GreenShape LLC is a nationally recognized sustainability consulting firm based in Washington, DC. We help building owners, facilities manager, and real estate development teams to create and operate energy efficient, environmentally effective green buildings. We guide organizations through the sustainability planning and implementation process to impact environmental, human health and financial return on investment.

Qualifications

GreenShape is seeking a LEED Accredited Professional with experience in Project or Facilities Management and expertise in implementation of the LEED rating systems including NC, CS and EBOM. Applicants for the position must hold at least a Bachelor or Masters Degree in Business, Marketing, Facilities and Property Management, Engineering, Environmental Science, Architecture or a related field. Applicants should demonstrate a track record of successfully controlling project schedules, scopes, and budgets. Additional skills in building systems analysis, energy modeling and facilities operations would also be beneficial. Responsibilities of this position include:

Technical

• Facilitating sustainability strategy definition meetings/charrettes
• Providing technical guidance to assist clients in using sustainable materials, technologies and practices
• Advising building design, construction, and operations teams on the LEED documentation process
• Overseeing the review of submitted documentation for accuracy and completeness
• Managing the LEED certification process and interactions with GBCI
• Researching emerging technologies and trends in green building and sustainable practices

Management and Professional

• Providing top-notch customer service
• Overseeing progression of multiple projects within an established scope and budget
• Coordinating with clients to deliver services within overall project schedule
• Managing project budgets, approving project time records and invoices
• Following up with clients to ensure proper invoice payment
• Managing, training and mentoring technical support staff

Business Development

• Cultivating relationships with current clients
• Outreach and communications with industry professionals to generate new business
• Oversight of proposal development
• Participation in interviews with prospective clients
• Increasing company profile through public speaking, writing, and community participation

Skills and Abilities

• Familiarity with building design, construction, and operational practices
• Excellent time management, planning, analytic and organization skills
• Excellent verbal communications skills and a friendly, positive disposition
• Strong, concise writing and editorial skills
• Self-directed and able to work well independently and as part of a team
• Resourceful and able to find creative solutions
• Detail-oriented and able to effectively manage large amounts of information
• Comfortable using current IT systems and software including the MS Office suite

GreenShape offers a salary commensurate with experience and excellent benefits. Our office is located in the central business district in Washington, DC, one block from metro red, orange and blue lines at Farragut Square. For more information, visit our web site www.greenshape.com.

To apply, submit your resume and a letter of interest outlining your relevant experience and green building career goals to hr@greenshape.com. Please indicate your name and job title (Sustainability Project Manager) in the subject line of your email. Only candidates who qualify will be contacted.

ASHRAE Standard 189.1, “The Green Standard,” was released in 2011 as a new standard for designing, building, and operating green buildings. The comprehensive standard was jointly sponsored by ASHRAE, USGBC, and the Illuminating Engineering Society, and is designed to help achieve high performance buildings on a more widespread basis than ever before.

How is it used?

Standard 189.1 is intended for adoption into model building codes to guide the development of all building types except low-rise residential. Municipalities around the country have already begun including the standard in their building code updates, in addition to some government agencies. We expect to see many more adoptions in the coming months and years. Standard 189.1 is also included in the International Green Construction Code as an alternative compliance path.

How does it compare?

The new standard borrows from existing green building methods, integrating existing ASHRAE standards with updates and utilizing a similar framework to LEED. Standard 189.1 incorporates ASHRARE Standard 90.1 (Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings) with modifications, ASHRAE 62.1 (Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality) with modifications, and ASHRAE Standard 55 (Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy) in full. Although the new standard appears similar to LEED at first glance, it is not a design guide or a rating system and is intended to be adopted as a building code.

What does it look like?

Standard 189.1 takes on a new and comprehensive structure unlike any other ASHRAE standard to date.  Like LEED, it covers 6 sections:  Site Sustainability, Water Use Efficiency, Energy Efficiency, Indoor Environmental Quality, Buildings Impact on Atmosphere, Materials & Resources, and Construction & Plans for Operation. Standard 189.1 requires project teams to comply with a selection of mandatory provisions, but the rest of the requirements can be pursued either on a prescriptive or performance basis. This allows much more flexibility in documentation requirements, distinguishing itself from other green building guides and rating systems.

