Group
Kayla Wagner, Lydia Gill, Jon Frame, Will Koznarek, Emma Berry, Merrill Clerkin, Lewis
Shim, Ally Derthick, Graydon Legg
Senior Leader
Evan Litsios
Group Leader
Ms. Hanley
GOING GREEN

Introduction
 Our group went into JUA with a goal of discovering how
urban areas are progressing towards becoming “green”.
 This focused on new innovations that help companies and
individual people to become more eco-friendly.
 We visited the Seaport hotel, which gave us the experience
to view a business aspect of the green movement.
 As well as a L.E.E.D. certified Arts for Humanities building,
which showed new construction technologies that can be
used to be more sustainable.
 After visiting these informative locations, we had a chance
to go out and survey people around us.
 The city of Boston gave us the ability to get all ranges of
people, and get a sense of where the green movement is
going.

The Seaport Hotel
Eco-friendly? Or Business-friendly?
 One perspective:
 The Seaport Hotel is a
business oriented group
 They use “eco-friendly”
practices as gimmicks and
money making tactics
 Most efforts for sustainability
are based around funding
reduction for the purpose of
saving the hotel money while
giving it a good reputation,
attracting more customers.
 They make money by going
“green”…they are not doing it
to help the planet.

Seaport Hotel: Eco-friendly
pioneer
 Another perspective is that
the Seaport Hotel is doing
great things for the
environment and the
“Green” Hotel Industry
because of programs such
as:
 Bio-Ez: waste to H2O
system
Converts waste into water
a.
that goes into the sewer
system
In 2008, diverted 53 tons of
b.
organic waste from
landfills.

Seaport Hotel: Eco-friendly
pioneer continued
 Ozone Laundry System:
 Reduces wash time
 Penetrates fabrics better
 More intense cleaning
 35% decrease in chemicals
 35% decrease in
water/sewer usage
 80% decrease in hot water
generation
 30% decrease in electric
cost

I Just Want a Nice Hotel
And the a third perspective held by the hotel’s occupants may be:
 I don’t care if they bought 36 orchids. I just want a 4 diamond hotel at a
lower rate. I want to hold my convention somewhere that is prestigious.
 The seaport seems like any other hotel on the outside. It would not
necessarily attract a “crunchy” or “hippy” type of customer. Business types
are attracted to it for functions because of its financial availability and its
reputation rather than its ideals.

ARTS FOR HUMANITY
An organization which hires 120, fourteen to eighteen year olds to be commissioned to make art
work.
Mediums include painting, sculpture, screen printing, graphic design, and seamstressing
Funding comes from private donors, and renting their facilities for outside occasions. Every night
the facility is rented out, the Arts For Humanity program brings in $4,000 to $5,000.
Arts For Humanity was established in 1989. The organization moved its headquarters to 100 West
Second Street in 2004.

What AFH is Made of
 It’s a L.E.E.D Platinum certified building!
L – leadership
E – energy
E – environmental
D – design
-To be “green”, the building has large windows to maximize lighting without using energy. The windows also help
maximize natural heat from sunlight
-The concrete floors help to hold a more comfortable temperature all year long. The material for the concrete is
also mixed with reused fly-ash (nuclear power plant waste). The fly-ash helps make the concrete harder and lighter.
-Instead of using energy-hungry AC units, the AFH building uses a large ventilation system to cool the whole
building. Fans are placed throughout the building to keep airflow without using too much energy. The ventilation
system is promised to provide 364 days of comfort.
-The L.E.E.D Platinum certified walls are layered with certain amounts of insulation to keep the outside
temperatures out, and keep the inside temperatures in.
- Steel beams, holding the inside structure, are set away from the walls so the steel doesn’t take on the cool
property of the steel in the walls.
-There are lifted solar panels on the roof to collect energy from natural sunlight, and underneath, the roof is at a 45
degree angle to allow water to run-off into a collection pool. The run-off water is used for jobs that would
otherwise need fresh water.

Things We Saw @ AFH
The run-off rain
water was moved
from the roof to
the bottom floor
through this tube.
The steel beams were The walls were layered
separated from the walls. with insulations to keep
the outside temperatures
out, and the inside
temperatures in.

Our Opinion
Emma Berry – “ Their approach on making a more ‘green’ program and facility was innovative and cool.”
Jon Frame – “ I was slightly disappointed with the lack of zest with the buildings overall look and feel.”
Louis Shim – “Uh, I liked it.”
Ally Derthick – “I thought it was really ‘green’! It was so interesting and fun.”
Evan Litsios – “I thought that, uh, both the building and the program were revolutionary for South Boston, and they are doing great
things!”
Will Koznarek – “It was pretty cool what they were doing. Giving the teens an extra step in getting involved in the business world was a
great idea!”
Merrill Clerkin – “Um, I think it was awesome. The program they had was very cool. I was excited that they had made it to L.E.E.D Platinum
certified!”
Graydon Legg – “It was a steal, for the building to only pay $183 per square foot!”
Lydia Gill – “It was inspirational to see such a great program in itself to take the steps and also be eco-friendly.”
Kayla Wagner – “The program is a great idea. The people were nice, and they really seemed to believe in what they were doing. The ‘green’
and eco-friendly building was unreal.”

Street Interviews – Harvard
Square
Recyclers (cont.)
 Cardulo’s Owner
Recyclers
 Personal belifs are very strong
 Dado Tea Café  She teaches her employees to be very eco-
 Recycled brown bags conscious
  Tells them to ask for bags
Locally purchased goods
 Sales representative personally likes to conserve  Works with local and environmentally
friendly companies
 Tis-Tik Jewelry
 Does what she can (international
 Fare trade
supermarket)
 Family made products
 Not recyclable bags
Destroyers
 Sales representative is not conscious about
conserving  Bob Slate Stationers
 A small portion of the merchandise was recycled.
 Envi
 Journals
 All clothes are recycled material or bamboo
 Copy paper
 Hangers are made of paper maché
 Stationary
 Locally made clothes
 Offer both paper and plastic bags
 Sales representative is heavily conscientious
 Sell reusable canvas bags at the front of the store
 Street Woman #1
 Street Woman #2
 Buys 50% local
 Aware of global issues however continues to buy
 About 50% environmentally conscious
unsustainably

The End