On 10/28 I had the privilege to meet with Leonart Lifvenhjem, Energy Expert at Vasakronan, in Stockholm, Sweden. Vasakronan is a Swedish real estate company that owns over 200 buildings in Sweden, with operations in the Gothenburg, Malmö, Lund and Uppsala.  Last year Leonart was able to reduce the entire portfolio carbon emissions by 6%; an especially impressive feat given the general level of energy efficiency associated with Swedish buildings.  Over lunch Leonart explained his successes in reducing Vasakronan’s portfolio energy use which I found most interesting and would like to share on this blog. 

To my surprise Leonart explained that the majority of his savings were found not from technical solutions, but from meeting with building engineers (teknist forualtae), earning their trust, then helping them maximize the building’s energy performance with simple set point and schedule adjustments.  G.Z ‘Charlie’ Brown has a saying (from the University of Oregon’s Energy Studies in Building’s Laboratory) that “Buildings don’t use energy, people do.”  Leonart’s approach was inspiring from the ‘operations’ standpoint and emphasized the importance of not only designing good buildings, but also having good people to operate them.  

Fore Solutions is looking forward to working more with Leonart and the Vasakronan team as we help them certify their existing building stock under the LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance 2009 program.  We hope the certifications will allow Vasakronan to benchmark their existing practices while finding ways to improve their already high standards for building operations and maintenance. 

Colin Schless, Assistant Project Manager and Energy Analyst at Fore Solutions, looks forward to more world travel.

Aside from all the terrific fun we had at Greenbuild 2011, the Fore Solutions team came away from the U.S. Green Building Council’s annual conference in Toronto re-energized and looking forward to exploring new opportunities in the green building arena.

The 30,000 participants of this enormous conference got a good look at USGBC President Rick Fedrizzi up on the big screen at Toronto’s professional hockey arena, as the USGBC celebrated – rightly so – their first conference outside the U.S. and 10th Greenbuild. We could celebrate along with them, since Fore Solutions’ staff have attended all ten Greenbuilds in addition to the early events leading up to the first Greenbuild.

There was a loud buzz in the air for going beyond LEED to achieving the Living Building Challenge, Net Zero Energy, Regenerative Design or Passivhaus standards. Speakers described their experiences with bringing building projects up to these higher standards of “sustainability” and showed that these kind of projects, while still very new to the market, are very possible and replicable.

The conference theme – NEXT – encouraging participants to ask the question, “What’s next for the green building field” rightly fit the dialogue of the week. A favorite session for many was Amory Lovins’ morning session on Rocky Mountain Institute’s “Re-inventing Fire,” offering hope of achieving a 158% bigger U.S. economy in 2050 without oil, coal, and nuclear energy.

My personal favorites included a session on Biophilic Design during which Bill Browning, formally of RMI and now running Terrapin Bright Green, described the principles of bringing nature into the built environment. These include (1) Nature in the Space, which can be achieved, for example, with indoor plants or windows; (2) Natural Analogs, such as using stone and wood as building elements; and (3) Nature of the Space, which considers the type of environments that humans gravitate to, like grasslands. I also really enjoyed the session on the Living Building Challenge, during which I learned about successful projects on the West Coast and New York and dreamed about the projects Fore Solutions may someday work on in New England.

And of course, the crème de la crème was the annual Umbrella Green party, co-sponsored by Fore Solutions, on Thursday night. This year, this invite-only event was held at a downtown nightclub, the Guvernment, and, whew, green building people can dance! Fore Solutions also claimed a bit of limelight from having two of our projects featured on big boards at the event, including the LEED Gold Hannaford Grocery Store in Duanesburg, NY and the LEED Gold Pearl Place Multi-Family Mid-rise in Portland, ME. These projects are featured by the USGBC’s Education Committee as part of their case study pilot program.

