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November Newsletter  
In This Issue
2030 Palette
Greenbuild Recap
LEED Study Group
Green Schools Opportunities
2013 LEED Fellows
ABX Networking Event
EnerNOC Networking Night
Greenbuild Round-up

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Donations are tax deductible and a great way to support our green building education, advocacy and outreach programming efforts throughout the Commonwealth!

Our Chapter Sponsoring Partners

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AHA Consulting Engineers 

Vidaris 

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NStar

Bronze:
LDa Architects

Robinson & Cole

The Green Engineer, Inc.

Structure Tone

SMMA

New Buildings Institute

Sterritt Lumber

Re-Stream Inc.

SGH

Blu Homes
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November 2013

  

 

Thank you, USGBC Massachusetts: you are making a difference. Let us give thanks to all the mission-oriented contributors to the growing green building movement. In the words of Paul Hawken, "No organization has had a bigger impact on [improving] the environment" than the USGBC.  
Green Buildings are on the March! I have just returned from Greenbuild 2013 in Philadelphia and I am truly re-inspired. It was amazing to be with the eco-evangelical community who are at the same time crunching numbers to be sure these projects pencil out. I was impressed at the balance between optimism and hard-nosed realism. 

 

We heard from the movement's founders, USGBC CEO Rick Fedrizzi and David Gottfried. HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton shared their hard-earned wisdom. We heard from host Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and their ambition to be the "greenest city in America..."  We also heard from Bon Jovi, just to make sure we covered all the bases. The best part for me was connecting with other folks in the USGBC Chapters world. It was great to see and hear about all the other programs going on in cities across the country. I will be introducing many of these good ideas in the coming year.

 

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I want to offer my sincere gratitude to the many Chapter volunteers, committee leaders and Board members who continue, week after week, to take the time to make our programs function. Especially noteworthy are the folks who came to instruct at our LEED Study Group in Boston this fall. 

 

Please find us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter - it's a great way to hear about our events and programs, and to learn more and more about Green Buildings!

 

Grey Lee

Executive Director

USGBC MA Chapter

 

2030 Palette - A Sustainable Design Tool

     

Ryan Montoni, LEED AP

 

The 2030 Palette, introduced by
Photo credit: 2030palette.org
founder and CEO of Architecture 2030, Edward Mazria, at Greenbuild 2013, is a free interactive online platform that puts the principles and actions behind low-carbon and resilient built environments at the fingertips of architects, planners and designers worldwide. 

Architecture 2030 has developed this free online tool as a powerful catalyst for driving broad implementation of the 2030 Challenge and more - ensuring that our building and communities consume fewer fossil fuels, complement and preserve sensitive ecosystems, access site renewable energy, and successfully adapt to complete changes. 

Since planning and designing the built environment is primarily a visual activity, the 2030 Palette is structured as a visual network of interrelated elements called swatches. Swatches present highly complex and multi-dimensional information in a readily accessible format organized by category - Region, City/Town, District, Site and Building. Each swatch contains a written recommendation, rule-of-thumb, images and graphics representing the physical application of the recommendation, as well as more detailed information for its successful implementation. 

Registration is easy, and always free. To get started simply sign up at 2030palette.org.    Source: 2030palette.org

Greenbuild 2013 Recap

     

by Carrie Havey

 

Close to 25,000 people attended the 10th Annual Greenbuild this year in Philadelphia.  

In Hillary Clinton's keynote address she states: "This movement is also about the health and wellbeing of our citizens, especially our children. Removing toxic building materials, improving air quality, encouraging creative lifestyles and walkable neighborhoods is a much healthier way to live...the movement is truly all about building the kind of future we want to leave to the next generation."

Master Speakers this year included Ron Finley, who discussed how he has set out to change South Los Angeles by creating a vegetable garden movement within the city and educate people of all ages on healthy eating. Learn more here

Building Green came out with their Top-10 Products for 2013.  Their list includes Cyber Rain smart irrigation controllers, XS-P Series streetlight from Cree Lighting, and Atlas CMU block with CarbonCure.  Learn more here.

We also got our first look at the LEED v4 reference guides, which can now be purchased on USGBC's website (note, the LEED-ND v4 reference guide comes out in 2014).  

