BuildingGreen Report

It started as a way to strengthen carbon literacy among designers at NBBJ Design. Four years later, ZeroGuide has been released to the public for free with a dual mission: to support early design decisions for projects and to influence future projects.

Several widely respected data sources—including Cambium and PVWatts from the National... Read more

Remember all those times when a sustainability “conversation” felt more like a fight? A fight you were losing?

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is helping project teams replay that old scene with a new character: Uncle Sam, proffering his open wallet.

By incentivizing technologies that slash emissions and processes that include... Read more

Many building owners are just waking up to the massive carbon footprints of their portfolios. The higher their emissions are, the greater the financial and reputational risks. And owners face increasing pressure to disclose climate-related risks to investors and the public through environmental, social, and governance (ESG)... Read more

The diversity of the AEC sector hasn’t shown much progress in two years, according to the second Social Equity in the Built Environment Workforce Survey. But the survey, conducted by the nonprofit National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS), had far fewer respondents in 2023 than in 2021, complicating efforts to compare data over time.... Read more

Concrete is one of the construction industry’s largest carbon emitters, responsible for about 5% to 8% of the world’s anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, yet it is also one of the most important building materials. 

There are well-proven ways to reduce concrete’s carbon footprint, such as replacing... Read more

Mindful MATERIALS is partnering with BuildingGreen, a leader in green building knowledge, consulting, and communities, to broaden the building product manufacturing and AEC industries’ understanding of the Common Materials Framework (CMF). The CMF is a common language for sustainability data that will help databases and certification... Read more

Our homes, offices, and cars are electrifying—but they are only as green as the grid. Fossil fuels still supply 61% of electric power in the U.S. and account for about a quarter of national greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). The success of electrification as a decarbonization strategy in building, transportation, and all other sectors relies... Read more

There’s nothing like a breath of fresh air.

Nice phrase—but considering the rampant wildfires, diesel fumes, industrial plumes, excess pollen, higher concentrations of CO2, and literal plagues that plague modern life, clean air is increasingly hard to come by, whether outdoors or in.

Meanwhile, we now know more than ever about... Read more

The recent Getting to Zero Forum in Minneapolis included both policy- and technology-related strategies on how to make the transition to a net-zero-energy and net-zero-carbon economy. One highlight was a presentation in the technical session “Building Communities That Survive and Thrive,” in which I was also a presenter, about... Read more

Human-made “forever chemicals”—known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)—have a wide range of negative health impacts and have been found in most consumer and building products. Even with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and states like Maine trying to regulate them, there are more than 10,000 PFAS... Read more

It’s graduation day. Partners, grandparents, aunts and uncles, young children, aging parents, and even neighbors gather to celebrate.

But this isn’t about a high school diploma or college degree. It’s far more consequential. Eight graduates have just finished a six-week training program that... Read more

With the adoption of LEDs, the reduced energy impacts of lighting are now taken for granted, but there are still a lot of old fluorescent and first generation LEDs on the market. And LED lighting is still complicated, especially for outdoor applications. How do you balance efficacy (lighting energy performance, measured in... Read more

Where we live, the quality of our homes, and the resources we have determine our vulnerability to climate change. As the United States continues to fight and prepare for the impacts of global heating, one of the biggest challenges is ensuring that everyone—people earning lower incomes and communities of color, in particular—have access to... Read more

Cities are getting dangerously hot. It is fairly obvious that more people will need air conditioning (AC). But there are a couple of reasons adding AC alone won’t keep people safe, says recent research.

There are equity concerns with AC units. They come with ongoing maintenance expenses, can spike... Read more

The building sector—one of the country’s main sources of emissions—must transform the way buildings are designed, constructed, operated, and retrofitted if we are to meet the Biden administration’s 2050 net-zero-economy goal. Many of the practitioners who will be responsible for this work over the next two decades are still in—or have yet to... Read more

Practitioners interested in reducing the embodied carbon of buildings are likely now used to considering the impact of different materials, like mass timber or low-carbon concrete. Low-carbon construction, however, may be less familiar. 

Contractors are just beginning to track the emissions from their job sites... Read more

Here’s the problem. The economy we’re locked into is linear: to make products, we exploit fellow human beings, deplete natural resources, threaten biodiversity, and choke our atmosphere. Then we toss those products into landfills the moment we consider them to be broken or used up. What a waste.

Here’... Read more

Replete with heart-wrenching photos of tiny children sucking on inhalers, enduring insect welts, and watching flood waters rise, a new report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) details the grueling impacts climate change is having and is likely to have on America’s kids. Socially vulnerable youth will be disproportionately... Read more

Investors Katie Hall and Tom Steyer founded Galvanize Climate Solutions in 2021 with one goal: “to accelerate the adoption of clean technology and increase the rate of decarbonization.” The company’s new real estate arm aims to do that by acquiring and renovating existing buildings. And to help it find those buildings, Galvanize commissioned a... Read more

People interested in reducing the embodied carbon of buildings are familiar with weighing the impact of different materials, like mass timber or low-carbon concrete. Low-carbon construction has not been on many people’s radar—but it probably should be.

Findings from construction companies that are tracking greenhouse... Read more