| Upcoming Events with the Chapter! | |
More events to come - regularly updated!
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Help us accelerate change and further our mission to advocate, educate and promote sustainable development in Massachusetts.
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Organizations that share our goal of a more sustainable built environment should consider becoming a USGBC national member or partner of USGBC MA.
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Sponsoring Partnership
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Is your company interested in being a Sponsoring Partner with the USGBC Massachusetts Chapter?
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Sponsoring Partners gain access & exposure to our membership and subscriber base.
You can show your stakeholders that you are directly involved with the heart of green building advocacy and professional development in Massachusetts.
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| Chapter Committees |
Make a Difference.
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Education
Communications
Membership Advocacy
Emerging Professionals (EPMA)
Green Schools Residential Green Building
The Chapter has groups meeting throughout the Massachusetts:
Central MA Group (Worcester-based) Cape & Islands Group (Hyannis-based) Western MA Branch (Amherst-based) To find out more about the committees and how to get connected, go to our website or send an email to info@usgbcma.org
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Greetings!
I hope you are enjoying the arriving Spring!
We have a few events coming up, and I summarized them on a blog entry last Friday. I have started to create a weekly bulletin on our blog. You can subscribe by email or RSS to get those at your inbox. It could be a handy way to manage information from us.
We are also using LinkedIn more often, thanks to the leadership of the Communications Committee. We have over 1800 people on our USGBC MA Chapter group - please join us there to share.
A couple things I must highlight:
1. Anyone wanting to go for the LEED Green Associate and take the exam should attend our all-day prep class with Chapter Superstar Chris Liston on May 23rd. Tell your colleagues. This is great way to focus time on exam prep. The exam changes after June 15th, so do motivate now!
2. New event: May 27, location TBD in Boston, our Monthly Networking Night Returns! This time we'll hear from Perkins+Will and their new Transparency Tool - an interactive site to explore chemicals & materials and their environmental effects.
3. We have a new program to create mini-grants for participants in the 2014 Green Apple Day of Service. Sponsors can underwrite a project and help a school group implement a cool project like a raised bed garden or planting a wildlife habitant area. Send an email Steve Muzzy at smuzzy@usgbcma.org for more information.
4. Summer Internships: We are looking for a couple of bright, motivated, and creative students of green building to help us out on some projects this summer. Email me at greylee@usgbcma.org to connect me with a candidate.
Thank you very much, everyone, for your ongoing support. We have recently surpassed the 450-dues-paying-member mark and continue on our mission to make every building a green building!
Grey Lee
Executive Director
USGBC MA Chapter
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Earth Day Gala Recap
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On April 22nd the USGBC MA hosted the 2014 Earth Day Gala & Green Building Awards at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. The evening started with a cocktail hour out on the roof deck, and then dinner and a presentation of the Green Building Awards. We had a great turnout and saw a lot of new faces. A full description of the event with many photos is on our blog.
Congratulations to the winners of the Green Building Awards:
CBRE/NE won the Massachusetts Green Building of the Year award for One Beacon Street (Boston). The judges thought this was a great example of something we should see more of. They thought it was commendable to set out to do LEED for Existing Buildings on a 1970s building and achieve LEED Platinum. They were impressed with the LEED recertification in 2013.
 | | CBRE receiving award. |
Richard Burck Associates, Inc. won the USGBC MA Green Innovation award for Courtyard Landscapes at the Waltham Watch Factory Street. The judges stated: They have taken something as prosaic as roof drainage and reintegrated it into the site in a manner that is absolutely prevalent. The design is a perfect combination of innovation and experience.
 | | Tim Mackey from Richard Burck Associates receiving award. |
Bargmann Hendrie + Archetype, Inc. received an honorable mention for Factory 63 in Boston. The judges were very impressed with the level of energy performance in an historic building. They appreciated the densities the project achieved and how the smaller-sized "Innovation units", which traded personal space for shared occupant spaces, helped to control energy use.
 | | Presenter Tracey Beckstrom with Ben Wilson and Adrienne Cali from BH+A. |
Architectural Resources Cambridge received an honorable mention for The Colby College Biomass Cogeneration Plant. The judges were very impressed with the project's innovative use of biomass as an efficient fuel source. Colby College is the fourth college nationwide to achieve carbon neutrality, and the biomass plant is helping to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 70%.
