Invite Your Friends: Building Tour + Networking Night for the Price of One!

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

Come to our joint building tour and networking night! Free for Members and $25 for Non-Members.

Thursday, July 21 from 5:30pm to 8:00pm
75 State Street, Boston

Register here or below.

During the tour, we’ll explore the building, including tenant spaces and the roof deck. After the event, we'll be discussing all things sustainable!

Schedule:

5:30 PM – Initial Gathering in Lobby
5:45 PM – Project Presentation
6:00 PM – Building Tour
7:30 PM – Chapter Networking

About the Venue:

75 State Street, Boston, MA (Brookfield Properties)
LEED O+M: Existing Buildings Gold Certification in 2009
LEED O+M: Existing Buildings Platinum Re-Certification in 2014

The building is also Energy Star Certified.

Transforming What it Means to be Green in Affordable Housing

By Mike Davis, Boston LISC

Deploying energy solutions so all Massachusetts residents benefit from a clean energy economy.

Earlier this spring, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation’s (LISC) Massachusetts Green Retrofit Initiative reached a milestone as 10 of our 20 multifamily affordable housing partners signed onto the Better Buildings Challenge (BBC). Started by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, the BBC provides ongoing technical expertise and support for building owners who commit to a 20% portfolio-wide energy reduction over 10 years. Combined, our 10 leaders own and operate over 22,000 units of housing across Massachusetts, and are transforming what it means to be green for the rest of the affordable housing sector.

But how did we get here? Thanks to the support of the Barr Foundation, more than six years ago LISC created the Green Retrofit Initiative, a program with a goal to accelerate Massachusetts’ multifamily affordable housing owners toward an efficient, clean-energy future. Through this initiative, LISC connected owners to energy efficiency and renewable energy funding options and provided them with technical expertise. Our building science partner, New Ecology, Inc., helped owners analyze their housing portfolios’ baseline energy use, and develop and implement strategic plans to accomplish their desired energy savings goals.

The results have been impressive. Through the Initiative, owners have successfully navigated Massachusetts’ complex utility programs to realize consistent and predictable energy efficiency improvements. From 2012 to 2015, participants experienced average savings of 29% for electric projects and 23% for gas projects. Overall, we have worked with 50 multifamily affordable housing owners across the state to benchmark 17,000 units, retrofit more than 5,000 units, and leverage more than $17 million in financing.

The experiences of participating building owners have also informed LISC’s work to inform smart policies for energy efficiency and renewable technologies for low- and moderate- income housing. We believe that the golden moment to achieve deeper energy efficiency savings and to incorporate long-lasting clean energy technologies is when an affordable housing project is slated for a substantial rehabilitation. This happens only every 15 to 20 years. So, the critical policy question is, how can we make sure it’s easier for affordable housing owners to pursue deeper energy efficiency savings and clean-energy technologies during this window of opportunity?

We believe the golden moment to achieve deeper energy efficiency savings is at the time of an affordable housing project’s substantial rehabilitation.

Our current work is dedicated to answering this question. We believe the first step is for owners to know exactly which efficiency and clean energy measures will work best for them and their specific projects. This requires comprehensive energy audits in the design process to illuminate what is possible. The second step is to collaborate with the state’s housing finance agencies, utilities, and other partners to make sure that, once owners know the best options for them, they will have a predictable source of funding to implement those deeper efficiency and clean energy measures.

LISC applauds all its Green Retrofit Initiative owners for their leadership and efforts in greening the affordable housing sector across the state. We look forward to continuing this work—supporting owners on the ground, while also ensuring that policy discussions are informed by their stories and experiences, so that all Massachusetts residents benefit from a clean energy economy.

In the photo above, Clifton Geissler, director of maintenance, Maloney Properties, Inc., and Dariela Maga, housing project manager, Allston Brighton Community Development Corporation, are pictured in their Allston–Brighton green retrofit project.

The Green Retrofit Initiative (GRI) is a program designed to help affordable housing owners navigate our state’s utility programs to achieve energy efficiency savings. In partnership with our building science expert,New Ecology, Inc., LISC Boston has worked with over 50 multifamily affordable housing owners statewide to benchmark a total of 17,000 units, retrofit more than 5,000 units, and leverage over $17 million. The Green Retrofit Initiative’s approach has demonstrated that energy and water retrofits can consistently result in 20 percent energy savings.

Read the original article here: https://www.barrfoundation.org/blog/transforming-what-it-means-to-be-gre…

Building Tour + Networking Night for the Price of One (or FREE)!

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

Our Outreach Committee has organized a joint building tour and networking night! Free for Members and $25 for Non-Members!

Thursday, July 21 from 5:30pm to 8:00pm
75 State Street, Boston

Register here or below!

