BuildingGreen Report

St. James Parish is home to 12 petrochemical plants that make PVC and a number of other plastics. Located in Louisiana’s “cancer alley,” it is also the epicenter of fights over pollution, health, and social justice issues in the area’s historically Black communities. When FG LA L.L.C., an affiliate of Taiwan-based Formosa... Read more

Like your smartphone, our buildings are reaching obsolescence before the end of their useful lives.

Market needs change on a dime—sometimes faster than a building is constructed. And disruptions can reverse interest in certain building types, as was the case with commercial spaces during the pandemic. These shifts can result in... Read more

As individuals and organizations, we all use water for drinking, washing, and flushing away waste. We install low-flow fixtures (sometimes by regulation) and fix leaks to save water—especially when we’re faced with drought conditions. LEED and other programs give us credit for using less.  

But not... Read more

Launched as a pilot program for 2021, the guidelines set a sustainability benchmark and provide uniformity in reporting... Read more

The U.S. government is vowing to buy lower-carbon construction materials—and to require projects using federal funds to do the same.

Details of the federal government’s so-called Buy Clean Initiative—a program that will require procurement of construction materials that have lower carbon footprints than standard products—are still under... Read more

The World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) has organized a week of events, September 12 through 16, 2022, broadcasting the ways in which green building supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The campaign is branded under the hashtag #buildingforeveryone.

Local Green Building Councils are hosting events throughout... Read more

Disclaimer: BuildingGreen is a technical advisory partner to mindful Materials.

Pledging to select building products that support human health is one thing. Figuring out how to do it is another.

Signatories to the A&D Materials Pledge, adopted by The American Institute of Architects (AIA) in November 2020, have yet to commit... Read more

Circular economy—a system that relies on regenerative activities instead of on extraction and disposal of finite resources—can help the built environment reduce its carbon footprint, according to the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC). But there’s more: a new report from the group also ties circularity to other positive impacts, including... Read more

The Sustainable Development Code (SDC), which offers model ordinances for municipalities wishing to update development codes to be more sustainable, has added a subchapter on social justice. The subchapter, which is still being built out, was added to existing subchapters addressing social issues like affordability, food... Read more

Editor’s Note: Alex and Candace also presented a webinar on this topic, now available on demand, with additional CEUs.

The headlines are everywhere—from heat waves in Europe to wildfires in the Western U.S. to tidal flooding in Florida. In this age of climate change, just as there’s an urgent need to reduce carbon emissions and other... Read more

Air pollution near schools negatively affects students’ health and learning. That problem is being addressed in New York State with the SIGH Act (Schools Impacted by Gross Highways), which has passed the State Senate and Assembly, and is waiting to be signed by the governor.

The legislation prohibits... Read more

The headlines are everywhere—from heat waves in Europe to wildfires in the Western U.S. to tidal flooding in Florida.

In this age of climate change, just as there’s an urgent need to reduce carbon emissions and other greenhouse gasses, we also need to adapt and invest in resilience. Increasingly, owners are asking for risk... Read more

How do you demonstrate both environmental and health performance in a meaningful way? 

USGBC and IWBI are increasing the alignment between their programs. Knowing how to leverage each in a mutually beneficial way is the key to driving successful integration of a dual certification approach. 

LEEDuser’s expert guests, ... Read more

The historic Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) recently signed into law is by far the U.S. government’s largest investment in climate change mitigation to date. Not surprisingly, given the outsized influence the building industry has on greenhouse gas emissions, many of the provisions address homes and commercial buildings. Here’s a partial rundown... Read more

It’s been decades since redlining—the federal government practice of refusing to guarantee loans in predominantly black neighborhoods—was outlawed in the U.S. But the impacts continue to ripple through formerly redlined neighborhoods, according to data released by LightBox, a geospatial data and software firm focused on the... Read more

Proposed changes to the ASHRAE 90.1 standard for 2022 could have a huge impact on building energy performance, according to Leonard Sciarra, AIA, of Farr Associates. “There’s a lot in version one that I feel is going to change the way that people design buildings,” said Sciarra, who chairs the building envelope subcommittee of... Read more

The Holy Grail of energy is for our buildings to go all electric and get that energy from renewable sources. The problem, of course, is what to do when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing. Batteries are the clear answer, and we already have lithium-ion-based systems that work well in electric cars and for building... Read more

Renewable energy sources are providing an increasing share of electricity in the U.S., with solar sources making up 13.5% of that share in 2021, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. But the infrastructure needed to supply solar energy comes primarily from overseas. President Biden is trying to change that... Read more

 The Supreme Court recently ruled against EPA, limiting its ability to regulate coal-fired power plants. But the news may not be as dire as it looks.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) took a blow from the Supreme Court in late June when the court ruled against the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, which would... Read more

Forced labor, or modern slavery, is widely spread across the globe. People—including children—in forced-labor conditions work without pay or for recruitment fees, leaving them in debt bondage. Workers are threatened with relocation, deportation, and worse.

Nearly 25 million people are trapped in forced labor, according to the... Read more