West Branch of the USGBC MA - 2014 Recap - Lots of great programs in Western Mass. last year!

Letter from Chairs Past and Present

Dear colleagues, The New Year 2014 has come in with blasts of cold and ice, but it would take a lot more than that to temper the passion of local volunteers who are focused on promoting "the design, construction, and operation of sustainable buildings and communities in Massachusetts"! The USGBC MA - West Branch had its best year ever in 2013 and we are all ready to launch another successful year of green building education programs, networking events and service projects! For those of you who couldn't make it to all of the excellent programs we provide, We thought we would prepare a short list of highlights from 2013: We had a variety of Education Programs!  The LEED Green Associate Exam Prep course attracted approximately 45 students and utilized a team based learning classroom at UMass to facilitate discussion among students and professionals.  We held two Green Eggs networking and education events - the first at David R. Northup Electrical Contractors, Inc. on Point of Use Technology presented by John DeGray of Point Energy Solutions, and the second at the EcoBuilding Bargains Store on Energy Modeling presented by Benjamin Todd of Strategic Energy Group and Ted Mendoza of UMass Amherst.    Our Summer Social in June attracted almost 30 members and included representatives from NESEA and the Westover Job Corps. Green building researchers from UMass Amherst presented a map of LEED buildings in Western MA, featuring 27 LEED certified buildings and 60 more projects undergoing registration - a remarkable achievement for our region! UMass Green Building Council Students Group was founded in partnership with the West Branch and is committed to promoting sustainability, innovation, and a basic foundation in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design both on and off campus.  They provide campus wide initiatives and education for the public on green building practices.  Eight student members attended the GreenBuild 2013 conference in the fall!  A team of students worked with NStar to survey residential halls and educating students on saving energy by distributing 5,000 LED light bulbs. 3 Green Apple Day of Service events focused on engaging local schools took place in September and October: a Green Building Tour of 4 UMass LEED facilities and rain gardens for students from Westover Job Corps; a tour of Tan Brook for students at Wildwood Elementary school in Amherst, and a public tour of the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center in Holyoke, a LEED Platinum Building.  We have also committed to provide LEED Support for the Common School in Amherst. Thank you for your support, Ludmilla Pavlova, Immediate Past Chair Mark Dunn, 2014 Chair of USGBC MA West Branch Steering Committee [[ Congratulations to all the volunteers who have helped to make this success possible! We all look forward to a great 2014 and more useful and fun programming to support the green building community in Western Massachusetts. ]]

Creating a Neighborhood Development Working Group

by Bob Weiss LEED AP ND

Here's and example of "before" good neighborhood planning 

If you are reading this, you probably already think about how your lifestyle fits in with a sustainable planet. That’s what neighborhood development is about: living, working, doing business and conducting daily life in a way that sustains our world. It’s not a new concept but the past decades’ interest in our environment takes all that we have learned about green buildings to the next level: the places where we put those buildings, what elements make up those places and how do we put them together. To this end, the Chapter’s new working group advances neighborhood development and smart growth in Massachusetts communities.

And here's "after" good neighborhood development planning

Many organizations around the globe value district scaled development. The Congress for New Urbanism, Enterprise Green Communities, community development corporations and EcoDistricts are among them. The USGBC recognized the benefits development on a neighborhood scale when it crafted its LEED ND rating system. Now, with LEED ND as a guide, the Mass Chapter of USGBC is assembling a Neighborhood Development Working Group, a sub-committee of the Residential Green Building Committee, to examine the nature of sustainable neighborhood development and to promote its implementation in Massachusetts.



Last year the Chapter invested significant staff and volunteer time to work with a wide range of organizations creating a Host Committee to present the 2013 EcoDistricts Summit in Boston in November. (The growing EcoDistricts framework is globally recognized as one of the key movements promoting neighborhood development as the means to leverage the best practices of sustainability.) The new Neighborhood Development Working Group will join its fellow EcoDistricts Host Committee members in continuing the spirit of neighborhood development in Massachusetts with several happenings in 2014. The Boston Redevelopment Authority will kick things off with its February 4th "Innovations in Sustainability and Resiliency" event in the Innovation District, at District Hall.



