED building has become the mark of a high quality building. Now through the Arc platform, all buildings can improve and work toward LEED certification.”

Today more than ever before, the green building movement relies on technology and data, and the future of green buildings is focused on performance. Arc represents a new era for green building; the platform takes LEED to the next level through the shared use of technology, feedback and recognition of excellence.

About the Arc platform:

  • Arc is a simple digital platform for all projects pursuing LEED certification and will eventually include other green building rating systems, standards protocols and guidelines.
  • Arc is inclusive of all projects, even those not pursuing certification, so that all buildings can measure performance and make incremental improvements.
  • Arc facilitates connections to people and projects globally. It encourages innovation, enabling informed decisions on building design, operations and maintenance.

Features of the current Arc platform include:

  • Existing buildings can use Arc to earn LEED Operations + Maintenance certification and precertification using the O+M performance path.
  • Projects that are currently pursuing and planning to register for the LEED for Existing Buildings standard path can also use Arc for performance data reporting.
  • Cities, communities and districts can use Arc to start tracking data and earn LEED pre-certification.
  • All registered and previously certified LEED projects have access to Arc to keep their LEED certification up to date. Project leads can also use Arc for performance data tracking and reporting as per the initial requirements in LEED for data sharing.
  • Projects previously using the LEED Dynamic Plaque will be included in Arc.

The O+M performance path was approved by the LEED Steering Committee in January 2016 and the LEED for Cities Pilot was approved by the LEED steering committee in October 2016. LEED for Cities will be submitted for USGBC member approval following input from pilot users.

Over time, Arc will continue to add rating systems into the platform. The platform provides an entry point for all buildings with the goal of eventually certifying them to LEED or to other GBCI rating systems such as GRESB, WELL, PEER, SITES, Parksmart, etc. As GBCI adds new rating systems, the introduction of Arc makes the certification process as streamlined as possible for the end user. Projects pursuing certification under more than one rating system will realize efficiencies in places where the rating systems share the same or similar requirements.

About Arc

Arc Skoru Inc. was created by GBCI to make USGBC, GBCI and their partners’ visions a reality by connecting people all over the world to actions and inspiring them to make the most informed decisions. This empowers people to connect and collaborate toward a collective higher quality of life. Arc Skoru is the go-to place to track all of the inspirations, connections and actions related to the sustainability of our built environment.

Arc Skoru uses its Arc platform to allow users to measure performance, make improvements and benchmark against other projects. Arc is a complement to LEED and other green building rating systems, standards, protocols and guidelines and allows buildings and spaces to compare performance metrics and connect those metrics to green building strategies. Arc enables incremental improvements and can put a project on track for LEED or other rating system certification. arcskoru.com

Supporting your future by supporting us

By Grey Lee, Executive Director


Green Building Advocates, 

I am stuffed from the recent holiday…but I am still hungry!

We have so much work to do. And now it's #GivingTuesday. Allow me to ask for your help, yet again.

I hope that you all had a great long weekend of giving thanks and connecting with loved ones. I can only imagine the diversity of discourse at your Thanksgiving tables. We are a creative bunch, and our families reflect the pluralism of the country. I love talking up green buildings with my less-green relatives. Our mission and programming is notably supported by all facets of our society. 

We connect voices and offer a market-smart solution which provides broad community benefits.

Green buildings mean more jobs, more skilled workers, less money out the door for operating expenses, and better investments. Green b uildings also mean: healthier buildings, decreased GHG emissions, more resilient designs and stronger, more inclusive cities. 

Our mission and the impact of our organization is so expansive and deep rooted that when examined, we should be at the top of any charitable giving list. I know it may sound presumptive, but green buildings really are “the answer” to a lot of things we are concerned about!

Our mission addresses the 40% of GHG emissions which come from buildings – an eminently practical solution to a global crisis. O ur mission promotes significantly healthier indoor environments where Americans spend 90% of their time – with the potential to decrease many health risks. 

Green building will account for $13.6 billion in contribution to GDP; 155,000 jobs; $9.12 billion in labor earnings; and $279 million in tax revenue by 2018. If you are involved with our organization and reading this, you are most likely part of these numbers. 

We often refer to green buildings as high performance buildings, designs consisting of many technological advances offering exceptional results. It's exciting to be a part of the future of real estate!


