USGBC Member Spotlight-Adrian Charest

Adrian Charest is head of our Membership Committee.  I took a few moments to sit and talk with him regarding life, work and sustainability. Here is what he had to say.

What is your current job? How does it differ from past jobs in regards to Sustainability?
I am a Construction Engineer at RSMeans. I research the construction process, provide consulting services and instruct seminars on estimating. With this job, I have the opportunity to be involved with new building technologies and construction techniques in the industry.

When did you first become interested in Sustainability?
I caught the bug in college and have had some involvement with environmental responsibility ever since.

Why are you a member of the MASS chapter and how did you get there?
Becoming a member was the next logical step after receiving (LEED) accreditation with the intent of growing my professional network, taking advantage of the many educational opportunities and having fun!

How are you an Environmental Steward?
On a personal level, I make my environmental contributions through a lot of little things that we all do: recycling, reusing and keeping a level of environmental awareness related to my actions. Professionally, I have had the opportunity to promote green buildings by researching and analyzing green construction trends through the development of the RSMeans Green Square Foot models and supporting the upcoming Earth Day event.

How do you help raise Environmental Awareness?
By encouraging membership in the USGBC Massachusetts Chapter!

If I needed to find you on a Saturday afternoon, where would it be?
I would be taking part in one of three activities: walking the local Conservation Lands with my wife and daughter, throwing tennis balls with my dog at the park or browsing beer recipes at the local brew shop. Cheers!

Deep Energy Retrofits with Brian Butler and the Residential Green Building Committee

By Rose Brakesman

What better time to talk about Mass Save Deep Energy Retrofit than a cold February evening with the Residential Green Building Committee. Brian Butler walked us through how Boston Green Building does a Deep Energy Retrofit (DER).

Some DER “rules of thumb”:

1.5 air changes per hour (ACH)

R5 windows

R10 basement slab

R20 foundation walls

R40 walls above foundation

R60 in the roof/attic

DER is documented and looks for a reduction in energy use between 50-90%, so the process starts with determining a baseline on energy use and a blower door test to document the number of air changes per hour (ACH) in an existing older house. Many of these houses are what Brian calls “gushers”. They’re houses that leak air and energy at an alarming rate. One house that Boston Green Building is tackling for DER just went through a blower test and had 9 ACH. (DER is 1.5 ACH).  9 ACH is equivalent to leaving a two foot by two foot hole in the exterior wall year round! 

Jokes abounded… “Did you leave the bathroom window open during the test?” Nope, double checked. Many older houses are just that leaky from gaps around the windows and doors, leaks where the basement meets the frame, and so on. This is the kind of house that can most benefit from a Deep Energy Retrofit, and there are many, many like this. 

Additionally, most of the current housing stock in Boston will still be here in 2050, so building better new homes won’t help nearly enough. Happily enough for Brian and his cohorts, it doesn’t look like they’ll run out of work anytime soon! Even nicer is the DER “guidebook”- the Mass Save Deep Energy Retrofit Builder Guide. Instead of a long process of repeated submittal, and revision, and re-submittal, the guidebook streamlines the process. Hopefully more builders will jump on board and provide some DER competition!

After addressing the building envelope there are typically additional complications and hazards that go along with “tightening things up.” One such issue is indoor air quality. In the original leaky building there’s a “stack effect” where supposedly “fresh” air starts in the basement (along with mold and mildew) then moves upward through the house via temperature stratification. Once the building envelope is at 1.5 ACH or less, there is no stack effect. Facilitated ventilation is required and that is a very good thing! Now stale air can be taken from one area of the house moved through heat recovery ventilation (HRV). A high efficiency HRV unit is the best way to go and can have an efficiency of 90%, which means stale air at 72o is exhausted and fresh air is drawn in at around 65o.

In the end, Brian and Boston Green Building are “dragging poorly performing homes kicking and screaming into the 21st century and hopefully addressing all the issues to keep from killing the occupants.” Originally, only one utility company participated in Mass Save DER, but now there are six participating utilities. Conspicuously absent from the list is NStar…. but there is some carbonated bottle shaking going on to hopefully bring them back on board.

See you at the next Residential Green Building Committee meeting on Monday, March 10th at 5:45pm at 281 Summer St, Boston!

LEED Exams Change-over to LEED v4:

This just in from USGBC National:

The LEED Green Associate and LEED AP exams will evolve for the LEED v4 rating system in June. The last day to take the credential exams with LEED v2009 content will be June 15, 2014. The first day to take the exams with the new LEED v4 content will be June 30, 2014. No tests will be administered in between these dates.

For the first time, LEED project experience competency will be assessed within the LEED AP exam. Practitioner experience is critical to the LEED AP designation, and as such, proficiency will be tested objectively within the LEED AP exam itself. The requirement to submit proof of LEED project experience at the time of application is no longer required as of June 30. However, GBCI strongly urges candidates to gain meaningful project experience prior to taking the test, as it is critical to successful exam performance.

Innovations in Sustainabiltiy & Resiliency

We had a great program in our EcoDistricts series. Thank you to event sponsors: EnerNOC, the City of Boston and the Boston Redevelopment Authority, and to District Hall for hosting us!

From the Boston Redevelopment Authority:

On Tuesday, 2/4/14, the BRA and the Massachusetts Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council(USGBC) hosted an Innovations in Sustainability and Resiliency panel discussion. Panelists representing the finance and tech industries as well as government came together to discuss the development of EcoDistricts and the role of resiliency in Boston's Innovation District and beyond. The EcoDistricts framework emphasizes sharing energy solutions amongst area stakeholders. Over 100 attendees participated from a broad cross section of the sustainability community, including architects, engineers, developers, financial consultants, and federal, state, and local government officials

The first keynote speaker was Kairos Shen, Chief Planner at the BRA, who emphasized that the biggest challenge facing the creation of Eco Districts is partnerships. Shen stressed that the technological solutions already exist, but it's the partnerships that will allow them to be effective.

The second keynote speaker was John Aubrecht, President of the Longwood Medical Energy Collaborative, who represents Boston's greatest concentration of medical institutions, including over 2000 hospital beds. The concentration of critical energy users in the Longwood Medical Area (LMA) rely on the Medical Area Total Energy Plant (MATEP) for heating, cooling and electrical services. Aubrecht's presentation focused on building partnerships between LMA institutions, financial institutions, and energy markets. He also discussed the challenge of finding organizational strategies for the multiple stakeholders in an Eco District.

The panel on Eco Districts was moderated by Galen Nelson, Director of Market Development at the Mass Clean Energy Center. Nelson discussed his time in Hamburg, Germany where an old grain silo was used to create an energy bunker that now produces enough heat for 3000 households and electricity for 1000 homes. Other panelists included: Karthik Rao from EnernNOC, who discussed how each individual building can contribute to local energy markets; Bruce Douglas, Vice President of Natural Systems Utilities, who discussed the use of waste heat in sewer systems and capturing underutilized sources of energy throughout the city; Matthew Gardner, Director of SustainServ, who discussed emerging technology used to measure the energy of a city and showed how it was applied in the Innovation District; Charlie Reed, Director of Boston Global Investors, who discussed his company's planning strategy for district energy in the Innovation District.

More panels discussing EcoDistricts beyond energy technology are forthcoming, including EcoDistricts in the context of water and organizational models. Stay tuned via the BRA EcoDistricts page.

Photos by Grey Lee