Environment Challenge for Sustainability

Events & Activities

Monthly Information & Networking Meetings

Special Events

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Monthly Informational & Networking Meetings

April 2012 - Increasing Recycling Rates, aka Workplace Engagement around Waste

Toolkit Page

Presentation

  • Leah Ricci, Gillette
  • Charles Goodhue and Ian Todreas, ERG
  • Joe Graves, Boston Properties

April 2012 - Energy Efficiency & Nstar Small Business Direct Install Program

Presentation

Our first meeting held in the Main Streets was hosted by Challenge participant the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance (MAHA). MAHA's facility was builtin 2008 by Studio G Architects, a sustainable design firm and is an energy star rated building.

In addressing energy efficiency, the first step is taken by Challenge participants through the scorecard gathering facility data to asses the facility in it's current state. From there, businesses can sign up for a free energy assesment (audit) with Rise Engineering (contracted by Nstar). Todd Cowger, a Senior Account Manager with Rise explained the process of the audit, how to evaluate next steps for implementations of any recommendations, and the different financing & incentive programs availbale. Additionally, Todd described the other programs available through the utilities that cover items not addressed by the direct install program.

Sylvia Mihich, one of the lead designers of MAHA took the group on a tour of the building and educated us on it's unique features. Some highlights include the use of recycled building materials throughout, an "open-spine-like" layout down the middle of the building to optimize daylight and communication, ample signage about building features, and more. Read more details here.

March 2012 - Challenge Build Your Own Green Fair

Presentation

Toolkit Page

  • Josh Lynch (josh.lynch@nextsteplivinginc.com) and Antoine Mouchati (antoine.mouchati@nextsteplivinginc.com), Next Step Living
  • Terri Lane (terri@techniart.com) Mass Save Lighting Fair
  • Linda Natansohn (linda@practicallygreen.com), Practically Green

March 2012 - Sustainability & Climate Change Steering Committee

    • Challenge for Sustainability 2011 Results and 2012 Strategy Presentation
  • Mark Sylvia, Commissioner, Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER)

February 2012 - Making Sense of Your Energy Bill

Portfolio ManagerPresentation

  • Richard Boehler, richard.boehler@nstar.com, NSTAR, Energy Link
  • Jason Turgeon, turgeon.jason@epa.gov, EPA, Portfolio Manager

Just like weight watchers, the first step to good resource management is weighing yourself or benchmarking. Utility bills whether they be electric, gas, waste or water can be confusing, not to mention for tenants who receive excel spreadsheets with confusing formats from their property manager. Here are few good questions to ask yourself about your bill (Read more).

January 2012 - EDF Climate Corp Interns & Communicating Sustainability to the Public

EDF Climate Corp SavingsFor our first Challenge for Sustainability meeting of 2012 we had a packed house at Nixon Peabody, with 32 attendees and 3 over the phone. With a much larger group this year, it may finally be time to look at webinars or something similar so attendees could participate remotely.

After an inspiring round of introductions where each person told the group about initiatives they were excited to put energy into, Megan reviewed some program housekeeping items like the scorecard being due by January 31, Utility Data Release Form, Knowledge & Culture Survey including meeting topics for the year, and the upcoming Challenge Awards and Cocktail Social (invitation only) on Monday, March 12th at Marliave.

Our meeting also included a presentation from EDF and David Newman on how to communicate your sustainability goals and mission to the public (read more).

November 2011 - Transportation & Complete Streets

Transportation BenefitsTalk about a beast of a subject, transportation and the issues surrounding it are hard ones to address because unless your business is based on the transportation of goods and services, there are few direct, measurable savings to quantify the financial investment or time. In the terms of the three pillars of sustainability - economy, society and environment, most of the benefits that come from implementing sustainable transportation practices are in society and environment. This is not to underestimate the effects of business engagement in the mobility patterns of their employees, as shown by the benefit chart below (read more).

October 2011 - Waste

This is the area of sustainability that we have seen the most impactful movement for 2011.  It seems that every one of our facilities is adopting single stream or composting, even if it just means a person taking responsibility for running their bi-weekly compost collection to the local disposal site, like Whole Foods in Cambridge. Full recap here.

