At this Green Ribbon Schools Award-winning, 1,200-acre campus between Green and Duck Lakes, sustainability comes naturally—and the Interlochen experience naturally embraces climate action.
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While they are excellent guiding documents, climate action plans (CAPs) sometimes fall short of providing the detail necessary to achieve a particular goal. When this is the case, an important next step is to dive deeper into that topic and create a plan—as Bentley University did to complement materials management goals in their CAP.
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Laboratories are energy- and resource-intensive spaces with a host of important safety and environmental requirements that are necessary for their success. Given the ever-increasing need for energy-efficient buildings, lab administrators and researchers are confronted with the challenge of how to build and operate these complex spaces to protect occupants and the planet.
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In a dense, urban campus housing an Ivy League medical school and active R1 research laboratories, GreenerU took on a complex challenge: to design and implement a high-performance HVAC energy retrofit in a fully occupied, high-stakes environment—without disrupting operations.
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From climate to native plants to vintage cars, GreenerU’s Vice President of Operations Jody Renouf brings decades of experience and a passion for refreshing old buildings with new, decarbonized breaths of life.
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When it comes to ushering you along the many steps of your decarbonization journey, GreenerU is second to none.
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At GreenerU, diversity, equity, and inclusion isn’t a series of checkboxes, quotas, or compliance requirements. It’s about building a culture of trust.
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In deeply uncertain times such as these, leadership during an ongoing global climate crisis means mobilizing your allies, actively listening, iterating to form shared goals, and holding steady as a team to walk through the fire. To me, that sounds like a planning process.
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You created your first climate action plan three, five, ten, maybe even seventeen years ago. Whether things went exactly according to plan or fell off the rails, when it’s time to update your climate action plan, you have options.
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An institution’s decarbonization options can depend heavily on location. Boston and its neighboring cities Cambridge and Newton have some of the most progressive climate initiatives and legislation in the country, requiring building owners to invest in decarbonization measures to meet building ordinances. We understand that decarbonization is a complex topic made even more complicated by location-specific opportunities and regulations and used our experience working on decarbonization in Boston to provide a stripped-down explanation of what decarbonization is and how to make progress.
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Laboratories are not ordinary workspaces. They often operate around the clock and have some of the highest energy use intensity of most building types. So how do building managers handle decarbonization in occupied spaces such as these?
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I say potato. You say potato. I say climate action plan. You say decarbonization strategy. No matter how you say it, let’s get this done.
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If you only have time to do three things to push climate action and decarbonization forward at your school, what should you do? That’s the type of question we hoped to shed some light on in this webinar. We understand that the folks doing sustainability work at K12 schools usually do so as a part-time job or volunteer work. With limited time and resources, we want to help you find the most impactful actions you can take. That starts with understanding decarbonization itself.
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At Wellesley Village Church, faith and stewardship go hand in hand. When the church’s oil-fired HVAC system reached the end of its useful life, the congregation faced an important crossroads: simply replace what was there—or align their mechanical systems with their values by moving forward with a geothermal HVAC upgrade.
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Educational campuses have long relied on fossil-fuel-burning central heating plants. Now they are transitioning to low-carbon, high-efficiency energy systems, such as district geothermal.
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Artist Allison Newsome of Rhode Island is known for her creations of sustainable sculpture, including Three Sisters Rainkeep at Historic New England’s Casey Farm. Now she has created a new form of utility sculpture: the solar chimney.
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Facing challenges of resiliency for a critical care facility, the medical school and hospital campus are innovating a path toward zero emissions through decarbonization planning.
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With this school’s climate goals in mind, GreenerU designs and implements energy-saving measures that reduce emissions and increase comfort, all while minimizing disruptions to learning and research, to help in decarbonizing a medical school campus.
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For seven years, GreenerU had the privilege of working with a New England-based medical school that has been promoting innovative lab ventilation retrofit design. Its construction team retrofitted one lab per weekend—42 times.
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The impending change in federal administration means important benefits of the IRA may come under fire, but the work of decarbonizing our buildings began long before the IRA and will go on long after it, whenever that may be.