What we see green buildings being is the harmony of leadership at many different levels. Clients, who see the value of building efficient, healthy and socially equitable structures as a reflection of the ir corporate values; designers pushing the limit of traditional design norms and code as the base standard; manufacturers showing leadership by re-engineering their products to support values at all points in their life-cycle; and occupants for demanding a revolution in the building industry. 

The USGBC MA is the only organization which is working to connect all these voices, provide market solutions , and take significant steps towards responding to the honest concerns you may have voiced or heard voiced at the Thanksgiving table.

Can you help us take it to the next level? Can you help us with the massive task of transforming our built environment for net positive results?  
 

Our organization can only work at the pace of our funding, so we ask you now, in the spirit of Giving Tuesday, in the spirit of the holidays, in the spirit of not letting another lousy building go up ever again, please support our work.
 
With your support in the past year, we organized hundreds of hours of volunteer service. We educated and inspired thousands of event attendees with green building content. We raised the solar net metering caps, supported net-zero municipal policy and successfully passed legislation for Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) in our advocacy work. Massachusetts went from #5 to #3 in the union for LEED per square foot. We supported industry-transforming research at Harvard connecting green buildings to improved cognitive function, and we built coalitions of allies to expand our influence in real estate, academia, building operations, solar deployment and the general environmental advocacy community.

If this resonates with you, please donate.
 
We are asking for everyone to donate: the amount is up to you. The challenge of transforming the building sector is daunting, and we are needed now more than ever. We value your support and will continue to serve you through our mission. Thank you for being an engaged member of our community. 


Best wishes,

Grey

Annual General Meeting January 26th

By USGBC MA


Come on down!

Join us for our Annual Green Building mission “revival” as we celebrate our community's victories and share a war story or two from the front lines of the transformation of real estate.

We will be recognizing green building achievements, awarding our green volunteers for the year, speed networking and playing games based on the integrated design process.

Is it possible to have that much fun? YES!!!

And we will finalize the USGBC MA Board elections.

There will be a loud green building themed sound track.

Register here!

Thursday, January 26th
5:30PM – 8:00 PM
Payette
290 Congress Street
Boston, MA, 02110

Ding! Ding! Ding! LEED for Homes vs Passive House December 15th

By USGBC MA


So what's the diff?

Come to our Passive House and LEED for Homes educational session led by Mike Duclos, regional expert and market leader in Passive House design and Mike Schofield, LEED Faculty and LEED for Homes Expert. We will be comparing and contrasting the two systems and also looking at the market response to each. We will ask the attendees to drive the conversation and allow this expert panel to reflect against each system.

We will take a deep dive into the residential market, what drives change and where we are seeing the most effective strategies for adopting green building. We will also have an opportunity to identify the overlap of the two systems, their philosophies and intents.

For those sustainability experts in the room, we should also be able to outline the value of each system as it relates to Scope 1,2 and 3 GHG calculations and which standard might be more effective for different market segments.

SPEAKERS:


Michael Schofield – Senior Project Manager Michael Schofield currently oversees projects across New England, supervising LEED certification and ENERGY STAR® (Homes and High-Rise) ratings of Clearesult’s new construction projects. He directs project managers on building methods and strategies to make improvements cost effective, to create more durable buildings, and to transform the market. Schofield’s work is focused primarily on multifamily and affordable projects. He is certified as LEED faculty and a trainer for ENERGY STAR Homes Version 3.

From 2010 to the present, he is delivering trainings on the Energy Code and Smart Building Practices to code officials, builders, and design professionals across Massachusetts. Schofield holds a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts and an M.S. in Energy Analysis & Policy from the University of Wisconsin. He also holds a Massachusetts Construction Supervisor License, and is a Certified Building Commissioning Professional (CBCP).


Mike Duclos – A principal and founder of The DEAP Energy Group, LLC, a consultancy providing a wide variety of Deep Energy Retrofit, Zero Net Energy and Passive House related consulting services.

Mike is a HERS Rater with Mass. Residential New Construction Program, a Building Science Certified Infrared Thermographer, the PHIUS Certified Passive House Consultant responsible the design and certification of the second certified Passive House in Massachusetts, holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from UMass Lowell, and two patents. He is responsible for two NESEA Building Energy Masters Series Passive House online courses on, and currently has three Passive House certification projects in process.

Register here
Thursday, December 15th, 2016
8:30AM – 10:00AM
50 Milk St.
16th Floor, Edison Room
Boston, MA, 02109

Remarks on recent events

By Grey Lee, Executive Director

Dear Colleagues in Green Building,

The recent election has generated a lot of emotional energy throughout our communities. My heart is tight.

