USGBC MA Hosts Senator Eldridge for Discussion on Net Zero Energy Buildings

by Michael Sigmon, Sterritt Lumber, FSC Sales Broker

            On November 10^th, the RGBC had the pleasure of hosting Senator Jamie Eldridge (D – Acton) for our monthly presentation. This highly anticipated event did not disappoint. In a true roundtable discussion fashion, Senator Eldridge gave us insight into what the legislature is doing for green building in the residential community.

            Senator Eldridge’s commitments to the environment, and green building in particular were made very clear from the start. As Vice Chair of the Senate Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change, he seeks “to investigate the issues involving global warming and climate change, including but not limited to carbon emissions, greenhouse gas emissions and renewable energies.” Senator Eldridge also serves on the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy, where he focuses on renewable energy. It is very clear he is committed to “greening” the Metro West!

            Some of Senator Eldridge’s accomplishments include filing bill S.1587, to  promote zero net-energy buildings in the Commonwealth, by requiring a 30% more energy efficiency standard than the international code. Also, Eldridge was instrumental in passing the 2010 PACE legislation.

            While Senator Eldridge actively advocates for investing more in green energy, he acknowledged we can still do much more. Education for the general public can always be improved, and he seeks to limit confusion on energy codes for the masses. Other topics discussed included deep energy retrofit programs, tax incentives for green building, and progressive residential champions, such as Carter Scott’s initiatives. We also learned that when a bill is “put to study,” it is a nice way of saying it is “put to pasture!”

            Most importantly, the group discussed what we can do as citizens and colleagues to help advocate for bills beneficial to green building. Senator Eldridge was receptive to scheduling a visit to the statehouse where experts could speak to the bills and issues, and recognized it is these individuals that can make a huge difference in educating the masses. To stay up to date with Senator Eldridge’s initiatives visit http://www.senatoreldridge.com/issues/environment.

Thank you Senator Eldridge!

SUCCESS: Boston Building Energy and Disclosure Ordinance Passes, Becomes Law

We are proud to announce that the USGBC MA Chapter was part of a broad coalition that successfully advocated and ensured the passage of the ordinance on May 8th, 2013. You can read more about it here. Congratulations are due to Brian Swett and the Environmental & Energy Services department in Boston for making it all come together.

Mayor Menino's Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance was approved by the Boston City Council in a 9-4 vote. The Ordinance requires large commercial and residential buildings to report and disclose their energy and water usage, and greenhouse gas emissions in order to encourage investment in energy efficiency and further the City's climate action goals. 

The resource consumption database for buildings will help the City craft more programs to support better energy efficiency. The Chapter will be sure to participate in rolling out education and outreach programs to help more owners and users of buildings embrace carbon mitigation and other environmentally responsible strategies.

The next big question is: could this reporting process and database become a State-wide phenomenon?

Facts About the Proposed Boston Building Energy and Disclosure Ordinance

As a component of the City of Boston's Climate Action Plan

Photo credit: wikipedia.org

to meet the Mayor's greenhouse gas reduction goal of 25 percent by 2020, Mayor Thomas M. Menino filed the Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance with the Boston City Council. This ordinance would require all large and medium sized buildings to report their annual energy and water use to the City of Boston.

Here are some facts about the proposed ordinance:
1. All large and medium buildings or groups of buildings would be required to report annual energy use, ENERGY STAR rating (if applicable), water use, and greenhouse gas emissions through ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager or an equivalent mechanism.
2. The requirement would be phased in over 5 years and would ultimately apply to non-residential buildings 25,000 square feet or greater and residential buildings with 25 or more units.
3. Buildings with ENERGY STAR ratings below the 75th percentile and not meeting other exemption criteria (to be developed by the city, i.e. high performing buildings that do not qualify for any ENERGY STAR rating or that show continuous improvement) would be required to conduct energy audits or other evaluations every 5 years to identify opportunities for energy efficiency investment. Building owners would not be required to act on the audit.  