What could have been better? It’s hard to fault the USGBC for raising interest in green building to such a level that navigating the many floors and sections of the cavernous Toronto Convention Center left its impression on my calves and back. And, I guess I can’t blame the USGBC either for bringing such a crowd to Toronto that networking opportunities suffered a bit – for the same reasons that they say you get to know more people in a small town than a big city.

Regardless, I still came home with my stack of business cards, my faith in humanity renewed, and fond memories of my boss, Gunnar Hubbard, boggie-ing with other sweaty green building groupies past midnight on the dance floor of Toronto’s biggest nightclub.

Amy Hattan, Fore Solution’s COO, shown here standing in front of the Toronto Convention Center, looks forward to Greenbuild 2012 in San Francisco.

By now most people have heard about green building. Eco-friendly technologies, articles, and commercials are released every day to appeal to the growing numbers of people hopping on the bandwagon. By this point, almost everyone has developed his or her own idea about green building. I came into my internship at Fore Solutions with the common preconception that the majority of green building consists of innovation and expensive technology used to lower a building’s impact on its environment. I thought green building was a luxury only for those who bought into the concept and were willing to spend extra money and time. I then assumed it was a green building consulting firm’s job to draw up the plans for such a design at the front end of the process. I was partially right.

Green building involves innovation, but it is not always more expensive than normal construction, at least if you take a long-term perspective. In fact, the innovation generally comes from trying to find the cost effective solutions. For the majority of its projects, Fore Solutions is presented with both a design goal and a limited budget. It is Fore Solutions’ job to use their array of expertise within the green building field, and a little creativity, to reach solutions that meet both requirements. The process is also more engaging then I originally thought. After devising a solution, Fore Solutions presents their initial ideas to the design team, and so begins a back and forth discussion about design methods that lasts through out the entire process. The architects will draft a schematic design, Fore Solutions will review the design, comment on it, and show potential options, and the owner will approve the changes, until the best solution is reached.

Upon first hearing this process, I thought Fore Solutions’ niche in the building market seemed too specialized. Would it not be easier, and also more cost effective, to have a green architecture firm that could do the entire process? Senior energy modeler and project manager, Vamshi Gooje, agreed that a merger might be practical, but to him it was an issue of human nature. He explained that people inherently do not want to spend extra time on a project when they could hire experts to do the job for them; instead they want to focus in on what they know best. Chief Operating Officer, Amy Hattan, had a slightly different take. She thought in the future that the green building market might become similar to what we see happening with big box retailers and smaller shops with a specialized niche. While the big retailers are one-stop-shops and may be cheaper, they may not always provide the same quality goods as a truly specialized store.

Persuaded by their rationale, I decided to ask what seemed the next logical question, “What is next?” Currently most projects involve the LEED rating system as a symbol of green building and a way to set goals for developers. Fore Solutions’ employees are convinced that LEED will stay a front-runner in green design. LEED’s 3^rd party review system, complex criteria, and wide reach make it credible and prestigious to developers and building owners, and as Vamshi explains, “It cannot be stopped, it has too much momentum.” Although LEED may remain a front-runner, employees at Fore Solutions feel their path will still not be easy. With green design’s dramatic growth in popularity and LEED’s prominence it is likely that other LEED consulting firms will offer increasing competition. As a result, Vamshi and Amy, and another employee, Amanda Lehman, agreed that Fore Solutions must stay one step ahead of the game. In an attempt to determine what that next step might be, they are continually evaluating their business and their strategy. They often host lunch presentations giving various companies a chance to showcase new trends in the industry. One recent example was a presentation by local architects on Passivhaus, a German green building rating system. In addition, Fore Solutions is broadening its product offerings, such as teaching a course at Cornell University. However no matter where Fore Solutions’ next step may be, the hope is that interest in green building will continue to grow as people become educated in its advantages, and that continued growth will benefit all those involved in the green building market.

Fore Solutions thanks Max Payson for his contributions as a summer 2011 intern and wishes him well on his senior year at Phillips Exeter Academy. In this last blog from Max, he shares lessons and experiences from his summer with our green building consulting firm.