• Mandatory Provisions:  Set of criteria that must be complied with by all projects.
• Prescriptive Option:  Requires projects to meet criteria in a specified manner and provides a simple way to show compliance that involves little or no calculations.
• Performance Option:  Requires projects an alternative way to show compliance that is typically more complex then the prescriptive option.

Sections Breakdown of Standard 189.1 – A Quick Look

• Site Sustainability

Mandatory Provisions cover allowable sites, urban heat island, and light pollution issues.

• Key Points:
• Urban Heat Island – Standard 189.1 focuses on site impact issues in addition to building impact. The standard requires 3 year aged SRI values of 64 (low slope) and 29 (steep slope) for site.  The 3 year aged SRI of 64/29 also covers roof insulation. Standard 90.1-2010 focuses only on building energy impact issues.
• Light Pollution – Standard 189.1 address light trespass, pollution and glare issues. The standard requires compliance with backlight up-light and glare ratings (BUG). Standard 90.1 only indirectly controls light pollution specifying maximum allowable power densities and required control.

• Water Use Efficiency

Mandatory Provisions cover Site Water Use, Building Water Use, HVAC Systems & Equipment, and Water Consumption Management.

• Key Points:
• Focuses on overall demand reduction for building water use as well as site water use.

•  Energy Efficiency

Mandatory Provisions for Renewable Energy Preparedness, Energy Consumption Metering, and Data Storage for minimum 36 months.

• Key Points:
• Standard 189.1 has more stringent requirements than Standard 90.1 with respect to building envelope, envelope commissioning, demand control ventilation, fan power duct sealing and lighting
• Prescriptive requirement of the standard requires projects to have some amount of onsite renewable energy production. Based on roof square footage and number of stories. ASHRAE 90.1 has no onsite renewable energy requirement.

• Indoor Environmental Quality

Mandatory Provisions include Outdoor Airflow, Tobacco Smoke Control, Outdoor Air Delivery Monitoring, Filtration and Air Cleaning, Daylighting, Thermal Comfort, Acoustics, Contaminant Source Control, and Building Entry Systems.

• Key Points:
• Requirements are similar to USGBC’s LEED 2009 NC.
• The standard allows only the ventilation rate procedure and requires permanently mounted devices that measure incoming outdoor air flow.

• Building’s Impact on Atmosphere, Materials and Resources

Mandatory Provisions include Construction Waste Management and No CFC-based Refrigerants.

• Key Points:
• Requirements are similar to USGBC’s LEED 2009 NC Prescriptive Option restricts use of endangered  wood species, recycled content, regional material requirements.
• Performance Option includes life cycle assessments.
• Construction and Plans for Operation

Mandatory Provisions emphasize Commissioning, IAQ Construction Management, Measurement and Verification of Water, Energy and Outdoor Air-flow, and Maintenance Planning.

• Key Points:
• Commissioning is considered standard on a project and includes a two level approach based on size.
• Measurement and Verification requires plans for operation and requirements for monitoring devices.

A building that complies with Standard 189.1 should easily be able to achieve a LEED Silver rating. If ASHRAE Standard 189.1 is required in your jurisdiction, GreenShape can help your project comply with the standard offering guidance throughout design and construction, helping you to reach both the ASHRAE and LEED performance thresholds.

For more details regarding ASHRAE Standard 189.1, tips, and tools for adopting the standard, visit ASHRAE’s website.

1. The fifth round of Public Comments will be open until December 10, primarily focusing on the Materials & Resources section. We encourage you to participate! Visit USGBC’s website to review draft credit requirements and submit your own comments.
2. Beta Testing for the new rating system is scheduled to begin this November, as another an opportunity to help refine support tools and resources before they are released. Contact leedv4@usgbc.org if you are interested in participating.
3. The Consensus Body Opt-in period will be from April 1- April 30, 2013. In order to participate in the final vote on LEED v4, USGBC members must opt in during this window.  
4. The Final Ballot will be conducted in Summer 2013. Members who opted into the consensus body will be able to vote to finalize technical changes to LEED.

If all goes as planned and the rating system is approved, we expect to see LEED v4 released before the end of 2013. For more information, visit USGBC’s website at https://new.usgbc.org/leed/v4.

Brooklyn Grange

I met Ben Flanner of Brooklyn Grange at a program at Brookside Gardens, and learned about his rooftop farm which provides produce to high-end restaurants and at farmers’ markets throughout New York City.  Started by committed entrepreneurs, the farm is “almost profitable” after 3 years in business.  They lease the rooftops of several warehouses and have had much success, not only at producing food in the city, but creating community, excitement, and educational programs to help save kids from Nature Deficit Disorder.