 | | Tracey Beckstrom presents Philip Laird of ARC with honorable mention. |
A Special Thanks to the Event Sponsors of the 2014 USGBC MA Earth Day Gala: National Grid, Boston Properties, AHA Consulting Engineers, NStar, Structure Tone, SMMA, Columbia Construction, A Better City, DTZ, Chapman Construction, Robinson & Cole, Suffolk Construction, Entegra, WB Engineers, IRONWOOD Design, The Green Engineer, RS Means, as well as trophy sponsor Mark Richey, media sponsor NEREJ and venue sponsor The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
And thank you to all of our Award Entrants. NEREJ has put together a great summary of all of the projects that submitted. Take a look to see some amazing green buildings throughout Massachusetts.
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Green Building Awards Judges
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A special thank you to this year's judges.
Suzanne Abbott is the Business Development lead for the  Boston office of Vidaris, Inc., an envelope, energy, and sustainability consulting firm. In her role, she is responsible for the overall development of Vidaris' branding, business development and relationship management, as well as community outreach efforts in New England. She is a past Director at the U.S. Green Building Council's Massachusetts Chapter and a current member, sponsor, and volunteer. Suzanne is also a LEED Accredited Professional specializing in Building Design and Construction with a degree in Environmental Resource Economics from the University of New Hampshire. She frequently contributes to the New England Real Estate Journal. In her free time she volunteers on a local town building committee as well as follows her favorite youth lacrosse and hockey players.
Michael LeBlanc AIA. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Michael's  interests range from the logics of construction to sustainable practices to creating a modern vernacular architecture for New England. As a principal at Utile, Inc. in Boston, he has been in charge of numerous institutional, residential, and renovation projects and has been instrumental in pushing the firms sustainable and integrated design agendas. Projects include: the renovation of the façade for the Mattahunt Elementary School in the Mattapan neighborhood of Boston; the Residences at 22-26 West Broadway in South Boston; the E+ (energy positive) housing in Jamaica Plain; and the Dudley Branch Library Entry Imporvements. For Harvard University, Michael led the design of the W.E.B. DuBois Institute and Library for African and African American Research, Emerson Hall, and the Hiphop Archive. In addition to his professional practice, Michael has taught design studios as a Faculty Associate at Arizona State University and is currently a member of the adjunct faculty at Northeastern University's Department of Architecture.
A. Vernon Woodworth, FAIA, LEED AP, is a registered architect  and code consultant with extensive experience in design, construction, code enforcement, and sustainability issues. For over 10 years Vernon chaired the Boston Society of Architects' Codes Committee, seeking to harmonize the Massachusetts State Building Code with the national model codes. Vernon has also served as Chair of the AIA Codes Committee (2004) and was a member of the AIA's Sustainability Task Group in 2006. Vernon served on the Sustainable Building Technology Council (SBTC) during the development of the International green Construction Code (IgCC) and two subsequent code amendment hearing panels. Elected to serve as the Boston Society of Architects' Commissioner of Civic Engagement in 2011, Vernon is also co-Chair of the BSA Committee for the Advancement of Sustainability (CAS). Vernon is a member of the faculty at the Boston Architectural College where he teaches in the Architecture, Interiors, and Sustainable Design Institute programs. He is a co-founder of the AKF Code Group, working from their Boston offices.
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Our LinkedIn Community
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We have started a list of questions on LinkedIn to get to know the people in our community better. Last month we asked the question: What do you LOVE about your green job? To make it a little more interesting, we told everyone that if you entered you would have a chance at winning a $20 gift card. And the winner was...Adam Kreitman.
Adam Kreitman, Assistant Project Manager at Lee Kennedy Co., Inc. responded with: "I love knowing that I am not only literally building a better tomorrow but I am building a better today by promoting awareness and purchasing both recycled materials and supplies that help in the fight against deforestation."
This month's question is: How do you demonstrate sustainability outside of work?
Go to our LinkedIn page to read some of the responses or enter a response of your own.
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SGBC 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.