Massachusetts Port Authority Danny Levy Director, Strategic ...

ORGANIZATION Massachusetts Port Authority
CONTACT Danny Levy
TITLE Director, Strategic Communications and Marketing
ADDRESS
One Harborside Drive
East Boston, MA 02128-2909
PHONE (617) 568-3100
EMAIL dlevy@massport.com
CATEGORY
The Paul Keough Environmental-Energy Award for Government
Service
NOM_ENTITY Thomas J. Kinton, Jr.
NOM_TITLE Executive Director and CEO
NOM_COMPANY Massport
NOM_CONTACT Danny Levy
NOM_ADDRESS
One Harborside Drive
East Boston, MA 02128-2909
NOM_PHONE (617) 568-3100
NOM_EMAIL dlevy@massport.com
Description of
Project
Benefit of Project
Massport’s Sustainable Design Standards and Guidelines (SDSG) is
an authority-wide strategy initiated at the direction of Executive
Director and CEO Thomas J. Kinton, Jr. to integrate sustainable
technologies and practices into all of Massport’s capital projects,
reflecting Massport’s long history of achievements in sustainability.
As part of this overall sustainability program, Massport developed
and implemented the SDSG for capital projects with input and
support from all Massport departments. SDSG applies to capital
projects at all Massport facilities and developments, including those
at Boston Logan International Airport, the Port of Boston, Hanscom
Field in Bedford and commercial projects on Massport-owned
property.
Architects, planners and engineers are required by Massport to use
the SDSG, which consists of performance standards and guidelines
for sustainable design, a process for implementation, and a system
to track progress and determine certification level.
The SDSG contains 49 performance standards organized in seven
categories: General; Project Site Design; Project Materials; Energy
Management and Efficiency; Air Emissions; Water Management,
Quality and Efficiency; Indoor Air Quality and Occupant Comfort.
The standards currently apply to $227 million in capital projects
Authority-wide between fiscal years 2010 to 2013.
Because certification through the SDSG program is required for
capital projects at all Massport facilities, the level of benefits to the
environment, facility users and the community will be improved.

How the Project
Breaks New
Ground
The SDSG ensures that the project teams understand the potential
environmental, social and economic impacts of the projects and
offers solutions to minimize these impacts and improve the project.
By providing a set of prescriptive but flexibile design standards for
building and non-building projects, as well as corresponding
implementation process and documentation systems, Massport’s
architects, engineers planners and project managers will be able to
minimize the environmental, social and economic impacts of its
projects while allowing for innovation and cross departmental
collaboration.
The SDSG allows for coordinated efforts toward integrating
sustainable practices and techniques into the capital projects. The
consistency that is provided by the program will streamline the cost
and time-effectiveness of Massport’s efforts to include sustainable
technologies in its projects by making these efforts less ad hoc and
providing for enhanced quality control.
The SDSG provides awareness training to Massport staff and
tenants on applied sustainability to start discussions and create
urgency about the importance of sustainable facilities and
operations. It encourages the development and implementation of
cutting edge technologies, measures sustainability performance so
that progress can be communicated throughout the Authority and
provides Massport with a resource that accounts for unique
sustainability opportunities and reflects the obstacles faced by
building and non-building projects typical of the transportation
industry.
The SDSG builds on the LEED Program of the US Green Building
Council in which Massport is also an active participant, highlighted
by Logan Airport’s new Terminal A, which is the first US airport
terminal to achieve LEED certification. In fact, Massport now
requires all construction projects to have a LEED-certified engineer
on its team. However, there are issues unique to transportation that
necessitates strategies and guidelines that go beyond the individual
building projects covered by LEED, and to address this gap Massport
developed and implemented the customized SDSG for its facilities.
The SDSG is unique in that it looks beyond building design to
provide standards and guidelines for non-building projects that are
typical of the transportation industry. Although the SDSG includes
existing standards that historically have been applied for buildings,
it also provides guidance on how the design team can apply these
standards in a different way as well as supplement standards that
have not existed until now. The SDSG is designed to encourage
innovation. If the architect, engineer or planner feels it is possible
to meet a topic's intent outside the required action and with an
emerging technology, they may submit an innovation worksheet to
receive credit.

Other Facts
The SDSG was developed internally by a diverse, interdepartmental
working group which allowed all perspectives to be represented in
the document. This collaborative approach in drafting the standards
and guidelines also helped with their acceptance and
implementation on capital projects throughout Massport.
The working group spent many hours drafting, reviewing, debating
and discussing content. The document was reviewed by both senior
management and an outside consultant in order to meet the
objective of providing a comprehensive, prescriptive set of
performance standards specific to the transportation industry that
guides the project teams to the actions and targets that must be
achieved while also allowing flexibility for innovation, as well as an
implementation process and a documentation system to track
progress.
Massport’s Sustainable Design Standards and Guidelines are one
component of Massport’s overall sustainability program, which
include diverse sustainability initiatives ranging from facilities'
maintenance to innovative partnerships and public incentives. All
aspects of Massport’s
sustainability program are based upon a foundational definition of
sustainable development
determined by the Brundtland Commission and the “triple bottom
line” (TBL) approach to
applied sustainability.
Some examples of past and present sustainable initiatives
undertaken by the Authority and
resulting in clear benefits to the environment, community, and
regional economy include:
• Implementation of a comprehensive solid waste and recycling
program
• Development of an Energy Master Plan
• Development and documentation of greenhouse gas and criteria
pollutant emissions inventories for Logan Airport and the Port
properties
• Deployment of a CNG bus fleet at Logan Airport, purchase of 8
Silverline buses that come to Logan
• Participation in the City of Boston’s Clean Cabs Program
• Management of ISO 14001 Certified Environmental Management
Systems at Logan
Airport, Conley Terminal, Hanscom Field, and the Tobin Bridge
• Renewable energy pilot projects ( e.g., wind turbines, solar
panels)
• Comprehensive annual environmental data reporting for Logan
Airport
• Development of the first LEED® Certified airport terminal in the
world
• Noise Abatement program
• Parks and Edge Buffer development and management, including

the support of
community programs on those properties
• Operational programs, such as a green cleaning program,
nighttime shutdown of the
moving walkways at Logan Airport, and the installation of
Eco‐Start motors on all
moving walkways and escalators at Logan Airport.
Under Mr. Kinton’s leadership, Massport is committed at all
management levels to continue its pursuit in improving overall
sustainability performance of its organization’s operations and
projects.