Day One

It was a little intimidating on my first day to open the seemingly large gray door and poke my head into the office to see a group of four or five employees standing in a group all turn their heads in unison towards me. Nonetheless I was greeted with warm smiles and I started to relax. The Chief Operating Officer, Amy Hattan, stepped forward, reintroduced herself and guided me to a seat in her office. I leaned back in the chair causing it to squeak as she gave me an overview of the assignments I would be working on, directing my attention to a large white board filled with schedules and projects. She gave me a brief tour of the office and brought me to my new desk, which was complete with paper, pens and a computer. On the tour she introduced me to my new co-workers, the lay out, and the world-class variety tea collection. Finishing up the tour, she directed me to talk with Vamshi Gooje, the energy analyst I will be working with for most of the summer.

My first assignment was to create an Excel template to calculate fan power. Vamshi gave me a few sheets of formulas and tables, which I was supposed to translate into “Excel language.” The final product combined all these items so that a user could enter in a CFM value, and the template would return values for many different variables, including fan power. Never having used Excel except in second grade to create a few graphs, I received a few tutorials on basic Excel tools. Once I got into the project I was thrilled to see how easily Excel could be programmed to perform specific operations and how it parallels basic computer programming. In addition to learning about a practical program, I also began to get a taste for the types of data and analysis tools I will be using during my internship.

Day Two

I began my second day of work by listening to Nicholas Stipinovich, another intern, interview a co-worker and exploring the Fore Solution’s Facebook page (another project I will be working on over the summer). When Vamshi arrived he explained that my next assignment would be to copy calculated energy consumption and cost data for various Fore Solutions projects into an Excel spreadsheet. The data were divided into two categories, baseline and proposed. Baseline data describe a hypothetical structure fitting minimum code requirements and proposed data describe a hypothetical structure with proposed Fore Solutions modifications. It was interesting to see the effectiveness of Fore Solutions through their diverse projects and proposals. I was impressed both by the endless sheets of planning and the final result.

I worked on the project for two days, periodically checking in with Vamshi for the next step. On my second day I attended the all-staff meeting, where I listened to updates on old, current, and upcoming projects and reintroduced myself to the entire team. The two days flowed by and I began to grow more comfortable in my new environment.

Max Payson has joined Fore Solutions as a summer 2011 intern and will return to his senior year at Phillips Exeter Academy in the fall. In this blog, he shares lessons and experiences from his summer with our green building consulting firm.

Amy Hattan, Fore Solution’s COO, describes entry points to getting involved with the USGBC’s new Center for Green Schools:

The USGBC’s Center for Green Schools may be new, but there are already numerous programs underway. In a recent call with the USGBC, we heard about the many ways that green building consultants and others could get involved in the buzz.

The web site is very informative, and a good first stop to learn about the many facets of the Center. The programs are categorized according to K12 and Higher Education, and they focus on more than buildings. The Center is also working to improve curriculum and to engage the broader community by facilitating conversation at the local level.

A lot of the work is happening at the local level with the USGBC Chapters. Many of the Chapters now have a Green Schools Committee. Committee membership is one of the best ways to get involved at the K12 level. The Center hosts a monthly webcast for the committees on a variety of topics.

The Center is also approaching their mission of “provide every child in America with a green school within this generation” from the advocacy angle. The Center has a staff member who serves as the Schools Advocacy Lead, and the Coalition for Green Schools helps to advance the advocacy agenda. Membership is free.

A new fellowship program places sustainability professionals into school districts, where they work for three years to advance the broad array of sustainability issues including green building in these K12 institutions. Currently, the Center has funding for two fellowships but is looking for sponsorship for expansion.

On the higher education side, the USGBC Students program continues to play an important role as a national network grows. National chairs have been selected to guide this work, and currently there’s a call out for regional chairs.