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In this webinar from November 22, 2024, Historic New England joined GreenerU to discuss their climate action planning journey and historic preservation efforts.
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A decades-old problem of siting and permitting clean energy infrastructure expeditiously—with consideration for natural, community, and environmental justice impacts—was solved through a stakeholder-engaged, consensus-driven process. Governor Maura Healey signed the 2024 Climate Law into effect on Wednesday, November 20, 2024, ushering in a major step in the state's clean energy transition.
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GreenerU is excited to be selected as a vendor for the City of Boston’s newly launched Building Decarbonization Advisor Program. This initiative, part of the Building Emissions Reduction and Disclosure Ordinance (BERDO), is designed to assist eligible building owners in identifying and developing decarbonization solutions and supporting Boston’s commitment to a net-zero future by 2050.
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In October, GreenerU’s CEO Rob Durning attended ASHRAE’s Decarbonization of Tall Buildings conference in New York City, a gathering of industry leaders focused on addressing the challenges and innovations in construction and building operations. Rob shared his insights with the GreenerU team, and we’re pleased to now share them here.
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GreenerU’s Vice President of Planning attended the Decarb New York 2024 Summit on September 19 and brought back some key takeaways about technologies, financing, and successes at higher education institutions across New York.
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The nation’s oldest and largest regional heritage organization approached climate action planning in three areas: mitigation, resilience, and climate justice.
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One of the key innovations of the IRA is the introduction of direct pay options for nonprofit organizations, allowing them to receive cash refunds for green energy incentives previously out of reach. In this webinar, green energy tax expert Jerome L. Garciano provided insights into these new regulations and answered pressing questions from attendees.
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From nuclear engineering to climate communications to data analytics, GreenerU's 2024 summer interns bring a wealth of interests and perspectives to the team—and we can't wait for you to get to know them better.
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With any new version of STARS comes a slew of methodology changes that can be difficult to manage and keep track of. With this in mind, GreenerU has identified the three most impactful changes that will affect your STARS process the next time you submit.
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Design is a powerful tool in GreenerU’s arsenal, and one that we leverage to tackle one of the biggest obstacles in our field: communicating about sustainability.
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Ensuring the congregation at the bustling Temple Shir Tikva didn’t miss a beat during a major renovation of its HVAC system was seamless due to detailed planning and teamwork. The new VRF heat pumps are estimated to save TST up to $353,000 in utility incentives through Mass Save.
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The electric vehicle charging infrastructure in Massachusetts is getting a big financial boost. Learn more about what this means for drivers and the organizations looking to install charging stations.
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Whether reviewing, coordinating, or managing the entire process of submitting an inventory, GreenerU can help you with AASHE STARS.
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Vibrant. Exhilarating. Complicated. Messy.
We're not talking about your love life. We’re talking about working in an institutional setting, where getting things done is no simple task. If you’re looking at launching a major initiative, an interdepartmental project, or moving forward with your climate action goals, you need to draw from a different toolkit than your job description outlines—you need to be persuasive.
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GreenerU strives to empower our clients in exploring pathways to lower greenhouse gas emissions and make sustainable lifestyle choices. But what do we do when no one is looking?
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GreenerU's Jennifer Haugh leans into the complex. Learn how she believes in the healing powers of stakeholder engagement—and how her background in art and music makes her the perfect fit to lead your climate action planning process.
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Passage of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act created unprecedented green energy benefits and incentives for businesses, individuals, and institutions to invest in electrification, renewables, and efficiency measures—from electric vehicles to EV charging stations to solar PV and more. New with this legislation is the opportunity for nonprofit organizations to get a cash refund for the value of tax credits ordinarily out of their reach.
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Libraries are finding new and innovative ways to endure, structurally and purposefully, for future generations. Take a look at how this New England library's decarbonization plan is carving a path to a carbon-free future.
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Boston’s BERDO—the Building Energy Reduction and Disclosure Ordinance—was developed to help the city achieve its climate goals of all buildings reaching net zero emissions by 2050. Building owners need to reach significant reductions to meet five-year incremental goals or face fines.
