The Big Picture
It’s easy to get caught up in the details—earning one more LEED point or getting that documentation you need for recycled content.
But it’s a lot easier to achieve all the project goals if the owner and the whole project team are in agreement about why you’re putting in all this work in the first place. Stuff like:
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slowing down climate change
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dealing with global water shortages
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avoiding depletion of nonrenewable resources
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preventing public health problems associated with manufacturing
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righting social wrongs
Here we set the scene, providing context that can help get—and keep—everyone on the same page about project goals.
The Big Picture
Deep Dives
Get up to speed on complex topics. You can also earn CEUs and download PDF Spotlight Reports.
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Wood: Is It Still Good? Part Two: Moving from Carbon to Climate
Feature
Mass timber at scale could make climate change worse. Instead of embodied carbon alone, “climate-smart” practices focus on our increasingly fragile forests.
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ESG: 6 Things Building Professionals Need to Know
Feature
Clients need AEC professionals to help them achieve environmental, social, and governance goals. Here’s how people are turning aspirations into strategies.
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Assessing Climate Hazards: The First Step in Resilient Design
Feature
The tools for conducting a multi-hazard exposure analysis are available if you know where to look.
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Constructing Change: The Contractor’s Commitment
Feature
The Contractor’s Commitment to Sustainable Building Practices calls on construction firms to practice green building. Here’s why the whole industry needs to get behind it.
Quick Takes
Jump straight to the essentials with these short explanations of green building concepts.
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30 Years of Green Building in the U.S.
Infographic
As The BuildingGreen Report (formerly Environmental Building News, or “EBN”) celebrates its 30th year of publication, we decided to track the growth—and explosion—of the green building movement. We start in 1990 with the founding of AIA’s Committee on the Environment.
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Carbon Offsets and How to Select Them
Explainer
With more owners looking to reverse the embodied carbon impact of their buildings, it’s important to know how to buy legitimate offsets.
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Social Sustainability and Architecture
Explainer
Architects can increase social value through thoughtful design of the built environment.
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The 8 Shades of Greenwash: How Many Do You Recognize?
Infographic
Most building products these days have an environmental angle to their sales pitches. Many are legit, but as ever, you still have to watch for the telltale signs of greenwash—the practice of inventing or exaggerating the environmental benefits of a product.
Product Guidance
Unbiased information from our product experts helps you separate green from greenwash.
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BuildingGreen Announces Top 10 Products for 2023
Product Review
BuildingGreen’s Top 10 industry-transforming products this year include heat pumps that use low-GWP refrigerants, products that encourage recycling and re-use, wood insulation, and more.
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New Blowing Agents Revolutionize XPS Industry
Product Review
Due to regulatory changes in Canada and certain U.S. states, manufacturers will be offering XPS with low global warming potential starting in 2021.
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Electrical Vehicle Chargers: Keeping Up with Technology
Product Review
EV charging stations are becoming mainstream, but the technology interface and installation are still developing.
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Non-Hazardous Deep-Cycle Batteries for On or Off the Grid
Product Review
Aquion offers high-performance “saltwater” energy storage without lead, sulfuric acid, or flammable lithium salts.
In The News
We break news down to the essentials and provide expert analysis.
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How to Use the Right Tools to Design for Climate Change
News Analysis
Weather files that help designers plan for climate change will soon be readily available. ASHRAE design conditions still lag.
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New Climate-Smart-Wood Guidance and a Call for Pilot Partners
News Analysis
As more project teams question timber’s “carbon neutrality,” a growing coalition blazes a common-sense but potentially perilous path forward.
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Will EPA’s Plan to Clean the Grid Work? Depends Who You Ask.
News Analysis
Proposed standards under the Clean Air Act aim to use pollution control technologies to reduce power plant emissions.
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This Is What Circularity Looks Like: A Pragmatic Playbook
News Brief
Upending the global economy to make it circular instead of linear sounds daunting. A new resource demonstrates how to become “circular ready.”
Perspective
Thought-provoking opinions from the most trusted minds in sustainability.
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Want to Love the Future? First, Figure Out What It Looks Like
Op-Ed
Bringing forth a habitable planet will require energy, ambition, and purpose. What will fuel this work? Not data and doomsaying—instead, imagination.
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What’s up with LEED v5? Coffee Talk Follow-up and Recording
Blog Post
Our guests reply to the Qs we didn’t get to during our July 26 event. Plus, here’s the recording if you missed it, and USGBC will host several v5 update sessions at Greenbuild.
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“Happy” Earth Day? Here’s What Young People Think
Op-Ed
Three Millennials and ten members of Gen Z share scorching, optimistic, and skeptical thoughts about their future and the future of the planet.
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I’m at Stage Five of 1.5°C Grief
Op-Ed
The 1.5 target is out of reach. I’m convinced that accepting that is the best path forward.
Learning Resources
Syllabus supplements and CEU content, with automatic reporting for AIA and GBCI.
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The BuildingGreen Guide to ESG
PDF Guide
How to keep up with the environmental, social, and governance programs that are changing the building industry.
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Assessing Climate Hazards: The First Step in Resilient Design
Feature
The tools for conducting a multi-hazard exposure analysis are available if you know where to look.
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Constructing Change: The Contractor’s Commitment
Feature
The Contractor’s Commitment to Sustainable Building Practices calls on construction firms to practice green building. Here’s why the whole industry needs to get behind it.
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Equity in Design and Construction: Seven Case Studies
Feature
From an affordable multifamily building to an iconic museum, these projects are designed and built to advance equity, diversity, and inclusion
Just For Fun
Something weird happens every April at BuildingGreen...
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Americans React to Latest IPCC Report
April Fools
The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s report outlines some of the significant impacts of current and future carbon outputs. What do Americans think?
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Leaked IPCC Draft Struggles with Messaging
April Fools
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released part two of its Sixth Assessment Report in February—but it left out some strong feelings.