Research is an important mission of higher education, and it plays a role in the Center as well. The Research to Practice Program supports teams of students, faculty, and other research contributors studying various topics of interest. The Center is providing tools for assessment and small grants to the top teams.

And – very cool – USGBC is working on developing a GIS mapping system that will allow users to search for LEED projects all over the country, learn details about the projects, and to find other information such as locating all the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment signatories. The USGBC is holding a webinar on June 16 for more details.

This isn’t all….many other good things are happening. I would particularly like to point out that the Center is working to advance green building at under-resourced schools like community colleges and minority serving institutions. (This interest of the USGBC is directly connected to the prior work conducted by Second Nature – where I previously worked – on capacity building at under-resourced schools.)

While there are many entry points in this valuable effort by the USGBC, our contact says, “Perhaps the best place for consultants to help is through gap analysis, focusing on efforts like assisting the campus-wide approach of EB:O&M and Climate Action Planning.”

Ben Morse, a high school senior at Cape Elizabeth High School, is interning with Fore Solutions this month. Below he shares his second week’s experience of being part of our team:

Week 2

Day 6: Today Jay had me do some research about Passive House. This revolutionary green building design has exploded overseas. Originally created in Germany, there are now more than 25,000 buildings achieving the Passive House standard in Germany and the rest of Europe. Passive house is a relatively simplistic idea, reducing the energy consumption of a building drastically by the use of insulation and ventilation systems. Although the idea is certainly mainstream in Europe, the United States hasn’t been so eager to adopt Passive House. According to the US Passive House Institute, only 13 buildings have achieved PH Standards in the US. In the US the cost outweighs the benefits of a Passive House. Although a PH would reduce 90% of energy consumption compared to a standard house, building costs are still up to 15% higher for Passive Houses than non-Passive Houses. In addition to cost, Passive Houses in the US seem to only be applied to single-family homes. Every Passive House built in the United States has been a single-family home so far. Europe, although first applying PH to residential buildings, had now branched out, constructing more and more commercial real estate.

Day 7: Tuesday is meeting day at Fore Solutions. Jay was nice enough to let me tag along as I sat in on a budget meeting between all of the project managers. The discussion, which was mostly over my head, was actually about “overhead”.  After the meeting, I researched the word, coming up with this definition thanks to Wikipedia: “overhead refers to an ongoing expense of operating a business. The term is usually used to group expenses that are necessary to the continued functioning of the business.” If I had known that during the meeting everything would have made more sense. After the initial project manager meeting, everyone gathered in the conference room to look over upcoming events on Fore Solutions’ agenda.

Day 8: I spent the majority of my time today working with Amanda Lehman, Assistant Project Manager at Fore Solutions. My task was to resize images in hopes of decreasing the size of the file. Every picture corresponded with a project Fore Solutions had worked on in the past. The challenge was find all of the pictures that matched up with the projects.

Day 9: Today I did some valuable research for the Principal of the firm, Gunnar Hubbard. Gunnar, an avid table tennis player, asked me to find the best place for a ping-pong table in the Fore Solutions office. I thoroughly tested every nook and cranny in the building, narrowing the future table tennis location to two spots. Finally I concluded that the conference room was the superior of the two locations. Not only did the conference room have ample square footage for a ping-pong table, but it also had a spectacular view of Fore Street, Portland’s historic financial district. The ping-pong table would serve a dual-purpose as a place of table tennis and a conference table in the off time. Additionally, my belief is that the ping-pong table will raise office moral and increase productivity. Further tests will be required for this thesis to be proven true.

Day 10: On Friday I had the opportunity to work with Amanda again. This time my task was to update the Fore Solutions LEED Reference Guide book. The USGBC doesn’t publish a reference guide annually, however, there are always changes to requirements regarding LEED certification. Instead, the USGBC issues quarterly Addendas to keep the Reference Guide current. The job required a bit of arts and crafts skill, which I have never really possessed. After I was through typing up the Addenda’s alterations to the Reference Guide, I was required to cut and tape the changes inside the book. This posed a challenge to me but I took my time and carefully inserted each piece of paper in their proper place. Lucky the USGBC is publishing a new Reference Guide in 2012 so my work won’t impact Fore Solutions for too much longer.