Many people are excited about change, a practical approach to government, and anticipated efficiencies in getting business done.

Many are frightened and mobilizing about statements coming from our president-elect related to racism, intolerance, antipathy to science, and general capriciousness. There are demonstrations, there is violence & aggression. There is a call to action.

I have been speaking with many of our members. The ABX conference has afforded some great interactions already. Some ask: how can we respond as a community? What is our role – how do we juggle our traditional focus on buildings with the wide range of associated concerns we have? 

Word from the new actors in Washington is that major legal frameworks and federal agency support structures which affect our industry will be diminished. At a meeting last night with colleagues, we lamented how so much progress on sustainability issues seems to be getting simply thrown away. It is frustrating, saddening and angering all at the same time.

Our work may seem more urgent than ever. Many of our peer organizations are rattled, are raging, are redoubling their efforts. 

Let us recall our center. Our core. Our knowing-ness of the long arc toward justice.

Let us use our fundamental beliefs in a better world as a bedrock to build upon. 

Let us use our wholehearted convictions to double down on our work.

We must hit the calculations harder and develop messages that are unassailable – not just aspirational and rhetorical, but defensible against short-term thinking. 

As an organization we are committed to change. Our parent organization arose as a means to disrupt the status quo. We have shifted the way architecture, engineering and construction is done. 

But as one of our Directors said: “What has really changed?  We’re already heading off a cliff.  Now we’re just driving a little faster!”

We have not turned the course of the vehicle, as it were, of our industry. The election may affect some GSA requirements for green buildings, but what else? 

We still have to pitch to clients the science of green buildings, the moral imperative of reduced GHGs and diminished toxicity, the health benefits of better buildings. As Boston's Chief of Environment & Energy, Austin Blackmon has commented: none of our daily work is significantly changed.

Let's take our core convictions, the strength of our arguments, and move forward to offer our communities the benefits of green buildings.

We aspire to drive sustainable and regenerative design, construction and operation of the built environment. We must work together to raise up our abilities and capacities to lead the industry. 

No one else will do this: connect the amazing promise of sustainability to the massively scalable solution that a transformed built environment can deliver. 

We are the solution we are seeking! 

Let us be heartened by our organizational vision:

We envision a thriving and diverse community, creating a built environment of net positive systems of water and energy, of financial and social equity, and of ecological and human health.

Let us respond as brightness to the malevolent and inconsiderate.

Let us respond with rectifying compassion to the shifting culture around us, the emboldened misguided bigots, and the science-averse.

Let us grow our roles and bring more people into our movement. Let us grow our connections with our colleagues across the acronyms and across the aisles. Let us step back and step up as needed, and respond invigorated!

I look forward to working with you in the coming weeks and months.

Thank you for being part of our community,

Grey

[NB the photo above is from Monday night's meeting with the Living Building Collaborative, which we host. The Living Future Challenge is an inspiring message about a better future that I think we can all believe in!]

The Green Donald

By Grey Lee, Executive Director

Donald Trump is a “climate denier” who, among other things, has indicated hostility to environmental and community-beneficial regulations and initiative of the federal government. This will complicate our work to advance sustainability and net positive systems in the built environment (our mission). We will need you help – and I look forward to you participating in our advocacy work, attending our events and service projects and joining us as a member. It will be a lot of work!

 

However, there is hope in the world of green building:


Trump's 1290 Avenue of the Americas is a LEED EB Silver certified building. Nice work TD Bank – a LEED CI Gold certification in the building there!

Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago is registered for LEED…we shall see where that goes.

 

Here's a somewhat right-wing yet fascinating take on where Trump may connect on the green building agenda. The thesis being these green building rating systems should be voluntary, but also that climate change deniers shouldn't be ridiculed. I think we all accept the scientific consensus, and if someone doesn't, it is reasonable to help them understand it. Truly, ridicule is not the best way to help someone come around. Trump has announced a $1 trillion effort to rebuild infrastructure and the built environment – this is a big opportunity for us to facilitate those investments being made for the best long-term value.

It is going to be an interesting ride.

 

You can read about his NYC real estate here (#13 is 1290 Avenue of the Americas, LEED EB Silver).

That is all I have to say right now. Be well out there! 

Grey

[Don't go to Daily Kos unless you want to be freaked out by other aspects of the President-elect.]