(Excerpted from USGBC MA's April 2013 Newsletter)

Welcome Stephen Muzzy to the USGBC MA Chapter as our new "Green Schools Program Manager"

As recently announced at our Earth Day Celebration, our advocacy work for green buildings has recently become amplified. The Chapter thanks the USGBC for supporting the position with a strategic investment grant. Stephen Muzzy will start in early May, focusing on three things:

• Facilitating a Green School Buildings coalition 
• Implementing LEED Study Groups 
• Creating a LEED Project Assistance Matching Service 

Steve comes to the Chapter having served for 5 years as a program manger at Second Nature, a campus sustainability consulting organization. He most recently has managed the American Colleges & Universities Presidents' Climate Challenge program, helping campuses implement carbon mitigation strategies. He brings green campus experience, program design & delivery skills, and an extensive network at higher ed institutions in Massachusetts.

You are welcome to attend a Green Schools Committee meeting on 5/9/13 where we will be welcoming Steve and making introductions. We are looking forward to promoting green buildings on campuses throughout Massachusetts in the coming months and years!

(Excerpted from USGBC MA's April 2013 Newsletter)

Energy Disclosure Laws Gaining National Popularity

by Chris Liston

As the debate continues over Boston’s proposed energy disclosure ordinance it has understandably shifted attention to those cities and states that have already enacted similar legislation.

To date, energy disclosure laws have been approved by lawmakers in Austin, California, the District of Columbia, Minneapolis, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington.  Lawmakers in Boston, Boulder, Cambridge, Chicago and Portland have expressed interest in energy disclosure legislation but have not yet formalized their programs.

Three commonalities in these laws are 1) the use of ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager as a benchmarking tool 2) a focus on large buildings and 3) mandatory reporting with fines and/or penalties for those buildings that fail to disclose their data.  The definition of a “large” building differs by jurisdiction, but generally speaking the laws are focused on buildings with a minimum size of 10,000 SF to 50,000 SF.

Like the proposed Boston ordinance, most local energy disclosure laws have been phased in over a period of time.  The District of Columbia’s program was introduced in 2008, but per the District’s timeline the only buildings to have their data disclosed have thus far been District-owned buildings.  New York City’s program was introduced in 2009; energy data for NYC-owned buildings was first published in 2011 while energy data for privately-owned NYC buildings was first published in 2012.  Philadelphia’s law was just passed in 2012 and as such no energy data has yet been submitted or published.

The 2011 New York City Benchmarking Report, published in August 2012, was a groundbreaking study of private sector energy use spanning 1.7 billion square feet of space. The report found that energy use varies widely within the same category of building type – for example the least efficient NYC hotels use 3.2x as much energy as the most efficient NYC hotels, the least efficient NYC office buildings use 4.5x as much energy as the most efficient NYC office buildings, and the least efficient NYC retail buildings use 7.9x as much energy as the most efficient NYC retail buildings.  In addition to the PDF report NYC also released an Excel spreadsheet containing the name, address, energy utilization index, carbon emissions and ENERGY STAR rating for more than 4,000 privately-owned buildings.

You can download the 2011 New York City Benchmarking Report athttp://www.nyc.gov/html/gbee/downloads/pdf/nyc_ll84_benchmarking_report_2012.pdf.

You can download CBRE’s US guide to energy efficiency disclosure requirements at 

http://marketing.cbre.com/Sustainability/CBRE.com/Guide_GuidetoStateandLocalEnergyPerformanceRegulations.pdf

(Excerpted from USGBC MA's April 2013 Newsletter)

Energy Disclosure is Coming to Boston

The USGBC MA Chapter is happy to promote, support and advocate for public disclosure of energy use in Boston. According to the recent proposal, over the next four years, different types and sizes of buildings will report their energy use score (using EPA's Energy Star Portfolio Manager) into a public database. The city will rate all the buildings it owns starting in 2013. The information will be used to help the city's Energy and Environment Office, led by former USGBC MA Board VP Brian Swett, to craft incentives and programs to help owners embrace energy efficiency measures. It will not be used to force anyone to do anything, just to report their building's energy use. One of our members, Chris Liston, Director of Energy and Sustainability at CBRE New England, noted that for his clients in New York, reporting for the entire year can be done in about 30 minutes. 