During the tour, we’ll explore the building, including tenant spaces and the roof deck. After the event, we'll be discussing all things sustainable!

Schedule:

5:30 PM – Initial Gathering in Lobby
5:45 PM – Project Presentation
6:00 PM – Building Tour
7:30 PM – Chapter Networking

About the Venue:

75 State Street, Boston, MA (Brookfield Properties)
LEED O+M: Existing Buildings Gold Certification in 2009
LEED O+M: Existing Buildings Platinum Re-Certification in 2014

The building is also Energy Star Certified.

Newly-Certified LEED Buildings in MA! (Part 2)

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

We love hearing about all the Green Building that's going on! Here are some of the buildings that were LEED Certified in May. (If you missed it, here's Part 1)

Click here to learn more about LEED.
Click the certification levels to get more details.

Two Financial Center (LEED Gold)


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60 South Street, Boston
LEED-EB:OM v2009
Constructed April 8, 2015; Certified May 17, 2016
61/110 Points (Gold)
240,321 square feet

275 Wyman Street (LEED Gold)


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275 Wyman Street, Waltham
LEED-CS v2009
Constructed August 12, 2013; Certified May 19, 2016
64/110 Points (Gold)
316,684 square feet

Farm Life Center at Drumlin Farm (LEED Gold)


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208 South Great Road, Lincoln
LEED-NC 2.2
Constructed April 17, 2009; Certified May 20, 2016
40/69 Points (Gold)
1,488 square feet

Old Colony Public Housing Redevelopment (LEED Gold)


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25 James O'Neil Street, Boston
LEED-ND v2009 Stage 3
Constructed February 19, 2015; Certified May 26, 2016
60/110 Points (Gold)
7.89 square feet

UMass Lowell: University Crossing (LEED Silver)


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220 Pawtucket Street, Lowell
LEED-NC v2009
Constructed April 26, 2012; Certified May 4, 2016
50/110 Points (Silver)
227,691 square feet

Craftsman E North (LEED Silver)

77 Musante Drive, Northampton
LEED-HOMES v2008
Constructed October 11, 2013; Certified May 20, 2016
67/136 Points (Silver)
1,528 square feet

Craftsman E South (LEED Silver)

75 Musante Drive, Northampton
LEED-HOMES v2008
Constructed October 11, 2013; Certified May 20, 2016
67/136 Points (Silver)
1,668 square feet

Ayer Shirley Regional High School (LEED Silver)


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141 Washington Street, Ayer
LEED FOR SCHOOLS v2009
Constructed December 21, 2012; Certified May 20, 2016
55/110 Points (Silver)
144,072 square feet

From Newsweek: Your Office Air is Killing You

By Douglas Main

Green Buildings intersect with Human Health! Even high-profile news sources like Newsweek are picking up on this message.
If you want to learn about human health and building standards intersect, join us at Intro to WELL or our WELL Exam Prep Course.

An invisible killer had infiltrated Sto-Rox High School.

When workers installed a cell tower on top of the school outside Pittsburgh, no one realized the exhaust spewed by its diesel generator was being sucked into the building’s ventilation system and inhaled by everyone inside. This is stuff you really do not want in your teen’s homeroom: Diesel fumes contain particulate matter and chemicals like benzene and arsenic, which in the long term increase the risk of lung cancer and in the short term cause breathing problems and dull the mind. But lucky for the Sto-Rox students, they had Joe Krajcovic—and a Speck.

Krajcovic had installed this new device in his science classroom as a school project. The Speck measures airborne particulate pollution, which increases the risk for and exacerbates symptoms of respiratory problems like asthma. Krajcovic’s class was analyzing the data gathered by the sensor to learn about indoor air quality when they noticed spikes in particle levels every few hours. Those coincided with the generator’s daily schedule: Whenever it kicked on to power the tower’s battery, particulate pollution increased, says Speck developer Illah Nourbakhsh, a robotics researcher at nearby Carnegie Mellon University. After parsing this unnerving data, Krajcovic filed a grievance, and the tower was moved.

Your life depends on good air. Every year, air pollution causes the premature deaths of between 5.5 million and 7 million people, making it more deadly than HIV, traffic accidents and diabetes combined. The majority of these deaths—about 4 million—are caused by indoor air pollution, primarily in developing countries. But it takes a toll in developed countries as well. In Europe, for example, air pollution shortens the average life expectancy by nearly one year. Worldwide, more than 80 percent of people living in urban areas breathe air that exceeds pollution limits advised by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Particulate matter is the prime villain. The most lethal are the smallest particles (also known as PM2.5, for particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter, about one-third the diameter of a red blood cell), which are produced by combustion and household activities like cooking. These specks can get deep into the lungs, tarring the airways and weathering the heart, disrupting its ability to beat properly: Many studies have linked exposure to PM2.5 with heart attacks, cardiac arrhythmias, strokes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, worsened symptoms of asthma and an increased risk of respiratory illness. Worldwide, particulate matter contributes to about 800,000 premature deaths each year, according to the WHO, making it the 13th leading cause of death worldwide. Other pollutants also cause major problems, especially indoors—radon, a gas produced naturally in the Earth, is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the U.S., and additional gases like carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) cause myriad health effects.