September 2011 - Water

July 2011 - Onsite Solar and EDF Climate Corp Interns

June 2011 - Bring Your Board Member to Class Day

May 2011 - Electric Energy Efficiency Incentives

  • NSTAR from John Hoey of Renew Boston and Patrick McDonnel of NSTAR

May 2011 - Energy Management Roundtable

April 2011 - Renewable Energy Credits

  • Boston Buying Power , Steve Rumpler, City of Boston and Bill Riordin, Taylor Consulting
  • Green Power Partnership, Anthony Amato, ERG and EPA

March 2011 - Employee Engagement and Benefits

February 2011 - Peak Energy Demand Strategies

  • EnerNOC, Jim Geibutowski and Dave Shultz of EnerNOC

November 30, 2010 - Waste Reduction

Special Events

April 2012 - The Food Project Volunteer Day

A Better City was joined by employees from Hines, Boston Properties, Tsoi/Kobus Architects and Au Bon Pain for a day of volunteering at The Food Project's urban farm in Dorchester. Because Boston received a lot of rain the prior two days, it was time to weed with the hula hoes and boy did we get a lot done! We were also tasked with pulling last year's chard roots and toiling the soil where rye was planted to prepare for a new crop. The 50 degree sunny weather provided another great day of volunteering for a fabulous hunger relief and food system organization with the added benefits of breathing fresh air, exercising our backs and cleaning our fingernails on return to our office. For more pictures, click here.

Challenge Awards - Toasting to Success in Sustainability

Nixon Peabody receiving 2011 Highest Score Award from past winner, Nutter.Boston did not disappoint weather wise for the Challenge Awards held on Monday, March 12th, 2012 at Marliave Restaurant, the fourth oldest in the city. It was a 69 degree day which worked on two levels for our awards event: 1) we're reminded that climate change is real and the Challenge for Sustainability serves a real purpose and 2) clear, blue skies helps us appreciate why we are working so hard.

This year's Challenge Awards recognize the accomplishments from the class of 2011, 37 properties, 20 million square feet, 40,000 employees! 50 of the past and current participants came out to toast their cohorts' success. Click here for more pictures and highlights of the event.

Kick Off for 2012 Challenge for Sustainability featuring Kathy Loftus, Whole Foods

75 business owners, facility managers, sustainability directors and property managers attended A Better City'sKathy Loftus, Whole Foods 2012 Challenge for Sustainability kick off meeting on December 15, 2011. As of the kick off meeting, the 2012 class consists of 37 previous properties plus 28 new recruits. The kick off meeting marked the beginning of year's worth of benchmarking, learning and sharing best practices between restaurants; grocery stores; hotels; furniture stores; cultural, community and learning institutions; convention and sports centers; religious organizations; financial, legal, architectural, construction, environmental, event coordination and property management firms; and, Boston's largest skyscrapers. Total property statistics are not finalized yet, but we are estimating that the 2012 class for the Challenge for Sustainability will touch 35 million square feet and 57,000 employees! Read more.

Energy Management Roundtable - February, May, August, November 2011

Our fourth and final energy management roundtable of 2011 was held on Thursday, November 10th in Foley Hoag's conference room that provided a spectacular view of Boston's skyline from the Innovation District. We had a more diverse group of participants than ever including:

Hospitality - Sheraton, Marriott, Au Bon Pain

Legal, Financial & Professional Services - Foley Hoag, Nutter, McClennan & Fish, Nixon Peabody, Putnam Investments

Whole Buildings - Peabody Office Furniture, Gilette

Read full recap here.

Net Impact Conference, October 27-29, 2011 Portland, OR

Megan Ramey represented A Better City at the annual Net Impact conference, which convened the next generation of leaders that use their careers throughout every sector to tackle the world's toughest problems. Besides the inspiration of being surrounded by like minded business folk and getting to stay in a platinum rated bike city with a huge focus on farm to table restaurants, there was a substantial amount of information and best practices to take note of, which can be found here.

