Massachusetts LEED Project Showcase to be held October 17

Everywhere you go in Massachusetts, you can find green buildings. From the new green skyscraper in Boston - Boston Properties' Atlantic Wharf - to the UMass Research and Education Greenhouse in Amherst. From mature green skyscrapers like the Chiofaro Companies' International Place in Boston - to the United Teen Equality Center in Lowell, it's great to see. Each of these examples is LEED Certified by the U.S. Green Building Council. Each is using less energy and conserving more water than a similar conventional building. Each is better for the occupants, better for the facility managers, and better for the owners. Almost 200 building projects in Mass. have earned LEED certification since the beginning of 2012. Each of these is a significant accomplishment and we want to celebrate the effort of all the green building professionals involved. Thus, we are hosting the Massachusetts LEED Project Showcase! Hosted at Google's LEED Gold space in Kendall Sq, Cambridge, on Thursday, October 17 from 6-8pm, the event will be a reception to learn more about many of these exciting projects. The USGBC MA Chapter is inviting each project team to attend and submit a storyboard of their project. To participate, we have a survey of less than 10 questions that can be done on-line at our website. The storyboard of each project to be shown at the Showcase. 6 special projects will be chosen to present to the crowd and to be highlighted in our multi-media follow-on promotions with our generous media sponsor, New England Real Estate Journal. This event will bring together the entire community of serious green building practitioners. We will hear from each other about the challenges, solutions, partners, and products that made these LEED projects come together. This is a not-to-be-missed opportunity to connect with the strongest proponents of high-performance buildings in Mass., and a great way for teams and owners to be recognized for all they've accomplished. Several sponsorship opportunities are available. Please contact me greylee@usgbcma.org for more information. Thank you for your commitment to transforming the built environment toward sustainability. We look forward to celebrating these accomplishments and helping you promote green buildings and your firm's involvement in our movement! 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.