Ben Morse, a high school senior at Cape Elizabeth High School, is interning with Fore Solutions this month. Below he shares his first week’s experience of being part of our team:

Week 1

Day 1: I started my internship with Fore Solutions by meeting with my Supervisor Jay Waterman and getting introduced to the staff  Everyone I met was incredibly nice and I felt welcome right away. My first project was to help Jay investigate China’s use of Electric Vehicles and its prevalence in commercial buildings. Jay and other associates at Fore Solutions are working in a project in Shanghai, China. The goal of the research was to conclude if installing EV (electric vehicle) charging stations in the parking garages connected to their building project would be appropriate. Through my research, I learned that China is clearly attempting to become more “green” however they don’t yet have the technology compared to the American EV revolution. Although the Chinese are trying to cut a deal with American automakers over battery technology, the issue of charging stations in public parking garages is a little ahead of its time.

Day 2: Much of Day 2 was taken up by a work session in the conference room. The meeting involved all Fore Solutions employees and was focused on the company’s brand. Amy Hattan, Chief Operating Officer, ran a PowerPoint presentation highlighting successful examples of branding in business. After the presentation, a brainstorming session ensued as workers came up with words that represented Fore Solutions’ purpose. Next came a five-minute period where everyone was asked to come up with a tagline or two. I came up with three: “Internationally recognized, Locally prioritized”, “Pushing you towards a greener future”, and “Inspiring a greener solution”. My preconceived notion was that my ideas weren’t going to be taken seriously; on the contrary, all three of my taglines went into the voting stage where everyone at Fore Solutions voted on their favorite. On top of that, I was actually given a vote in the decision. The winning tagline was “Inspiring People, Building Innovation”. After the branding session, I sat in on a phone meeting between Gunnar Hubbard, the Principal of the firm, and representatives from Williams College. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss renovation/construction schemes related to the Garfield House on the Williams’ campus.

Day 3: Today Jay asked me to continue my research into EV charging stations in commercial buildings in China. I found three examples of skyscrapers in China similar to the building project Fore Solutions is working on.  Only one building made mention of EV charging stations on the building grounds, failing to provide a number or a location of the charging stations. Although it was difficult to find concrete evidence on the issue, it was perplexing to me why a structure with green, sustainable energy claims wouldn’t mention the use of Electric Vehicle chargers in order to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions. Jay invited me to attend the MEREDA Conference, a gathering addressing the future of Maine’s real estate & development community. I helped Jay set up a Fore Solution’s booth at the Conference and mingled with some members on the panel, such as former Maine Governor Angus King. We listened to the first speaker, a professor from the Wharton School of Business at UPenn.

Day 4: Today I wrote journals entries regarding my time at Fore Solutions. The project serves two needs; one was for my actual project for high school where students are required to record their thoughts and responsibilities in a journal; and the entries would also contribute to the blog on Fore Solution’s web site. Unfortunately, my computer shut itself down with warning and all of my material was lost and I spent the rest of the day trying to recollect what I wrote the first time.

Day 5: Today I was asked to go on Facebook for the majority of the day. Although that might not seem work related, this was all business. Fore Solutions wanted me to see what their competition was doing in the ever-expanding social media network. I researched seven of Fore Solutions competitors in the sustainability field and accumulated data regarding their use of Facebook. In my investigation, almost every business had either a Facebook or a LinkedIn page. I rated each of Fore Solutions competitors’ effectiveness in their use of social media. There was a wide range of effectiveness between Fore Solutions competition. Some has little to no advertising because the information was already on their website; however, others have large Facebook and LinkedIn followers. Social media is a very helpful alternative media outlet that is becoming increasingly more popular.