But some building owners are finding BERDO requirements challenging to meet from a financial standpoint. How will building owners plan for updated standards as they become more stringent down the road? What is the best way to deal with deferred maintenance? What financing opportunities are available? What are the additional benefits that can help justify first costs?
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AASHE STARS inventorying, analysis, and submission is a lengthy and complex process—one that can be all-consuming for an institution. But one of the purposes of STARS is to provide a baseline of data to help your institution understand the next steps toward implementing sustainable solutions. Meghna Tare, chief sustainability officer at the University of Texas at Arlington, joined us in September 2022 to talk about how UTA is leveraging STARS reporting for change by making the data accessible and clear to campus stakeholders.
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A recent study published in the Lancet from a survey of 10,000 young people (ages 16-25) in ten countries, including the U.S., showed high levels of climate anxiety among respondents. K12 schools are responding with more sustainability curriculum, greenhouse gas emissions and other sustainability inventories, climate action planning, and energy-efficiency measures. Watch this insightful discussion with sustainability representatives from three schools that have taken different steps toward climate change mitigation efforts and sustainability in K12 schools and find out how they got started.
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From time to time, GreenerU hosts webinars and workshops on topics ranging from climate neutrality and energy efficiency measures to climate action planning and facilitation. Watch this space for upcoming GreenerU webinars featuring stories from your peers, lessons learned, and best practices in sustainability and climate change mitigation.
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Rob Durning, the GreenerU CEO, talks about how climate change mitigation, energy efficiency, decarbonization, and construction project management all boil down to a simple formula: helping people.
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Isabella Stewart Gardner was famously precise in her vision and oversight of her museum’s creation. GreenerU is helping this masterpiece of an institution in meeting its sustainability goals—in making museum-quality efficiency upgrades, working toward climate neutrality, operating the museum in perpetuity.
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An ongoing tradition at GreenerU are the "cocktails du quartier," shared with team trivia winners at company all-hands meetings. Below are some of our recent favorites.
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If the toughest of customers with the highest standards for vehicular reliability can find satisfaction in the latest incarnations of the electric vehicle, think of what lies in store for other EV types, and furthermore, the future of electric vehicles.
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Is your facility ready for the future of electric vehicles? Now is the perfect time to find out. Projects may be eligible for 100% of infrastructure upgrade costs through utility incentive programs—and GreenerU is here to help you navigate the whole process.
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One of the country’s most prestigious veterinary animal care facilities charts a path to a modern plumbing upgrade—a challenge not unlike converting to low-temperature hot water systems. And all without missing a beat of regular operations. Here’s how they did it.
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We regretfully announce the passing of an Industrial-Age workhorse that has warmed many hearts, as well as the planet: the boiler.
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A new requirement of BERDO 2.0 in 2022: third-party verification of buildings must be completed by a qualified energy professional. GreenerU is here to help you not only with verification, but with preparing your institutions, buildings, and facilities for a climate-neutral Boston.
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Participating utilities to offer incentives for Massachusetts ratepayers for heat pumps in the transition to electrification.
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In Brookline, on the edge of Boston, the Dexter Park apartments are ideally situated for students, museum-goers, movie-lovers, and classical music aficionados. They are also an example of forward-thinking energy efficiency measures.
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The GreenerMass deadline for the expenditure of remaining funds has been extended. This program offers capital for energy-efficiency projects requiring no up-front costs to institutions.
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Understanding the ins and outs of financing energy projects is not everyone's strength. But getting more familiar with the different, sometimes creative ways you can help your institution figure out how to pay for efficiency and renewables could make a difference. This presentation was designed to help you develop more familiarity with the terms, the pros, the cons, and the contingencies to make conversations with your institution's CFO go more smoothly.
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With everything else competing for funding, bandwidth, and attention, how do you integrate climate neutrality efforts with other campus priorities?
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As institutional campuses are exploring ways to draw down greenhouse gas emissions, one of the largest sources of ongoing emissions is heat via fossil fuels. Many campuses use steam, a century-old technology that relies on coal, natural gas, or nuclear energy to heat water into steam that is piped through buildings through radiators. But technology has greatly advanced to the point of requiring nearly ambient-temperature water to heat our buildings. Moving toward climate neutrality means moving away from these old technologies and towards approaches like strategic electrification that can be fueled by renewable sources.