Next year Greenbuild will be in New Orleans. 



LEED Study Group
 
by Steve Muzzy

 

The Boston LEED Green Associate Study Group wrapped up on November 14th. Twenty-five people from diverse backgrounds, including students, city employees, professors, landscape design architects, and many more participated. Special thanks and recognition go to Chapter member AP's Sandy BrockTiffany King, Conor McGuire, and Erik Ruoff for facilitating sessions and providing their expertise and encouragement. Good luck to all the participants - you're ready - now go pass that exam!
  
Green Schools Opportunities

 

Check out the following Green Schools opportunities:

 

Nominations Due: November 29, 2013
  
Applications Due: January 5, 2014

 

Applications Due: February 14, 2014 
 
Congratulations to the New LEED Fellows!

 

We are proud to announce that two heroes of the USGBC MA Chapter have been honored as LEED Fellows in 2013. 

Congratulations to Leo Roy of VHB and John Dalzell of the BRA.


USGBC MA Chapter Co-hosts Meet Massachusetts Networking Event @ ABX

  

On November 20, 2013, the USGBC MA Chapter, in partnership with the Massachusetts Chapter ofthe American Planning Association, Boston Society of Architects, Boston Society of Landscape Architects, and the Massachusetts Association of Consulting Planners hosted the 5th annual "Meet Massachusetts" networking event. Neil Angus, Vice Chairman of the USGBC MA Chapter Board of Directors welcomed attendees and spoke briefly about the purpose of the event: to bring together planning, design and construction professionals. Green building is all about integrated design and no other event really brings together the multitude of disciplines that this event does. 

Over 50 planners, engineers, architects, landscape architects, interior designers, energy planners and contractors came together to talk about sustainable design and development, to share ideas and meet new people. This years' event was made possible through the generous support of the New England Chapter of the International Furnishings and Design Association and Keith LeBlanc Landscape Architecture. This was the second time the event was held in conjunction with the ABX Conference.

EnerNOC hosts Informative Networking Event

 

Networking Night in November was a great success. Over 75 people came out to EnerNOC's headquarters in the Seaport to hear from Brian Swett, Chief of Energy & Environment for the City of Boston, as he reviewed the new Building Energy Reporting & Disclosure (BERDO) ordinance.

Thank you to Brian and the team at EnerNOC for hosting us!


Greenbuild Round-up from the Web 


 

There were more than a few good notes about Greenbuild put together in the past few days:

 

USGBC CEO "The Ricker" Fedrizzi waxes poetic at his blog. Are we ready to step up to the challenge? Do we even have "within a generation" to change the built environment?

Over at GreenBiz, Elaine Hsieh put together a great overview of the three ways green buildings taking over. We're tuning into health, we're focused on results, and we're scaling massively.

Our good friend Barbra Batshalom referred us to a good entry from Bill Walsh at the Healthy Building Initiative - Thanks for that!


USGBC MA Participates in ASHRAE Tech Session
 
ASHRAE Boston again teamed with USGBC-MA and IBPSA Boston to present updates on ASHRAE 90.1 2010, IECC
2012, and LEED v4. A recap can be found in ASHRAE Boston's November Newsletter on page 7. 

Below you will find the presentation slides:

Upcoming Events and Meetings

 

December 2, 2013, 4:30 pm

Envelope Renovation and Energy Modeling: How Effective and How Reliable?

UMass Amherst

 

December 4, 6:15 pm 

Boston

 

December 9, 6:00 pm

Residential Green Building Committee meeting

Boston

 

December 12, 8:00 am

Green Schools Committee Conference Call

 

December 13, 12:00 pm 

December 17, 12:00 pm 

In-person webinar in Boston

 

December 18, 2013, 4:30 pm 

In-person webinar in Boston

 

See our website for a full list of upcoming events.

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The Residential Green Building Committee has also started their own LinkedIn discussion group.
  
 
The UChapter LogoSGBC Massachusetts Chapter is a non-profit organization serving the sustainable design community throughout the Commonwealth by providing a wide range of green building education, networking and advocacy services. 

For more information visit: www.usgbcma.org