Our calendar continues to provide ample opportunities to connect with your green building peers in Massachusetts. It is always great to get together and learn. Thank you to the many who have attended our programs recently.

Do please consider organizing a team for the Green Apple Day of Service and if you can, join us at Boston GreenFest this weekend!

I hope you are blocking your calendar off for the 2015 Green Building Showcase! October 1 is a Thursday night - from 6:30-8:30. We are excited to host the event at the recently-renovated to LEED Gold Harvard Art Museums in Cambridge. It will be an amazing event - you can sign up to attend already!

Stay tuned to our advocacy work as we gear up for PACE financing and the next move in Net Metering Reform. The legislative session will be back in action before we can blink.

But enjoy these fine days of August while they last! Send me a picture of a green building you find in your travels.

Take care,

Grey

Cognitive Architecture for Green Breakfast Club

When: Thursday, August 20, 8:30 - 9:30 AM

Where: 50 Milk Street, 17th Floor, "Hercules" Room, Boston, 02109

Join us this Thursday morning for treats & a great talk! The focus of this upcoming Green Breakfast is on "Cognitive Architecture" and the human subconscious response to the built environment.

New findings in the life sciences are reframing our understanding of how we function and came to be. They also offer insight into our behavior in the built environment, from why we head down some streets and avoid others to how it is older cities maintain their charm. The slideshow will look at our innate responses to edges, patterns, and shapes and discusses how all these tendencies came to be for one very good reason: they helped us survive. The most successful green buildings in the 21st century will use this new science to good advantage.

This Green Breakfast will count as 1 CE for LEED credential holders.

We can't wait to see you there! Register now!

EPMA Monthly Meeting
When: TONIGHT - Monday, August 17, 6:00 - 7:30 PM Where: 50 Milk St, 15th Floor - "Aristotle" Room, Boston 02109 Emerging Professionals Unite! This is EPMA's awesome monthly gathering to plan our events, programs and advocacy for green buildings! Learn more here.

Don't Get Soaked: Smart Strategies to Manage Rainwater (Webinar)

We have two opportunities for one great webinar:

When: Tuesday, August 18, 12:00 - 1:00 PM

Where: 1000 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138

When: Wednesday, August 19, 4:30 - 6:00 PM

Where: 50 Milk Street, 17th Floor - "Hercules" Room, Boston 02109

We're pleased to be hosting this great webinar twice-if you can't make the noon in Cambridge, no worries! Catch it at our offices at 4:30 the next day!

Thank you to SMMA our sponsor for hosting Tuesday's program!

Through a series of interviews and case studies, our team explores the process to achieve the Rainwater Management credit utilizing green infrastructure and low� impact development.

Boston GreenFest

When: Friday-Sunday, August 21-23, starting from 12pm

Where: Boston City Hall Plaza

The region's largest multicultural and environmental music festival!

The USGBC MA Chapter will be at this year's Boston GreenFest with our Outreach Committee volunteers staffing a booth to connect with "green" people who need to know that green buildings are the answer!

Get in touch with us if you're interested in volunteering, or just want to drop by!

LEED v4: What You Need to Know About Commissioning (Webinar)

When: Tuesday, August 25, 12:00 - 1:00 PM

Where: 50 Milk Street, 14th Floor- "Dali" Room, Boston 02109

Come join us in our offices next Tuesday for the last webinar of the month and gain an overview of the new rating system from a commissioning agent's perspective. Building commissioning is still an essential part of achieving optimal building performance and meeting LEED certification goals.

Please register here if you plan on attending!

Get Charged 2015 EV Summer Tour

When: Thursday, August 27, 11:45 AM - 1:15 PM

Where: 1 Beacon Street, Boston 02108

Join SemaConnect, CBRE, and USGBC MA on Get Charged 2015 Summer Tour's Boston stop, an interactive Electric Vehicle Lunch & Learn event on August 27th!

The event is FREE for all attendees within the commercial industry who are interested in building out their green programs! It will specifically touch on best practices for Electric Vehicle charging services, you'll earn LEED continuing education credit, and lunch is included.

To spark your interest even more... Electric Vehicles will be on site so you can experience the life of an EV driver first hand!

Join us on August 27th to learn the tips and tricks for taking advantage of EV charging stations, the newest, most visible green amenity for commercial properties!

Quarterly Combined Committees Gathering

When: Tuesday, September 8, 5:30 - 7:30 PM

Where: 50 Milk St, 15th Fl. "Aristotle" Room, Boston MA 02109

At the last Quarterly, we tuned in to the Outreach Committee

September 8th, right after Labor Day, we invite you to come roaring back into the scene! Join us to connect the different committee and project groups across the USGBC MA Chapter for our Quarterly Combined Committees Gathering.

This is a great time to share with colleagues what you are working on and to meet people from other aspects of the USGBC MA. See you there!

Green Building Bike Tour

When: NEW DATE: Saturday, September 12, 10am - 2pm

Where: Inman Square Hubway Station

Come pedal with us for a Green Building Bike Tour, coordinated by the Emerging Professionals Committee! We'll cruise all around Boston, Cambridge and Somerville, with stops & tours at some of the city's best green buildings and landmarks!

You can read about last year's bike tour here.

USGBC MA Service to our Communities

When: Projects begin on Saturday, September 26th

Where: At a school or educational facility in Massachusetts near you!

Green Apple Day of Service

During the USGBC's largest service event of the year, we welcome sponsors and participants interested in helping schools move forward on greening their buildings. Get involved as a participant, or as a sponsor, we welcome your assistance!

For sponsoring this year's program, we offer special thanks to

National Grid
Eversource
HMFH
TOTO
Triumph Modular
Re-Stream

THE GREEN BUILDING SHOWCASE!

When: Thursday, October 1, 2015

Where: The Harvard Art Museums at 23 Quincy St, Cambridge MA 02139

Green Building Showcase 2015 - Get ready to show off your stuff - and review what progress we have made as an industry.

Join us at the 2015 Green Building Showcase, the Chapter's premier annual event to highlight and celebrate exceptional green buildings built by our community of practitioners in recent months!

Take a look at some of the pictures from the 2014 episode.

Green Associate Exam Preparation Course

When: Wednesday, October 14, 8:30 AM - 6:30 PM

Where: 50 Milk St. 16th Floor, "Edison" Room, Boston, MA 02109

Designed to review the majority of the information which will be covered in the LEED Green Associate Exam, this is a fast-paced class for real estate professionals who have little previous knowledge of the LEED rating system, green building operations and green building construction.

Come join us for this session! We have only had positive feedback and success stories from previous classes - and look out for another class come December!

Interested? Register here or email Celis for more information. Groups welcome!

The USGBC 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: usgbcma.org