Portland, MAINE. Crescent Heights, a building that provides housing for medical students, was constructed by Portland-based Developers Collaborative and is targeted to achieve a LEED Platinum certification under the LEED for Homes Midrise Pilot Program. It uses 37% less energy and 30% less water than a typical housing building.

“The location itself is a wonderful green feature of the building,” said Jay Waterman, a LEED consultant and senior project manager at Fore Solutions. Residents can walk the nearby hospital and area businesses. “You can have the most ‘green’ building in the world, but if you have to drive 45 miles to get there, you are putting a lot of pollution into the environment.”

(MaineBusiness.com)

Last week a report was issued by Environment and Human Health, Inc. (EEHI) concluding that there is room for improvement on how LEED standards can address human heath concerns. The various LEED rating systems are constantly evolving and many LEED credits have successfully addressed some toxicity issues to date including low emitting paints and adhesives, and formaldehyde-free composite wood and low emitting furniture.  Serious action to improve indoor air quality is certainly a concern. The LEED rating system is a catalyst for action and is constantly evolving. Many more improvements in indoor air quality are being considered for inclusion into the LEED rating system.

To download the original report and read a few perspectives on the issues, see below:

Download the original report: LEED Certification: Where Energy Efficiency Collides with Human Health

A few perspectives:

The Daily Climate

BuildingGreen

Healthy Building News

The Emerging Green Builders of the Maine Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council present Green Careers Series, Part 4, Energy.

When: June 10, 5:30- 7:00 PM
Where: Slainte Wine Bar, 20 Preble Street, Portland, ME 04010, 207.828.0900

Speaker Panel
– Dana Fischer, Purist Energy
– Vamshi Gooje, Fore Solutions
– J.D. Lloyd, Investment Engineering

For more information visit the USGBC website.

Meet Gunnar Hubbard, principal of Fore Solutions, one of Portland’s Creative Entrepreneurs.

Portland—with its vibrant arts and cultural scene, top-notch restaurants, easy access to pristine natural landscapes, and overall high quality of life—is well-poised to become a live-work destination for creative entrepreneurs.

Portland’s [Maine] creative economy is an incredibly diverse collection of people doing a dizzying array of things at a very high level. They can do all of these things (and often more than one) because Portland is such a compact and hospitable place. The growing, interconnected communities that populate our cafés, music halls, art galleries, restaurants, farmers markets and technology parks are filled with unique individuals developing original ideas and unusual talents. Live here for a while and you will meet a bunch of them, but at LiveWorkPortland, we want you to meet them all. To start out we have have picked a half dozen couples and individuals who we think represent some of the range and reach of Portland’s creative community.
LiveWork Portland website.

USGBC and China GBC sign MOU. (March 2010)

On March 29-31, Gunnar Hubbard, Principal of Fore Solutions, participated in Sixth International Building Energy Efficiency and Green Building Symposium in Beijing, China. This conference was the sixth annual conference sponsored by China’s Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MoHURD).

This year marked a significant milestone between the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) and the China Green Building Council (CGBC). The organizations signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) agreeing to work together to advance green building opportunities and reduce carbon emissions, including joint research and educational programs around green building. Gunnar was present for the signing of the MOU. Additionally, Gunnar was privileged to be included in discussions between the CGBC and the USGBC related to China’s Three-Star green building rating system and the LEED rating system.

This was Gunnar’s 8th trip to China in the last 4 years to teach green building classes and to pursue project related opportunities. Gunnar also had meetings in Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Learn more about the USGBC and China.

Gunnar Hubbard, Fore Solutions’ CEO and Founder, was featured in Maine Ahead Magazine:

Fore Solutions assists people with the construction of green projects, and much of its business surrounds meeting LEED standards. Ideally, Hubbard says, Fore Solutions gets involved early on, refining the goals for a project. Other times, the company is hired by the architect or design firm, or the contractor later in the process. The goal, Hubbard says, is to “help clients build buildings that make sense environmentally, make for a better work environment, and make sense financially.”

More and more, companies want to do just that, and are willing to spend extra time and money during the design process—with Hubbard’s assurance that they’ll get a return on that investment in energy savings, maintenance, and even worker productivity.

Read the entire article.

Portland, Maine – A regional high school carpentry program hopes to grow by including energy-efficient practices in its curriculum. Kehough’s students are building what he hopes will be the school’s first LEED-certified house, using materials and techniques that meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards established by the U.S. Green Building Council.

“This project is a great opportunity because the LEED rating system is a great teachable guide to green building,” said Jay Waterman, a consultant for Fore Solutions, which has experts in green building and LEED certification.

Waterman said interest in green building is skyrocketing. Representatives from his company attended an international conference on green building in Phoenix last week that drew 28,000 people and had Al Gore as the keynote speaker.

“Builders are realizing, if they’re not using green building techniques, they’re missing a growing market out there,” Waterman said, including many public projects that require green materials and practices. (Portland Press Herald, November 17, 2009)

Learn more about LEED for Homes.

LEEDuser, developed by BuildingGreen with support from the USGBC, is a Web-based tool used to guide project teams through the LEED 2009 certification process. Fore Solutions is providing expert advice and helping in the creation of LEEDuser by providing overall review of credit material for LEED NC, CS, Schools, and CI rating systems. Click here to try out LEEDuser. (Find Fore Solutions under the Meet the Team section.)

From the newest Hannaford store to projects in China, a Portland consulting firm puts its all into green.

Gunnar Hubbard’s passion for sustainable building came at the age of 12, when his parents moved him from New York to Vermont. There, he helped his family peel logs for their own log house, which had no electricity but did have a composting toilet and a gravity-fed water system. (Mindy Favreau, Mainebiz Staff Reporter)

Read the entire Mainebiz article here.

Naomi Mermin, board chairperson for the Maine Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council, is featured in Maine Voices of the Portland Press Herald talking about the how the success of Hannaford’s LEED Platinum store ties to green jobs in the building industry in Maine.

The Hannaford project is a real-world example of the concept of “green jobs.” It takes a team approach to make a high performance green building – especially when targeting the Platinum level of certification – and Hannaford was able to rely on a number of other Maine-based companies to plan and build the new supermarket. (August 17, Portland Press Herald)

Click here to read the entire article.

Learn more about the Maine USGBC.