Harvard Green Building Services is Hiring!

After a year and a half working at Harvard Green Building Services as the resident rookie, we have finally had some turnover and a full-time Senior Project Coordinator position has gone live today! I will certainly vouch that Harvard in general, and GBS specifically, is an amazing place to work, hence the fact that no one wanted to leave in almost two years...

Here's a brief description of the job:

The Harvard Green Building Services program provides sustainable building consulting services to the Harvard community, including existing facility owners, capital project teams, and other units. Consulting services encompass a range of offerings to ensure cost effective green buildings that provide improved indoor environments for occupants and reduce harmful effects on the natural environment. These services include owner’s sustainability representation, sustainability peer review, project management of the US Green Building Council’s (USGBC’s) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification process, commissioning, energy auditing, ECM implementation support, green building knowledge management, and green building education and training. This position is responsible for supporting the GBS team as they facilitate green building design, construction and operations across campus. The position will assist GBS as they provide building commissioning, energy auditing, energy conservation measure project management, and green building consulting services and create and deliver green building educational materials. There will be a large learning component as the employee is exposed to a variety of different tasks and works to gain full proficiency and fluency in these tasks.

Click here for more details and information about how to apply! Please DO NOT forward resumes to me directly, as all resumes must go through Harvard's online system.  If you're having trouble opening that link (it's a little finicky with cookies), go to http://employment.harvard.edu and search for "Senior Project Coodinator."

Good luck!

Hey Wha' Happened?

You may have noticed Real Life LEED has taken a rather lengthy hiatus, and I feel like it probably time to fill you in. Since my last post I've left my position as a researcher at LS3P ASSOCIATES LTD., moved over a thousand miles from Charleston, SC to Cambridge, MA, and took a job as a High Performance Building Specialist in the Green Building Services unit at Harvard University. Please consider my current posting slackness within the context that I just had to move 1,000 miles north and it's hard to type in the cold.

What does this mean? For one, I'll be seeing a much higher volume of LEED projects and project reviews. Just today I was working on gathering all of our office's GBCI reviews, combining them by credit, and then presenting to our group on common mistakes. Clearly this has blog post written all over it, but some of this material may go on Harvard's Green Building Resource instead. We haven't worked out the details yet, but I'm likely to be contributing to both websites as part of my day to day duties. Long time readers may remember a post on that very resource way back in 2008, but if you haven't seen this before you should go right now!

Many thanks and much credit for the start of Real Life LEED should go to staff and management at LS3P... I wouldn't have been able to do begin posting if they didn't have a policy of sharing what they learn with the world, and I learned everything I know about LEED today from projects and coworkers there.

For the next month or so I suspect posting will still be pretty slow as I get settled, so please bear with me... Thanks for reading!

PS - I know some of you expected the Hey Wha Happened guy to be part of this post... you're welcome!

Online Tools for LEED Project Managers Presentation

I just finished up an education session at the USGBC South Carolina conference I mentioned previously. As I promised the attendees earlier, I've loaded the presentation online so everyone can take full advantage of the links included.

For regular readers who didn't attend, many of the links are already featured on the right side of the screen, but I did some research to find free online GBCI CE credits (a topic I'll be covering in detail in the next few weeks) and a few other resources that I haven't posted elsewhere. When I'm no longer completely exhausted, I'll likely edit this post to place all the links in one place and add a few images. Until then, enjoy!

New Design Research Blog Launched: LS3P Knowledge Center

In case anyone doubted just how big of a nerd I really am, I'm proud to announce another blog, the LS3P Knowledge Center, that I've recently started up based on my work as a researcher at LS3P ASSOCIATES LTD. I haven't discussed it much here, but believe it or not I don't spend all day every day working on LEED project management. In fact, my primary job is to collect research that could influence the way we design and construct facilities... how can the design of a school increase student test scores, how can material selection work to reduce infection rates in a hospital, or what impact does an office's physical characteristics have on employee satisfaction?

Interestingly, it was the massive amount of research being performed on sustainable design and construction practices over the last decade that drove me into LEED project management in the first place... Within six months of starting at LS3P I had earned my LEED AP title. I was doing so much research on the costs of LEED, examining the most effective strategies to implement, and helping to prove the value of sustainable design to our clients that I was soon tasked with assisting our project managers in completing the documentation itself. I jumped on the opportunity and about a year and a half later I was effectively an in-house LEED consultant and shortly thereafter I started Real Life LEED in my spare time.

Don't worry... Real Life LEED isn't going anywhere, as the Knowledge Center will be handled through my regular working hours, but I'm really proud of the content we already have loaded and I'm very excited about the contributions of others in our firm that started last month and will continue into the future. If this sort of thing interests you, please check it out!

A Can't Miss LEED GA Exam Prep Webinar with LEEDuser

UPDATE: 05.23.10- For those that missed it the first time around, this webinar is now available for free online at the LEEDuser website... Check it out!