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From college presidents to the U.S. President, there is a growing drumbeat from leadership nationwide to address the climate crisis. The general consensus is that the path to mitigating climate change is clear: achieving climate neutrality. This article is a look at the current state of climate neutrality on college campuses, zeroing in on efforts, challenges, and solutions.
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GreenerMass helps the oldest continuously operating boarding school in New England undertake steps to keep its campus operating efficiently. Thanks to this program, the burden of funding first costs for energy-efficiency projects is alleviated.
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What is leadership? You might think it’s your campus President—and you might be right. But campuses are more complicated than straightforward hierarchies, and there are tried-and-true ways of empowering and engaging leadership and supporters of climate mitigation that draw from best practices in grassroots advocacy and strategic communications.
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On May 20, GreenerU hosted the first in a discussion series aimed at collaborating to overcome common institutional hurdles to achieving climate neutrality. The following are tips and takeaways from our discussion with representatives from public universities, private colleges, and independent schools about navigating the steps to climate neutrality.
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Navigating the steps to climate neutrality is hard. But we're in this together. From big-picture planning and programming to detail-driven project orientation, GreenerU helps institutions navigate the organizational, operational, and infrastructure changes required to reach climate neutrality. Join us for a series of facilitated peer discussions oriented to support each other through the process of achieving climate neutrality.
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Getting started on the path toward climate neutrality means establishing a baseline accounting of your institution's greenhouse gas emissions. Whether you choose to account for Scopes 1, 2, and/or 3 emissions, we have the skills to help you—or you can use these tools to conduct your own greenhouse gas emissions inventory.
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As any sustainability professional is aware, navigating the steps to climate neutrality is like putting together a 7,500-piece jigsaw puzzle with no edge pieces. Technical solutions abound, but the roadblocks are many: financing, technical feasibility, political will, staffing and bandwidth, and stakeholder support are just a few. On April 14, 2021, GreenerU hosted a webinar on navigating the steps to climate neutrality with representatives from independent schools, public and private colleges, and nonprofits.
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After twelve years of experience in the business of sustainability consulting, energy-efficiency engineering, and construction project management, we are focusing all of those capabilities on tackling a single (enormous) challenge: helping educational and community institutions achieve climate neutrality.
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“It is easy to know that your meetings aren’t being productive, but knowing why is much harder. Learning what an effective meeting looks like, and how to run such a meeting, is such a valuable skill that I didn’t even know I needed.” — facilitation training workshop participant
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“We are now doing capital planning more intentionally than ever, and sustainability has become a default factor in those projects.” —Mary Fischer, manager of sustainability programs
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As the coronavirus shutdown has threatened nonprofits’ funding, opportunities to find cost savings are more important than ever. Simultaneously, Boston-based nonprofit institutions are striving to meet the City’s carbon neutrality goals. But installing energy-saving measures can require investments that many nonprofit institutions are unable to make.
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As the coronavirus shutdown has threatened nonprofits’ funding, opportunities to find cost savings are more important than ever. Simultaneously, Boston-based nonprofit institutions are striving to meet the City’s carbon neutrality goals. But installing energy-saving measures can require investments that many nonprofit institutions are unable to make. The Tax-Exempt Lease Program, or TELP, through the Boston Industrial Development Financing Authority, is an energy-efficiency financing opportunity that makes these investments possible.
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Whether through turnkey energy solutions or owner’s project management, GreenerU’s eye for detail, customer-first service, and communication style keeps the trains running on time.
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William James College, located in Newton, Mass., offers accredited mental health professional training programs, including a program that trains veterans training to treat other veterans. Financing building improvements through GreenerMass has made it possible to begin addressing issues with building comfort, improving the physical environment for students and educators.
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On Tuesday, October 13, 2020, GreenerU's David Adamian and EcoMotion's Ted Flanigan and Mark Hopkinson teamed up to present this new financing mechanism. Learn more in the video below.
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