I went to City Hall on Thursday, March 28, to submit supportive testimony to the City Council, which will be voting on the ordinance in the near future. We believe the ordinance will lead to better building values, better tenant experiences, better building operating practices, reduced waste of energy, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions, among other things. Some organizations, including Boston's Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA), came out against the ordinance, which was puzzling. Industry leaders like Partners Healthcare and Boston Properties spoke in support of the ordinance. It seemed like a lot of the opposition just didn't understand the program. It was too bad, but the USGBC MA Chapter is here to help people learn more and get more support behind the measure.

The ordinance is somewhat like telling people to go weigh themselves when you care about their health. If someone knows their weight, they might decide to start exercising or eating better. But some people just don't even want to know things. And this ordinance isn't even like telling anyone you have to go to the gym - just to get weighed!

Boston's Mayor Menino has announced an Energy Disclosure Ordinance. 

The establishment of this requirement will “provide information to owners, residents, and prospective buyers and tenants, and, through education and the operations of the market, create incentives to participate in energy efficiency programs.” 

Energy efficiency in existing buildings is the single most important component of the City's plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent by 2020. 

New York, Philadelphia, Seattle, San Francisco, Minneapolis and other cities have enacted energy reporting and
disclosure requirements in their jurisdictions.

Leading by example, Boston would annually disclose its energy and water use in all of its facilities starting with 2012 building data. In following years, the ordinance would apply to non-residential buildings greater than 25,000 square feet and residential buildings 25 units or more. The proposed roll out schedule for reporting requirements is as follows:

• Non-residential buildings 50,000 square feet or more in 2014
• Residential buildings with 50 units or more in 2015
• Non-residential buildings 25,000 square feet or more in 2016
• Residential buildings with 25 units or more in 2017

In addition to reporting energy and water use, buildings may be required to conduct energy audits or other evaluations every five years to identify opportunities for energy efficiency investments.  Buildings in the top tier of energy performance or already taking significant efficiency actions will be exempted from this requirement.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions through investments in energy efficiency is the largest component of the Mayor’s Climate Action Plan. Mayor Menino has established Boston as a national leader in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting a clean energy economy through initiatives such as Renew Boston and the first in the nation green building standards for private developments. To further inspire action, Mayor Menino has launched Greenovate Boston, a new sustainability movement to ensure a greener, healthier and more prosperous future for the City. 

More information is at the City of Boston website. 

Annual Meeting of Fun

What a great Annual Meeting on Monday night! Thanks again to Rachel Zsembery, Dee Spiro, Katya Carman and Carlos Alonso-Niemeyer for putting together such a fabulous evening! Thanks to everyone who came early and stayed late to help make it all happen. Thank you to Andrea Love and Payette Associates for providing their Practice Room as a great hall to gather in.

[above: Kathy Arthur-Tyler of our Green Schools Committee (also of NStar, one of our sponsors!]

Thanks indeed to this wonderful community we have where even with snow and sleet and rain (all at the same time) (and rush-hour!) we had a full capacity crowd. 

Thank you to Brian Swett [below] for making such an awesome presentation about the ambitious goals of the City of Boston and for reaching out to us to help partner with them as they grow their efforts - certainly we can help bring proven models of success to other communities in Massachusetts. 

Congratulations to the new and renewed Board Members and thank you to all the great candidates.