So the fine folks over at LEEDuser* somehow convinced me to turn my post on LEED Green Associate (LEED GA) exam advice into a FREE, full-blown webinar on the same subject next Tuesday, April 27th at 3:00pm EST. I've been working on the slides yesterday and this morning and instead of going into what I'll be talking about (hint: it's about how to prepare for the LEED GA exam!) I thought you might be more intrigued by some of the images I'm considering including:

Clearly you have to find out how in the hell all these pictures relate to the exam (hint: some don't!), so sign up today! Believe it or not I've also included some very helpful information and advice and shoved it in between all the cheesy jokes and LOLcat references.

*LEEDuser is a sponsor of RealLifeLEED.

Meet RealLifeLEED at the 2010 Sustain SC Conference!

I don't talk about it very often, but I've served on a local USGBC branch in South Carolina for a few years now, and after my term ended at the beginning of the year for some reason I was dumb enough to volunteer to help plan our second annual conference, Sustain SC, to be held on May 12-14, 2010 at the Charleston Area Convention Center in North Charleston, South Carolina. It's been a TON of work, but I'm very proud of what we've been able to put together!

In addition to helping plan the conference, I've volunteered my time to lead a 1/2 day LEED GA Training Session based on the guidance I provided here, and I'll also be providing an educational session on "Online Tools for LEED Project Managers" with the CEO of GreenWizard.com*, Adam Bernholz, that will feature many of the tools that can be found on this site.

Many more details can be found on the conference website, or you can avoid all that and go straight to the registration!

LEED CMP Credits Galore!

For those of you in the LEED GA or LEED AP with specialty system, there is a new streamlined LEED Continuing Maintenance Program (CMP) submittal process where we could submit most of the educational sessions for USGBC Education Review Body (ERB) approval, and 16 of our 22 sessions and both tours have been submitted for review. What all this means is that it's likely (we haven't yet received final approval) you will be able to knock out up to 7 CMP credit hours, about half are LEED specific, in only two days! To my knowledge there are very few inexpensive ERB approved course available at this time... Not sure what the hell I'm talking about? I opted into the new AP system about two months ago, and will be posting all about it soon (assuming the credits I submitted for review are ever approved), but for now I would suggest this great webinar by Mara Baum hosted by LEEDuser* explaining the basics of the CMP system.

*GreenWizard and LEEDuser are sponsors of this site.

Come See Real Life LEED Moderate the Hell Out of This Panel!

Surprise! Through a set of circumstances I'm still not entirely certain about, I've ended up as the replacement moderator for the "BL02: iGreen: How the Web Empowers Designers To Build Sustainably" session at 2:00 PM today in room 121. While I'm terribly underprepared, the panelists are top notch, and all I'm really doing is acting as a conduit between the audience and the speakers anyway. Check it out!

Founder of What? Don't worry about it.

This is just to say...

by Real Life LEED

I have not
posted
for weeks
now

and you
are probably
expecting
some help

Forgive me
the summer is
slow
and hot

LEED can
wait
go outside
unplug

via WCW

This probably sounds familiar to those loyal fans of This American Life... Much to come in the next few weeks, but I'm on a semi-official hiatus for the moment.

The First Annual Real Life LEED Index!

It's hard to believe it, but Real Life LEED just turned ONE! For those of you that don't know I'm a giant data geek, and in the spirit of the Feltron Report (Full Disclosure: the following will be nowhere near as obsessively awesome), I've decided to share a few statistics about who's been using the site that I found interesting. First, some context... all info reflects traffic from March 21, 2008 to March 21, 2009:

Posts

• First Post:Por que, Brutae? - March 21, 2008
• Most Popular Post:Obligatory LEED Exam Advice - August 5, 2008
• Most Commented Post:Regionalization, Public Comments, and LEED 2009... Oh My! - May 19, 2008

Traffic

• Total Unique Visitors: 37,485
• Total Visits: 57,443
• Total Pageviews: 115,636

Geography

This to me is the most interesting information. If you assume that visitors to this site is a proxy for LEED activity (a bit of a stretch I know), you see some interesting results. If you look at total numbers of visitors for a given location, you get what you would expect... The US, and California in particular, dominate traffic. But when you compare that to resident population of a given area (essentially LEED 'density'), some surprising results emerge...  First, the top ten countries by volume only:

1. United States:   85.9%
2. Canada: 3.99%
3. United Arab Emirates: 1.79%
4. United Kingdom: 0.87%
5. India: 0.78%
6. Spain: 0.52%
7. Hong Kong: 0.47%
8. Germany: 0.46%
9. Mexico: 0.39%
10. Taiwan: 0.31%

Drops off pretty quick, huh? Now let's look at the number of visits per 100,000 residents:

Dubai wins again... you always do! Hong Kong also does a fair amount of reading as well, surpassing Canada by a fair margin.  It will be interesting to see how the economy affects these numbers over the course of the next year... Couldn't care less about the UAE? Let's take a look at the state by state breakdown within the US. First, by volume alone:

1. California: 14.85%
2. New York: 8.33%
3. Texas: 6.41%
4. Illinois: 5.43%
5. Virginia: 4.79%
6. Florida: 4.74%
7. Massachusetts: 3.80%
8. Georgia: 3.73%
9. Michigan: 3.53%
10. Pennsylvania: 3.25%

Again, nothing surprising... the 'green' centers of the US feature prominently... but what happens when you look at visits compared to total population?

