May 2016 Newsletter

Greetings! 

I hope you are able to make the best of the slow spring we're having here in New England. We generated a lot of energy at our Building Tech Forum on Earth Day Eve, 4/21. You can look at some photos here.

Special thanks to Boston Properties' Ben Myers for keynoting, and for Fraunhofer's Kurt Roth for his presentation on building tech. Wentworth Institute of Technology was a great Silver Sponsor and we had 15 displaying sponsors who wowed us with their building tech innovations. 

Building Tech helps our colleagues handle the challenge of high performance buildings. And our community is working hard to make more green buildings in Massachusetts. We have 9 new LEED certifications including a Platinum building for New Balance - almost 300,000sf in Allston. The Old Oak Dojo in Jamaica Plain is the first building in Boston to achieve Living Building Challenge certification. Congratulations to all these project teams!

Can we get your feedback? Please take a couple of minutes to check in with us through this 9-question survey. We really appreciate knowing what you care about. So we can keep putting together good stuff for you!

And we have more awesome events coming up in May now:

5/17/16 - in Boston - 8:30am - Living Building Challenge - come over and learn about Living Buildings!

5/31/16  - in Boston - 8:30am - WELL Building Standard -  Intro and Discussion  - open up to the WELL standard to improve human health in the built environment.

5/26/16 - in Billerica - 6:00pm - Building Tour of LEED Platinum EMD Serono HQ. Check it out!

The Chapter continues to monitor legislative activity related to our advocacy priorities around energy and building codes. Watch closely as the legislative session on Beacon Hill comes to a fever pitch before it ends this summer!

Woah, did I just mention summer? I just hope we have a real spring sometime soon!

Thank you for participating in our mission to transform the built environment for sustainability,
Grey, Celis, Anthony, Ryan and Wenbin
Our blog, our twitter feed and Facebook pages are full of helpful green building and Chapter-relevant information, as well as lots of great content for our members and sponsors! 
A USGBC MA Special: Introduction to the Living Building Challenge and Conference Update

On May 17th, we will be holding a special event focusing on familiarizing our network of professionals and enthusiasts with green buildings' most rigorous performance standard. 

The Living Building Challenge (LBC) is a revolutionary new green building certification program. It calls for the creation of building projects that operate as cleanly, beautifully and efficiently as nature's architecture.  At our event, participants will gain a basic understanding of the LBC- a philosophy, advocacy tool and certification program that addresses development at all scales. Participants will also learn to describe the key components of the program and discuss the rationale for restorative design principles.
WELL Certification: Intro Session & Discussion

The Chapter is excited to invite the thought leaders and practitioners from our region to join us for a concise introduction to the standard followed by 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. 
 
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 event will be held at 50 Milk Street on 5/31/16 from 8:30 - 10:30am. Click here to learn more about this event and register!
WELL AP Exam Prep  

The WELL Building Standard is commanding the attention of property owners throughout our market area. The Chapter invites any professional who is interested in taking the WELL AP exam to join us for an in-depth professional exam preparation course.


This event will be held at our HQ in Boston - 50 Milk Street - from 8:30 - 5pm on 6/16/16 


Click here to learn more about this event and register!
Building Tour: EMD Serono Research & Development Institute
May 26th, 6PM - 7PM

Come join your green building colleagues 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 attaied LEED Platinum certification in 2015. 

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!

Click here to learn more about this event and register!

Can we TOUR YOUR (green building) PROJECT?   

Have any ideas for buildings that would make for a great Chapter green building tour?  Has your firm been involved in any innovative or impressive projects recently?  Would your firm be interested in sponsoring and leading a building tour?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, fill out the form shown at right and let us know you're interested. 

We'd love to as much spotlight and exposure to as many of our members' and sponsors' great work as we can!

Getting to Zero: Frameworks & a Roadmap for portfolio-wide sustainability    


Come learn from Barbra Batshalom, longtime leader in the Chapter and current Board member, as she shares her wisdom about taking next steps to ensure our industry really makes a difference in achieving sustainability.

This is a must-attend program if you want your company to get to the next level of practice. 

Join us in downtown Boston on Tuesday morning, 5/26/16 - click here to register.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: Building Tech Forum - April 21st, 2016

On April 21st, from 5:30 to 8:30 PM, in conjunction with Boston Properties, 
The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC),Fraunhofer USA, Northeast Clean Energy Council (NECEC), and Greentown Labs, the world's largest tech incubator, we hosted our 2nd annual Building Tech Forum. This event brought together innovators, users and providers together who are delivering the next solutions to the challenges of building design and facility management.

The event was a huge success, with an attendee list in the hundreds and 25 sponsor organizations and displaying sponsors!  At this gathering of luminaries and professionals, we connected the innovation economy to the real estate world & championed the building tech component of clean tech. 

To check out a more complete recap, see Executive Director Grey Lee's post as well as a recap from emerging professional, USGBC MA graphic design intern, and Tufts freshman Wenbin Wang! Other entries are at our blog.
Presinars This Month:

(in-person webinar screenings)
 
Down the Road: LEED Exam Prep
June 15th, 8:30AM - 5PM

Want to learn more about the green building industry and make your knowledge and expertise official? Then come to our exam prep! 

The LEED Exam Prep Course is a comprehensive course which will prepare attendees for the Green Associate and other specialty exams. The day-long curriculum is designed to cover the segments of the Green Associate Exam and to lightly cover the AP specialty exams. If you have specific questions regarding a specialty exam, feel free to bring these questions to class and have the instructor(s) cover these identified areas. 

Click here to learn more about this event and register!
Spring Volunteer Clean-up Along the Charles


Our emerging professionals (EPMAs) had a great turnout at the 17th Annual Charles River Clean-Up on Saturday, 4/30/16.

We were blessed with the elusive Boston spring sun!

The Esplanade was packed full of strolling families, runners, cyclists and roller bladers all enjoying the fine weather.

Thank you to all the volunteers who came out to lend a hand! See you next year!
USGBC MA Members: We Want Your Feedback!

We have created a survey in order to get better feedback from our stakeholders.  

Would you take three minutes to answer these nine questions? Thank you very much. It will be fun!

Thank you to our generous Sponsoring Partners!
USGBC MA Chapter | usgbcma.org
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