Poisonous indoor air is almost completely ignored by the press, the public and those who bankroll scientific research—it gets about 100 times less research funding than outdoor air, even though the average American spends about 90 percent of the time inside. “Outdoor air is a political hot topic,” but it means less for public health than indoor air, says Jan Sundell, a researcher at the Technical University of Denmark. “You get sick due to indoor air. You die due to indoor air.”

While the federal government has a nationwide network of sensors perched atop towers that sniff for particulate matter, these cost around $100,000 each and aren’t exactly mobile—there’s simply no way the program could be expanded into schools, homes and offices, even if we could overcome all the red tape necessary for that to happen.

The Speck, however, costs $150 and is the size of an alarm clock. It’s just one example of a new generation of devices that measure air quality, many of which are priced at $200 or less and can quantify levels of particulate matter, VOCs, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and other gases. Although many of these devices aren’t yet 100 percent accurate (and certainly aren’t as precise as the fed’s monitors), they have already allowed people to improve the air they breathe in ways that would’ve been impossible even a few years back.

 

Original article: http://www.newsweek.com/2016/06/10/indoor-air-pollution-revolution-46553…

Building Tour? Networking Night? How About Both??

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

Our Outreach Committee has organized a joint building tour and networking night! Free for Members and $25 for Non-Members!

Thursday, July 21 from 5:30pm to 8:00pm
75 State Street, Boston

Register here or below!

During the tour, we’ll explore the building, including tenant spaces and the roof deck. After the event, we'll be discussing all things sustainable!

Schedule:

5:30 PM – Initial Gathering in Lobby
5:45 PM – Project Presentation
6:00 PM – Building Tour
7:30 PM – Chapter Networking

About the Venue:

75 State Street, Boston, MA (Brookfield Properties)
LEED O+M: Existing Buildings Gold Certification in 2009
LEED O+M: Existing Buildings Platinum Re-Certification in 2014

The building is also Energy Star Certified.

Newly-Certified LEED Buildings in MA! (Part 1)

By USGBCMA Communications, More Green Buildings!

We love hearing about all the Green Building that's going on! Here are some of the buildings that were LEED Certified in May. (More to come later this week in Part 2)

Click here to learn more about LEED.
Click the certification levels to get more details.

MA Maritime Academy Library Modernization (LEED Platinum)


image source
101 Academy Drive, Buzzards Bay
LEED-NC 2.2
Constructed February 2, 2009;  Certified May 16, 2016
53/69 Points (Platinum)
43,500 square feet

Dudley Municipal Office Facility (LEED Gold)


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2262 Washington Street, Boston
LEED-NC v2009
Constructed April 30, 2012;  Certified May 9, 2016
66/110 Points (Gold)
210,000 square feet

One Federal Street (LEED Gold)


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1 Federal Street, Boston
LEED-EB:OM v2009
Constructed March 3, 2015;  Certified May 24, 2016
62/110 Points (Gold)
1,119,373 square feet

Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (LEED Silver)


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415 Summer Street, Boston
LEED-EB:OM v2009
Constructed March 4, 2014;  Certified May 25, 2016
54/110 Points (Silver)
1,779,000 square feet

New Balance Headquarters Achieves LEED Platinum

By Molly Wilder


Massachusetts continues to excel in the green building industry!

Completed in September of last year, the new home of New Balance Headquarters (100 Guest St. in Allston-Brighton) recently achieved the honor of LEED Platinum.  Not only did New Balance obtain the necessary 80 points required for such status, but they also acquired all the additional regional priority and innovation points, as well as attained all possible credits within the Indoor Environmental Quality category, a feat met only by two other buildings in the world, in Italy and Thailand. See the full LEED scorecard here.

Our Sponsoring Partner, Elkus Manfredi Architects, led the design of the building. USGBCMA's Executive Director Grey Lee said, “We are proud of our sponsors as they continue to lead in the green building movement. Thank you for helping us to drive sustainable and regenerative design!”


NB Development Group
 is hoping to create a health and wellness neighborhood in the Boston Landing area, where they will continue these endeavors through constructing a new rink for the Bruins, a boutique hotel, retail and restaurant outlets, and a track and field complex, all following green building practices.  Jim Halliday, managing director of NB Development, drove this message home, in saying, “This designation is in keeping with not only the mission of New Balance, but also as the initial flagship project of Boston Landing, it highlights the spirit and energy we envision for this newly emerging district and ongoing commitment to our neighborhood.”