Additionally, Megan highly recommends watching the opening key note of the conference below.

Lord Michael Hastings - 2011 Net Impact Conference from Net Impact on Vimeo. 

Aligning Tenant/Landlord Sustainability and Energy Goals Forum - October 20, 2011

Fifty sustainability professionals, property managers, lawyers and other interested parties attended “Aligning Tenant/Landlord Sustainability and Energy Goals”, a breakfast forum hosted by A Better City, on October 20th.  The forum highlighted the incentives of working with your tenant or property manager to realize sustainability goals.

Click here for a full recap of the event.

Green Team Forum - July 14, 2011

Good food, great panelist presentations and creative brainstorming took place at the Green Team Forumat the Sheraton Boston Hotel. Megan Ramey, Sustainability Coordinator for A Better City, kicked off the meeting by asking participants who biked to the forum to stand and followed up by asking those who walked or took transit to stand. This was followed by a round of applause, "We don't recognize those who practice what they preach often enough, especially in terms of sustainable transportation," said Megan.

Rick Dimino, President and CEO of ABC, welcomed the audience and professed why Sustainability is important to the City of Boston and A Better City. Additionally he iterated that Green Teams were important because these are the people that will actually get the work done and accomplish sustainability goals.

Megan then gave an overview of the Challenge for Sustainability, a key environmental program for A Better City, and why organizing this forum was slightly selfish as she is in a state of continuous learning and absorbing. She had three takeaway points for the forum attendees:

  1. What's in it for you?
  2. There's no right way to organize a Green Team - Top Down, Grassroots or Combination of both..
  3. Be inclusive - cross departmental and at least one senior respresentative

The three organizations represented by the panelists, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard University, showed us that there are three distinct approaches to organizing a green team: Top Down, Grassroots or middle and out.

Blue Cross Blue Shield (grass roots approach), Lucy Darragh, Manager Community Relations

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (top down), Amy Lipman, Environmental Sustainability Coordinator

Harvard University Office for Sustainability (middle and out), Kate Cosgrove, Law School Sustainability Coordinator and Elaine Strunk, Manager Sustainability Engagement

After a short break, it was onto the workshop portion of the forum, where there were 5 subjects covered:

  1. What makes a team successful (brainstorming document) and Barriers and Incentives of Green Teams (brainstorming document).
  2. Checklist for Starting a Green Team (Energy Star PDF).
  3. Stakeholder Mapping (Net Impact Template or ABC Template).
  4. Identifying Potential Projects (brainstorming document).
  5. Communications and Engagement

Green Team Forum Presentation, Megan Ramey, A Better City.

ABC Honors 2010 Challenge for Sustainability Participants - January 20, 2011

challenge_awardTo close the book on a successful pilot year, A Better City hosted a party to recognize the extraordinary achievements of the participants in our Challenge.  Jim Hunt, Secretary of the Environment Department for the City of Boston was on hand to congratulate the participants as well as urge them to go “broader and deeper” in their goals.  Rick Mattila, Genzyme’s Director of Environmental Affairs and the Chair of A Better City’s Sustainability committee spoke about the founding of the Challenge and how crucial it is to engage the business community around these issues. 

Click here for a full recap of the event.

Greenbuild - November 15-20, 2010 Chicago

Megan Ramey, ABC's Sustainability Coordinator, attended the USGBC Greenbuild Conference in Chicago, IL. The following materials provide a summary of the conference.

Making the Business Case for Sustainability - November 9, 2010

Today, successful organizations include sustainability as a central component of their business strategy. Whether their reasons are purely economical, altruistic, or somewhere in between, they have taken the opportunity to be leaders in the realm of corporate social responsibility and that has had positive impact on their bottom line.

Whether you are a believer or yet to be convinced, A Better City, will host a panel of Boston professionals to provide the business case for sustainability. In turn, you can use this case to form a strategic plan towards sustainability with your CEO, employees, customers, shareholders, developers, facilities manager or building operator. Our goal is to equip you in the art of selling sustainability in your organization. Who Should Attend

Click here for a recap of the event and links to presentations.



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