USGBC MA Chapter friend and Board member Chris Schaffner is a candidate for USGBC's Board of Directors

USGBC MA Chapter friend and Board member Chris Schaffner is a candidate for USGBC's Board of Directors. Chris has provided an overview of his intentions and reasons for seeking a seat designated for Sustainable Practice Leader: Engineer. Voting for the 2015 USGBC Board of Directors is ongoing, through October 30.

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Via Chris Schaffner

Friends and Colleagues:

I'd appreciate your consideration when you fill your ballot. 

People ask: "Why are you running for the Board".

Chris Schaffner
Image credit W. Marc Bernsau, Boston Business Journal

The USGBC has come along way in the last two decades. 20 years ago, the USGBC was in its infancy, and green building was seen as a niche, practiced by only a very few. Today, a market transformation is in progress, as witnessed here in Boston’s Seaport District, where every one of the new buildings recently finished or under construction will be LEED Certified. That’s the impact that we, the members of the USGBC have had.  We succeeded in beginning a market transformation, a transformation that has brought green building practices into the mainstream. We’ve communicated the message that green buildings are not only good for the environment, they’re also good business, good for communities, and good for people. 

But our work is not finished – it has really barely begun. What do the next 20 years and beyond look like?  That is the question before us.  I want to help us, the members of the USGBC, plan and lead the next 20 years. That is why I'm running. 

With our many accomplishments, we face a few challenges. 

1) We’ve succeeded in making green buildings a desirable object. How do we make sure that they are available to everyone, everywhere? 

2) With our growth and power come new challenges, organizations and individuals who are threatened by our mission. How do we face these challenges?   

3) Our growth has also created vested interests within the green building movement. How do we challenge our friends to raise the bar, to improve what is working, and fix what is not?  

4) And finally, we must remember that the USGBC is a 501(c)(3) charity –we’re not a professional organization, and we’re not lobbyists. How do we go beyond just advancing the interests of our current members, and become a force for good everywhere, for everyone?

These questions need answers. I hope to help answer them. 

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Chris Schaffner, PE, LEED Fellow 

Principal and Founder

The Green Engineer, Inc.

Sustainable Design Consulting

54 Junction Square Dr.

Concord, MA 01742

The Green Engineer, Inc. is a Certified B Corporation and a Massachusetts Benefit Corporation - Employee Owned since 2014

Congratulations to New USGBC National Member Firms!

Since the beginning of 2013, a number of firms based in Massachusetts have become members of the USGBC. We appreciate the support and the growth of our community, and we want to invite these firms to become more involved with the local Chapter (us!) through our various events and programs.

Of the 415 current national member firms, 306 have already renewed this year! We will be highlighting many of those throughout the year, since, after all, we're part of one big happy green building family!

Thank you to the following new members! Take a look at all the cool work they are doing throughout Massachusetts and beyond:

UrbanMeritage, LLC

Stanmar, Inc.

Gateway Development International

Stone Soup Concrete, Inc

FM Global

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Wheelock College

Clean Production Action

Ryan Construction, Inc.

Malsky Hardwood Flooring

GreenEffects Building & Design

BHI Energy - Bartlett Nuclear

L/R Construction, Inc.

Umaco, Inc.

Botticelli and Pohl, PC

Second Law Engineers Inc. d/b/a DMI

Murray Brothers Construction, Inc.

Stay tuned for more green building news from these firms!

LEED v4 is approved!

by Grey Lee

Photo credit: USGBC.org

Members of the USGBC accepted the next version of our flagship building rating system, LEEDv4, with 86% voting in favor. The new system will be officially launched at Greenbuild 2013 in Philadelphia. Changes to the GA/AP exam, documentation materials, and LEED Online will occur over the coming months with much timed to coordinate with Greenbuild. Our LEED Study Group program will continue to focus on fundamentals of green building and the LEED system, with information relating to v4 as that becomes available from USGBC National.  

With the approval of the new version, USGBC is soliciting entries of new projects to use the new system in a beta test of LEEDv4. If you register your project in the new system, you will benefit from hands-on support from USGBC and if your project attains Platinum, the fees could be waived.

Individuals from over 1200 USGBC Member firms joined the "consensus body" to be eligible to vote, and only 10% voted against LEEDv4 (with 4% abstentions). The USGBC benefited from gleaning comments from many voters and will be using those critical observations to improve the system as it is fine-tuned into implementation. LEEDv4 will help take the LEED brand global, simplify some aspects of project documentation, and enable the system to evaluate building design paths and products more quantitatively.