And now the work continues. I know some of the committee volunteers made connections to new helpers. As you heard, for me, the priorities are Community, Capacity and Advocacy - which means getting more members, bringing in new sponsoring partners and focusing on specific policy projects. The advocacy is really the most important thing we can do as an organization. What are we doing? I believe we can choose one or two of the USGBC campaign issues  and in my conversations some of you have heard I think that those can be Greening the MLS and Energy Reporting going statewide. With our Green Schools strategic investment grant, that will be a focus in the coming months. And, finally, pertinent to current events, we need to respond to the wild community development opportunities and building projects that are the future Casinos of Massachusetts.

[me with active volunteers: Andrea Love, Emily Greenstein, Dee Spiro, Phoebe Beierle, and Jim Newman]

I was really psyched to hear about the awesome work going on in the committees - Green Residential, Green Schools, RASOC, Education, Communications, Membership, Special Events and Emerging Professionals. I look forward to our future advocacy team. I am heartened by the West Branch and the Central Mass group with their successful and upcoming events. We've got a lot of great stuff going on!

Take a look at the website - there are new stories up there and I have been building it out more and more (with our Communications Associate Zak) every week. Please stay tuned to our social media spaces: facebook and our LinkedIn group - plenty of news and discussion there.

[Hi Phoebe!]

So you can see, we are moving right along - new people in the ranks, old-timers coming back into the fold, and a lot of work to tackle. As we mentioned last night: Massachusetts is #4 in the country in terms of LEED certified space created (per capita) in 2012. Not that LEED is everything to us (it's just our biggest horse in the market-transformation team), but 101 projects earned the status last year, taking us to just shy of 400 certified projects, total, up til the end of 2012. This means a lot of us, and our peers who aren't quite yet members, are working on a lot of green building projects and we are really changing the built environment. We really are changing the carbon intensity of our communities. We really are making the world a better place. I'm proud to work for you all and I look forward to cultivating this momentum for even more victories in the coming months and years!

Thanks again for being part of the USGBC MA Chapter! See you at the next event!

Advancing Sustainability with the BSA

I attended a great meeting this morning with the Boston Society of Architects' Committee for the Advancement of Sustianability at the invitation of Vernon Woodward and Ken Fisher, co-chairs.

I had a chance to introduce myself to the 15 or so attendees and describe a bit about the Chapter and where we are in terms of cultivating our community,  building our capacity and advocating for green building friendly state and local regulations.

One of the main points we discussed was the Coming of the Casinos to the state. Julie Taylor, of Noble & Wickersham, provided a great overview of the collaboration between AIA MA, BSA and ACEC. She was holding the draft white paper for the Gaming Commission regarding design standards and an outlined design review process, which the commission had asked them to produce. This was as follow-up to the “Promoting Sustainability and Strengthening Communities: Design Excellence for Massachusetts Casinos,” forum held on Dec. 12 last year (which many USGBC MA members attended).

Julie reviewed the State's charge to the Commission and how design professionals can help weigh in on the casinos. Many in attendance hoped that the process would result in casinos that could support sustainability goals for their host communities. I asked Julie what would be the one priority that peer associations could push for, and she said getting renewable energy into these casinos, since they really will be energy hogs one way or another. You can read more about the forum here, and stay tuned to John Nunnari (ED of the Mass. AIA) who chimed in considerably with Julie, as he is also one of the white paper authors, to keep track of this process.

We also heard from Carolyn Sarno, from NEEP (Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnership) speaking a bit about the base building code and also the stretch code for the state. It sounds like a lot of things were waiting for the recent fall's election, and now, are just stuck in bureaucratic backlog. It may be one thing our Chapter could specifically advocate for: asserting for the stretch code and demanding the state issue appropriate regulations for green communities as per Green Communities Act of 2008.

I look forward to promoting good green policy at the state and local levels! Let me know what you'd like to see us move forward on. The USGBC (national) has a great list to work on, but we need to think locally, strategically, and creatively, to help move the levers of influence throughout Massachusetts.

See you soon! - Grey

PS - the image on the right side of the photo is what? It's probably obvious, even if it looks like some kind of mini-monster from this angle...