Our working group will plan an exciting LEED ND event for the Chapter, scheduled for the late spring. We'd love to hear your ideas on what should be included, and who we should highlight. You can join the Chapter’s Mike Davis and Neil Angus to help so we can follow up on the original LEED ND New England pilot projects and bring our community up to date on the state of the art, demonstrating how the rating system has grown into a practical tool for sustainable neighborhood development.


Mass Chapter’s Neighborhood Development Working Group is still on the ground floor and we look forward to convening a team composed of the widest spectrum of disciplines and industries. If you can help us build a successful LEED ND event you will help us build the new group! For more information on the Chapter’s Neighborhood Development working group contact Bob Weiss at Robertweiss63@msn.com or 617-653-0948.

Welcome to the Chapter, Electric Film! A New Chapter Sponsoring Partner

We are celebrating our most recent Chapter Sponsoring Partner - Thank you for becoming a Bronze Chapter Sponsor, Electric Film, LLC.


Take a look at their website: http://www.electricfilmllc.com/

From Kevin Dibasitis at Electric Film:

ElectricFilm is a unique light harvesting technology that has been developed and advanced over the past quarter century. The lightweight, flexible film has been engineered to capture indoor, or low light (50 to 2,000 lux) with high efficiency. The film is manufactured of low cost materials with a roll to roll process that allows for custom sizes to work with multiple applications.

This harvesting solution converts light from anywhere into electricity that can power numerous Smart Building devices from automated, motorized window shade systems to block heat gain, to smart thermostats that reduce energy consumption to motion detectors/cameras and electronic door locks that can enhance building security. The ElectricFilm harvest solution allows these devices to be wireless, reducing the cost of hardwiring and allowing for greater installation flexibility.

ElectricFilm greatly extends the battery life for all of these devices reducing O & M costs for primary batteries (and having to dispose of those batteries in the environment), and the labor time and inconvenience of having to change batteries.

ElectricFilm is based in Newburyport, MA which includes all of our research & development along with our new production plant which is under construction and due to come on line by the end of Q1 2014. All production will be performed here in the USA, so while we are a Green building technology, we are also Red, White & Blue!

2013 Review - Reprint from the NEREJ

It [was] a great year for the green building industry. The state of Massachusetts was recognized as having the best energy efficiency and renewable energy policies and incentives in the country by ACEEE (the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy) with Boston recognized as "most energy efficient city" on account of the many programs that have been implemented lately to encourage and achieve significant energy savings. This includes the Greenovate Boston community-engagement brand, the Renew Boston program, and the building energy reporting & disclosure ordinance. As these policies move through the market, they will enhance asset values and improve the end-user experience, attracting better businesses to our region.

124 buildings were LEED certified in Massachusetts this year, of a total of 829 overall. In the past two months, we've seen 15 more projects attain LEED, including 150 Second St. in Cambridge which earned LEED CS Platinum with the help of Chapter sponsor The Green Engineer. We've seen 117 firms renew or newly join the USGBC as national member firms, including RDK Engineers and Paul Lukez Architects. And the green building movement continues: the Chapter was proud to support Boston Properties' LEED-Platinum targeted Boston Garden Project at a recent Boston Redevelopment Authority hearing.

Thank you to our many sponsors and to our many volunteers. We will be hosting our annual Volunteer Recognition event during our Annual Meeting at EnerNOC on January 29th in Boston. We have lined up a smorgasbord of green building gurus to bring a variety of quick presentations to us that they delivered at Greenbuild in Philadelphia in November. You can find more details on our website's event calendar: www.usgbcma.org/events

There are many ways to stay abreast of the burgeoning green building industry through the USGBC. Take a look at our YouTube Channel (USGBC MA) to find a series of short videos describing exemplary projects in Massachusetts such as Grousbeck Hall at the Perkins School and the North Shore Community College - the State's first "Net Zero" academic facility. You can follow us on facebook & twitter. Are you keeping up with the discussions on Linkedin? We have a lot going on with our advocacy work and our events.

Thank you again for your work to make our region a better place for all by creating more green buildings.

Grey Lee, MSc, LEED AP, is the executive director of the USGBC Mass. Chapter, Boston and is a monthly contributing author for the New England Real Estate Journal's Green Building section.

[original link to the New England Real Estate Journal can be found here]