Fran Boucher LEED AP: Efficiency in action

Fran Boucher LEED AP doesn’t waste words. “When you were a kid,” I asked him, “did you dream you’d grow up to go into energy efficiency?” The energy-efficiency program manager at National Grid gave an answer that’s almost as spare as a haiku: “Absolutely not. Not until college.”

The plainspoken Boucher, in fact, originally planned to be an automotive engineer, but his career path shifted gears at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, from which he graduated in 1980 with a degree in mechanical engineering.

It’s important to note that Boucher’s expressive efficiency isn’t necessarily the function of, say, shyness or humility. Instead, it seems informed by an ethic of professional focus and decades of experience. The man knows what he says and says what he knows. Boucher has more than 25 years of experience in the field. He worked for several impressive employers—Beacon Properties, State Street Bank, Tufts University—before landing at National Grid in 1999.

At National Grid, Boucher works with commercial industrial customers to determine how to make their buildings more efficient; that is, he helps companies make smart decisions about construction efficiency and sustainability—by, for instance, choosing appropriate lighting fixtures—which, he says, leads to an increased return on investment for owners. Boucher says that because there aren’t a lot of new construction projects happening right now, he does quite a bit with retrofitting and adds that LED (light-emitting diode) lighting is big.

One of the most interesting projects Boucher has worked on is National Grid’s corporate offices at the East Campus of Reservoir Woods in Waltham. It’s a 312,000 square foot, three-story building. The structure’s 20,000 square feet of rooftop solar panels can generate sufficient electricity for 30 homes a year; water-conservation measures cut consumption by 2.4 million gallons a year; and the lighting uses 40 percent less electricity than your garden-variety Bay State commercial building—and it claims the impressive distinction of being the first building in Massachusetts with a LEED Platinum–certified core and shell. Boucher says that the Platinum distinction is the “crème de la crème” of LEED certification. (The other, less rigorous LEED categories are certified, Silver and Gold.)

All this is quite fascinating, but it raises the question: Did such an involved project create any pushback from the folks at his company who don’t think first and foremost about energy efficiency?

“At first there was a do-good attitude on everyone’s part,” he says, and quickly adds that the numerous stresses of the budget and schedule made it difficult for the organization to maintain its attitude. Boucher talks about “the sheer volume of the elements that were included” and laughs thinking back to how much work goes into earning Platinum certification.

How did he manage to keep everyone committed and focused as they worked through the various challenges?

Boucher answers with the calm of a veteran project manager: “As [we] were more successful, people got more and more on board.”

Getting more architects on board is a general part of Boucher’s mission: “We find so many are still reluctant to engage with the utility companies.” He says that there are “hundreds of millions of dollars that are being put into the economy by the state government to promote energy efficiency” from the Massachusetts Green Communities Act. The website for the Green Communities Division says its charge is to urge the Commonwealth’s cities and towns “along a path of enhanced energy efficiency and renewable energy toward zero net energy.” He says that Massachusetts features a core group of architects who understand the importance of building efficient buildings, “but not all of them regularly tap into the resources the utilities have to offer to help their clients go as far as they can, as cost effectively as possible.” He estimates that at least half of the architects in Massachusetts don’t take advantage of the programs utilities and other program administrators offer. Boucher says this is because (1) some are unaware of the available programs, and (2) for others, “it seems optimizing efficiency is not a priority.” Boucher notes that this is a true opportunity and, as though to underscore this idea, adds, “The amount of money is growing at an exponential rate.”

Ken Gordon is a freelance writer in Newton, Mass. He's also the co-founder of QuickMuse.