2013 Massachusetts LEED Project Showcase

Thank you to all who came out to the first inaugural Massachusetts LEED Project Showcase at Google's LEED Gold Office Space in Cambridge last night! 

The evening was a spectacular success with over 150 guests in attendance to celebrate the 200+ projects in MA that have achieved LEED certification since the beginning of 2012. It was great to see such a bright and passionate group of green building professionals gather together to support the mission of the USGBC to promote the design, construction, and operation of sustainable buildings and communities in Massachusetts. With all of your support, we are moving closer to our goal of making every building a green building within one generation!

Many guests expressed their interest in becoming new members of the Chapter!

A big shout-out to all of our wonderful volunteers and board members who contributed their time and energy to make this night such a successful event for the green building community!

USGBC MA Staff & Board of Directors.

This event would not have been possible without our volunteers who helped set up boards and greet guests throughout the night!

And a special shout-out to our Green Schools Program Manager, Steve Muzzy, for all of his support in putting this Showcase together. 

Steve Muzzy with Green Schools Fellow, Phoebe Beierle.

Finally, a big THANK YOU to Google for graciously hosting us in their new LEED Gold Office Space in Kendall Square. Thank you to our hostess Tiffany Colt for all of her help in putting together this event!

Tiffany Colt, our Google hostess.

The evening featured displays of around 65 LEED-certified projects with representatives of many project teams present to celebrate their amazing achievements. 

Bob Andrews of AHA Consulting Engineers with Kathy Arthur of NStar as well as Holly Miller and Meng Howe Lim of Gund Partnership.

Our friends from the New England Real Estate Journal were also present to conduct interviews with representatives from our sponsors about their featured projects.

Maxine Ramos from NEREJ interviews Mark Stafford, Account Executive Architect and Engineer Program of National Grid, our Platinum Chapter Sponsor.

The presentation portion of the evening featured project presentations from Google and 5 of our sponsors.

Our esteemed USGBC MA Executive Director kicking off the project presentations.

Tiffany Colt introduced us to some of Google's initiatives to save energy and reduce their company's environmental impact on a global scale.

Guy Campagnone, Director of Sustainable Practices at Chapman Design / Construction, highlights some of Chapman's latest efforts that align with their lifelong dedication to sustainable design.

Win Mallet, Principal of Tempietto Homes, spoke about the "necessity of diagonals" as part of their modern, solar-based designs.

Chris Alexander, Director of Business Development at Sterritt Lumber, spoke about his company's lifelong dedication to sustainability since its founding in 1841.

Mark Stafford, Account Executive Architect and Engineer Program, at our Platinum Chapter Sponsor, National Grid, spoke about ways in which his company is demonstrating their commitment to energy efficiency.

Architect Doug Rand of Dimella Schaffer introduces their latest LEED-certified projects such as the North Shore Community College Allied Health Building.

The evening wrapped up with a final word by Grey Lee thanking all of our Chapter member and encouraging all the guests to join the Chapter to ensure the continued growth of the green building community as we work together to make every building in Massachusetts a green building within one generation!

Here's a link to our SPOTLIGHT Feature in the New England Real Estate Journal: USGBC Project Showcase 10/17

Thank you everyone who came out to support the mission of the USGBC and we'll see you next year at our next MA LEED Project Showcase!

ISO & LEED: A beautiful couple

One item that synergizes perfectly with LEED is the International Standards Organizations (ISO) environmental standards, yet, I find that many in the building trades have an imperfect or incomplete understanding of these tools.

 
The ISO membership is comprised of 160 national standards institutes and its standards provide practical tools for all three dimensions of sustainable development: economic, environmental, and societal.  These standards provide an internationally developed and recognized framework to ensure quality, ecology, safety, economy, reliability, compatibility, interoperability, conformity, efficiency, and effectiveness.  These traits facilitate trade and shared knowledge based best management practices.

Many of the standards, particularly those in the 14000 family of environmental management standards, harmonize with many aspects of LEED.  While LEED focuses upon the built environment, ISO focuses more on the organizations operations and management, thus it meshes quite nicely with LEED-EBOM.  These standards can build off each other and the strengths of each can complement the other to build a more sustainable whole.  With a small amount of planning and foresight, a company can occupy a LEED certified building and earn ISO certification without duplicating effort.  If they currently hold one certification, the other is more easily attained.
 

Why would an organization seek ISO certification?

Just as there are a myriad of justifications for seeking LEED certification, there are a host of reasons for pursuing ISO certification.  These include improved efficiency and effectiveness, contractual or regulatory compliance, customer or public preference, risk management, sales prospects and market access, cost savings/waste reduction, and finally, environmental stewardship.

It should be noted that while the ISO develops the International Standards, it is not a certification body.  Certification is performed by third party auditors. These “certification bodies” review the written documentation and audit the facility.  The documentation can include employee standards, training records, approved standard operating procedures, plans for non conforming events, quality verification, calibrations and test methods, document control procedures, and audits.  The purpose of this documentation is to ensure that the desired procedures are followed in a proscribed manner and that the PDCA, or Plan–Do-Check-Act, cycle is driving continual improvement.