We’ve been working with long-time client Sean Cahill of Property Group Partners (who has LEED Platinum , Gold and Silver buildings under their belt) on the “beyond LEED” Capitol Crossing project. Being planned to bridge I-395 where it cuts through the city near Georgetown Law School, the project will restore the urban grid and create three new blocks of usable land for development. Not only will 100% of the project’s energy be generated onsite and stormwater from the site will be repurposed, but Washington, DC will have its first urban rooftop farms atop all three new buildings! Read the story on Washingtonpost.com: D.C. farms could rise above I-395. 

The article also references Mayor Vincent Gray’s Sustainability Plan in which “Within two decades…the city envisions 25 percent of all food consumed in the District will be grown within a 100-mile radius.”  Download a copy of the Mayor’s A Vision for a Sustainable DC and join GreenShape in making urban agriculture part of the sustainability equation.

These programs offer basic frameworks for improved attention to landscape, but more can still be done to create a holistic relationship within the earth in the context of urban and suburban living.  I’m involved in the growing movement to incorporate edibles into the built environment, to produce a yield to nourish humans and other species, and to increase our connection to the nutrient cycles while saving the embodied energy associated with large scale food production and transportation.

Here at GreenShape we’ve been exploring the idea of how to grow truly local food for years, even before our 2008 work with Shalom Baranes Associates helping USDA to conceptualize a new cafeteria which included vertical and rooftop gardens where “farmers in residence” help visitors learn about the nutrient cycle.

• I read books about biointensive gardening, container gardening and The Four Season Harvest for residential scale gardening.
• We installed a rain barrel to the gutter on our Capitol Hill garage (the original home of GreenShape LLC), attempted composting (there have been a few smelly disasters!) and joined a community garden.
• I learned from good friends who had started CSA farms in Maryland House in the Woods and Jug Bay.
• I’ve begun to learn about Permaculture, a place-based agricultural design methodology that works with and promotes ecological systems.

Solutions regarding larger scale urban agriculture that we’re currently exploring include:

• How do we make the economics work for urban agriculture when land is so expensive in our city?
• What are the legislative limits to what we can do, and what activities are underway to modify them to be more supportive of urban food production?
• How do we get to the next level on both residential and large scale projects?

Answers to these questions will be the theme of upcoming posts, but for now let’s focus on….

The NEW Green Roof

We are proud of the well-deserved recognition of JBG’s leadership and innovation in the commercial real estate market and to have had the opportunity to provide JBG with consulting support.  In addition to managing the certification of nine buildings within their portfolio since 2005, GreenShape recently provided guidance toward the implementation of JBG’s Sustainability Plan, introducing them to the LEED Volume Build program to certify their portfolio of existing buildings, conducting training and webinars to orient Property Managers to the LEED for Existing Buildings Operation and Maintenance rating system, highlighted tips and tricks for implementing “green” operations, helping the sustainability team establish programs and policies such as green cleaning, waste management, and sustainable purchasing, and introducing vendors to support the achievement of sustainability goals.

JBG’s commitment to sustainability and their hands-on approach to integrating sustainability programs within their daily operating practices have resulted in reduce expenses and enable them to stand out as shining leaders in the industry.  Congratulations JBG!

For tips and tricks on how to implement your sustainability plan, see Successfully Implementing Your Sustainability Plan.

LEED and the Baltimore Green Building Standards: Greening Your Building Cost-Effectively

Thursday, October 25, 2012, 11:30am-1:30pm
Presented by: BOMA Baltimore Monthly Speaker Series & Networking Event

Whether you are improving your existing building or building new, this session is designed to help demystify LEED and the Baltimore Green Building Standards. Learn how to add value to your building without breaking the bank by using a team approach which involves ownership, property management, and vendors/contractors who provide services to your building. Presenter Iris Amdur of GreenShape LLC, sustainability consultant for the new Exelon/Constellation Energy Headquarters, will share her process, lessons learned, tips and tricks for cost-effective green development gleaned from her work on over 250 green buildings.

Location:
The Center Club
100 Light Street, 16th Floor
Baltimore, MD 21202

Click here for more information and to register for the event.