New Balance’s building secured LEED Platinum certification due to their excellence in the areas of energy efficient design, water use reduction, sustainable site selection and development, responsible materials selection and waste management, and enhanced indoor environmental quality.  Notable accomplishments of the headquarters are:

  • 26% annual energy cost savings when compared to a code-compliant building.
  • 35% reduction in water consumption of plumbing fixtures when compared to a code-compliant building.
  • 76% waste diversion during construction
  • 86% reduction in site runoff post-development when compared to pre-development.
  • 28% of material used in construction derived from recycled content.
  • 74% of material used in construction derived from a regional source.
  • 100% of wood used in construction was Forest Stewardship Council certified.
  • 30% higher ventilation rate when compared to a code-compliant building.


Upon receiving this prestige, the president and CEO Rob DeMartini said, “This certification exemplifies our strong commitment of responsible leadership to our company’s associates and consumers, our local community and the environment”.  With New Balance emerging as more than just a shoe company, becoming an emblem of cool, with famous athletes, musicians and other artists representing and wearing them, projects like their headquarters and the surrounding area will indelibly further LEED's and Green Buildings' importance and reality as a future for businesses, a new status quo.  The USGBC MA Chapter commends New Balance for their achievement. We look forward to seeing what they create next!

Images from BostInno

Don't Miss May's Building Tour at EMD Serono Research R&D Institute!

By Ryan Duffy, Communications Fellow


Come join your green building colleagues May 26th for a tour of the EMD Serono Research & Development Institute in Billerica in the Unity and Sagamore buildings. The former achieved LEED Gold certification in 2011, while the latter attained LEED Platinum certification in 2015. 

The Unity building is a state-of -the-art biology and chemistry research facility which houses 200 scientists and research labs. The Sagamore building is a former pilot scale Protein Production Laboratory which has been transformed into an open concept office space.

EMD Serono prides itself on environmental responsibility and cutting edge technology which are driving factors for the facility design. The presenters from EMD Serono include Tony Meenaghan, Senior Director Facilities EHS & Engineering, Jeff Hyman, Senior Manager, Environmental Health & Safety US, and Jack Conway, Project Manager Facilities.

JLL Construction will be sponsoring this event. JLL offers comprehensive services as a construction manager, general contractor and design/builder, completing over 300 diverse assignments annually from New England all the way to Philadelphia.

The tour will take place from 6:00-7:00pm. EMD will host us for a social event afterwards with drinks and appetizers from 7:00-8:00pm. For carpooling purposes, please include the town from which you will be coming to the tour. EMPA will help facilitate ride sharing for those who are interested.

Special thanks to JLL Construction Services for sponsoring this event!

This event will be May 26th from 6 PM to 7 PM at 45 Middlesex Turnpike, Billerica, MA. 

Read more and register here!
 

May 31st (Tuesday): Learn More about WELL

By Ryan Duffy


Join us Tuesday, May 31st, from 8:30-10:30am for the next installment of our Building Blueprint series.  This round we will introduce the groundbreaking new building standard WELL. We will follow the introductory session with a roundtable discussion. We are excited to welcome professionals from all sectors of the building industry–owners, engineers, builders and occupants interested in the new standard. 

 

Sign up here to join us for this class. Qualifies for GBCI credit.

 

We will be watching a segment from the USGBC's Education platform to bring all in the room up to speed on WELL and then having a moderated discussion on the future, impact and evolution of the standard.

This is part of our ongoing effort this year to learn more about green building's newest rigorous building standard. Previous events we've hosted about well featured conversation with owners' reps, architects, and contractors who are considering using the WELL building standard on an actual project – everyone benefited.

Come to this month's presentation to be a part of this exciting new development in the green building movement!

Below, find some information on the WELL content that will be covered: 

 

About


The Introduction to the WELL Building Standard presentation provides an overview of the WELL Building Standard ideology, structure, and certification process. The medical basis for the concept categories is introduced along with design and construction strategies to create healthy buildings. The time has come to elevate human health and comfort to the forefront of building practices and reinvent buildings that are not only better for the planet—but also for people. This presentation will introduce how to do this using the WELL Building Standard as the framework.

Objectives

  1. Articulate the financial, societal, and environmental benefits of WELL certification
  2. Identify the role of the International Well Building Institute and the WELL Building Standard
  3. Recognize the structure of the WELL Building Standard
  4. Explain the 7 concepts of the WELL Building standard, the strategies to achieve them, and the health impacts they address
  5. Summarize the certification process of the WELL Building Standard

The event will be at 50 Milk St, 18th Floor- “Hemingway” Room, Boston, MA 02109. Register here and find more about WELL here!