ISO 14001 standard is unique in that one can opt for the traditional third party audit and certification or one can independently self-certify. The ability to self certify opens the standard up to many smaller organizations that may be daunted by the costs of a third party audit. 

ISO 14001 – Environmental Management Systems.

This standard is the bedrock of the entire environmental series. It establishes the requirements for an Environmental Management System (EMS).  An EMS is a standardized plan that defines the environmental impacts of an organizations activity and seeks to minimize those impacts that are within its control.  The system that quantifies and then minimizes these impacts follows the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle.  In short this involves deciding upon a plan of action, implementing the plan, checking that the plan in effect and correcting any shortfalls, and finally, reviewing the results and improving the system.  Determining the impacts and designing the plans can be a daunting task; however, the ISO has many published documents to assist in the task.

If a company is certified to ISO 9001 standards, it is much easier to obtain ISO 14001.  ISO 9001 establishes Quality Management Systems.   A company that has a Quality Management System in place will have much of the framework required for an EMS. For instance, the will have records on raw materials and products used, a system for dealing with problems or incidents, internal and external audit procedures, and employee and management training.

Other standards within (and without) the 14000 family that can help

Many other standards within the ISO 14000 family of standards can be integrated into an EMS and can assist in the development of a comprehensive Environmental Management System.

ISO14004 provides additional guidance and useful explanations.  ISO 14031 helps an organization evaluate its environmental performance and can assist with selection of suitable performance indicators.  This is useful for accurate and truthful reporting on environmental performance.  ISO 14020 addresses a range of environmental labels and declarations, including eco-labels, self declared claims, seals of approval, and quantified environmental information about products and services.   ISO 14040 provide guidelines on the principles and conduct of Life Cycle Assessment of products and services.  ISO 14064 provides a set transparent and verifiable requirements for Greenhouse Gas accounting and verification.  ISO 14063 can assist with environmental communication to outside parties. 

Several standards are still in development. These include standards for eco-efficiency assessment (ISO 14045), material flow cost accounting (ISO 14051), Carbon footprints (ISO 14067 & 14069), Phased EMS implementation (ISO 14005), and, quantitative environmental information (ISO 14033).

There are several standards outside of the “environmental” 14000 series that can help. The 19011 is the auditing standard and it is useful for both Quality and Environmental audits.  ISO 50001 is the Energy Management System standard. While an Environmental Management System will contain sections that address energy usage, an Energy Management System under ISO 50001 requires energy performance monitoring and actual energy performance improvements.  It is akin to ongoing building commissioning but for all the processes that occur within an organization.

Data driven standards for continual improvement.

The interactions between these two great consensus driven international standards, LEED and ISO, can ensure the long term sustainability of an enterprise. A LEED certified building, especially if it then earns LEED-EBOM, will position the physical plant for an ongoing benefit. EBOM will ensure that the gains realized by the integrated design and thoughtful planning are not squandered and that the improvements are maintained. ISO standards can help the activities that occur within those buildings meet their environmental goals.  Building Designers and Facilities Mangers can work shoulder to shoulder to ensure not only a sustainable building at occupancy but throughout its life and throughout the course of the activities the building supports.  These distinct environmental benefits will yield tangible economic benefits and sustain the triple bottom line. 

Kevin Dufour is an Environmental Scientist with Viridis Advisors. He collaborates with Tom Irwin on creating greener greenscapes. The opinions expressed by member bloggers are their own and not necessarily those of the USGBC Massachusetts Chapter.

Showcase Podcast

Grey Lee was interviewed by the New England Real Estate Journal to discuss the upcoming MA LEED Project Showcase (10/17).

Take a listen if you have 12 minutes - start at 27:30 minutes.

What is the Showcase? Who is coming? How are we connected to Google? Why should we celebrate LEED project teams? Will there be another?

The Showcase is sold out, but link here for more about the Showcase. 

A Brief Summary of Changes to LEED EBOM

Written by Paul Brown.

A great summary of changes can be found here, on the National USGBC site.

A few of the changes include:

• Under Sustainable Sites, the Credit for LEED Certified Design and Construction has been removed.
• Under Water Efficiency, there is a new Prerequisite to install (permanently) a whole-building water meter which reports data directly to USGBC.
• Within Energy and Atmosphere, the Prerequisite previously called "Minimum Energy Efficiency Performance" is now called "Minimum Energy Performance", and the baseline for compliance with the Prerequisite has been raised from an Energy Star Rating of 69 to 75 (in Option 1).
• Also in Energy and Atmosphere, a new Prerequisite has been created for whole-building energy meters, and for sharing of data with USGBC.
• The Materials and Resources Category has been substantially revised, with re-organization of credits (moving to other categories) and revising of Prerequisites.
• Under Indoor Environmental Quality, the hospitality residential option exception for the Environmental Tobacco Smoke Control Prerequisite has been eliminated, and the former Green Cleaning Credit, has become a Prerequisite called "Green Cleaning Policy".

Those are just a few of many changes; please consult the official documents of USGBC for further important information.