The current system of LEED, v2009, will be available for teams to register projects  with until the end of May, 2015. After 6/1/15, LEEDv4 will be the only system you can register projects with. 

If you are interested in reading more about the concerns of some of the naysayers, BuildingGreen posted a great article looking at the issue here.

We are looking forward to celebrating the first LEEDv4 registrant in Massachusetts - let us know if you are involved in a prospect!

Thank you USGBC National Members!

I recently sent out a note to all the USGBC National Members in the Commonwealth. It's a great group of almost 400 seriously green organizations!

Hello, I wanted to say thank you to your firm for being part of the USGBC. Together, we are a powerful force for the transformation of our built environment toward sustainability. Green buildings are making a positive difference in the health and welfare of our communities and the world around us.

I appreciate that you and your firm connect with our vision: "buildings and communities will regenerate and sustain the health and vitality of all life within a generation." This is a big challenge! I'm glad we're working on this together.

I run the Massachusetts Chapter of the USGBC and we organize educational and networking events to improve the professional cadre in the green building industry. We foster a sense of community that continually grows our influence to advocate for market adoption and regulatory support of green buildings and sustainable design. We serve as a hub for information on the state of the industry and a 

connecting place for stakeholders. 

Thank you especially to your peer USGBC National member organizations who are among our Chapter Sponsors: AHA Consulting Engineers, Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, F.D. Sterritt Lumber Co., Nitsch Engineering and National Grid.

Many of your employees are LEED AP & GAs - over 5000 in the state! Many are members of the local Massachusetts Chapter of the USGBC. Firms join the National USGBC, while individuals join the local Chapter. We are a very active and dedicated group. We have a monthly networking meeting on Tuesday, 7/16 in Boston. 

I'm interested in learning how could I connect with more of your colleagues at your firm and let them know about more of our activities and events. I'm constantly trying to grow the connections in our community in order to strengthen our effectiveness toward our vision.

Let me know if you have an internal newsletter or announcement system, where you might be on social media, or otherwise. I hope we can cross-promote events, and I hope I can convince you and some of the people at your organization to engage with the USGBC MA Chapter.

Thank you again for your continued participation with the USGBC at the national level; I look forward to meeting you and/or your peers through activities in Massachusetts through the local Chapter.

Thank you for your interest,

Grey Lee

Cast your Ballot for LEEDV4 by June 30th!

By Jim Newman

Are you a member of the consensus body for LEED Version 4? Have you cast your ballot yet? What am I talking about? Remember, voting ends June 30th.

The process of affirming the next version of the LEED rating systems, known as LEED V4 for each of the current rating systems, is coming to it's conclusion. There have been 6 public comment periods, where USGBC members who joined the Consensus Body (as the group that was empowered to post comments was called) could comment directly on proposed credits and changes. Interested individuals could also post comments on special forums on LEEDuser.com which were shared with USGBC staff and the volunteer Technical Advisory Groups (TAGs) working on the new versions.

Now, the new rating systems are up for a vote; including the specialty systems in each of the following categories:

• Building Design & Construction,
• Interior Design & Construction,
• Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance,
• Neighborhood Development,  
• Homes

In order to cast a vote, you need to work for a USGBC member organization, and have opted in to the voting consensus body for this ballot. If you have done this, then you can proceed to vote. Voting ends on June 30th, so NOW is the time.

Several great reviews of the important changes in the new rating systems are available. As usual, LEEDuser.com has some of the best information, including a review of key changes in BD&C and a review of LEED V4 EB: O+M.  LEEDuser also has a number of good discussions of the big issues in the new credits and language, such as Chemical Industry Attacks LEED.

USGBC also has some great resources for understanding the new rating systems under ballot. There are clearly written summaries of changes between LEED 2009 and LEED V4 rating systems on USGBC's website, webinars explaining each system, and new resource guides coming soon. So there is no reason to wait to learn about V4. 

And remember to vote by June 30th. 

The USGBC Annual Report is Out!

If you really want to geek out about the USGBC!

Each year, the national organization collects information from the many chapters across the country to get a sense of how much advocacy, education, and professional development work is happening.

Caution:  this is a 379-page pdf  but it's worth scrolling through if you're interested in knowing more about how we compare to our peers and how similar our efforts are across the country. Quite inspirational to think about how many volunteer hours are being contributed to this cause, and how we are succeeding at making more and more components of the built environment better for the, well, the environment!