DC is litteraly off the charts... Their ratio of readers to 100,000 residents is over 130!  South Carolina is a distant second, and I attribute the popularity here to a combination of the Colbert Bump (he vacations nearby) and my own vanity. Clearly there is a surge in the DMV region (1, 4, and 3 respectively), and I can only hope that is not due to an army of USGBC lawyers making a case for slander against me (see this post). The biggest surprise to me is Idaho, coming in a solid 5th, followed closely by Hawaii, New York, Illinois, Colorado, and Nevada rounding out the top ten.

So that's the first amateurish attempt at defining the relative popularity of LEED with exceptionally crude and questionably accurate means. A full (and equally crude) spreadsheet with more detailed numbers can be found here. See any interesting trends that I missed? Let me know by leaving a comment!

Architect (magazine) Representin'

Real Life LEED is excited to announce that it has been featured in this month's Screen Grab feature of Architect. It should go without saying that Real Life LEED is very honored and thankful to receive this coverage, but I just said it anyway!

The Cover is Sad... yet I'm happy!

For those of you that are regular readers, shoot over to the article to learn a few things about the history of this site, why it was started, and view the most flattering photo of me ever taken (way to go Harold!). For those of you reaching the site for the first time because of the article, take a stroll through the site and let me know what you think by leaving a comment.

LEED Risk Management - Meet Real Life LEED in Real Life!

or

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Shamelessly Self-Promote Corporate Seminars

Yes... Your humble author has agreed to (read: was conned into) speaking about various risk management strategies related to LEED and sustainable projects in general. I'll be handling about an hour and a half of a full day seminar, aided by some super knowledgeable (and in at least one instance hilarious) attorneys and an engineer. It will be January 7th in North Charleston, SC, just down the street from my house actually (no VIP tours are currently planned, but if the price is right...)

While it won't be a laugh riot, I've done my best to incorporate humor into the mundane world that is green risk mitigation... This is a real ad from somewhere (I'm guessing not a BAR journal) that didn't even make the cut:

The Setup

...wait for it...

The Punchline

Classic... Take that defenders of our children's rights! A lawyer friend of mine pointed out that you could tell this guy is an actor and not a real attorney by the fact that his suspenders are clip-ons and not buttoned... total busch league.

Further Reading

But seriously folks, there are some good lawyers out there. Half of them are going to be at this seminar, and the other half are fellow bloggers... Best known for greenbuildingsNYC.com, Stephen Del Percio, Esq. decided to start a spinoff blog focusing solely on the legal side of green real estate called Green Real Estate Law Journal. Of course I can't forget Chris Cheatham over at Green Building Law Update either, both are worth checking out!

Lighten up already

A warning... The following post is about a long list of "How many ____ does it take to change a light bulb" jokes created by Tristan Korthals Altes of BuildingGreen... Unless you're REALLY into the green construction industry and all the people associated with it, you're probably going to hate me for sending you to this post about Green Building Jokes. They pretty much target everyone... owner reps, code officials, "William McDonoughs", and even USGBC Cascadia members (<-those guys are apparently pretty hardcore).

My favorite joke? My own of course! (Nobody said RealLifeLEED was modest, even after so many servings of humble pie) ...It's buried in the comments, but I'll save you the trouble:

Q. How many LEED Reviewers does it take to screw in a light-bulb?

A. One, but it will take three months to decide if the light-bulb changing procedures comply with the applicable referenced standard. During this time they must determine if the supporting documentation of this compliance also includes images of the broken bulb and a schematic illustration of the light-bulb replacement strategy. Then they must wait about two weeks for the design team's response to the clarification request for a Sustainable Light-Bulb Purchasing and Replacement Plan asking for an outline of how custodial staff are trained to comply with the requirements of the plan. After three more weeks of review a final decision is issued that states that light-bulb replacement is anticipated, assuming no changes to the status of the light-bulb occur in the construction phase.

...classic.

AIArchitect Representin'

or

How I Learned to Love Shameless Self-Promotion

My new best friend Zach Mortice decided to write a short profile on my less than humble blog! If you want to learn a little more about me and the origins of this blog check it out...