Building Envelope
The building envelope, or building enclosure, protects us and the building interior from the elements and enables occupant comfort. The building envelope includes the cladding, air barrier, weather barrier, thermal insulation, and other components.
Building Envelope
Deep Dives
Get up to speed on complex topics. You can also earn CEUs and download PDF Spotlight Reports.
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Polystyrene Insulation: Does It Belong in a Green Building?
Feature Article
Polystyrene is widely used as a rigid insulation in North America, offering high insulation values, moisture resistance, strength, and affordability. But a flame retardant in the material, as well as its life-cycle impacts, raise questions about whether it should be used at all.
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Cost-Effective Green Retrofits: Opportunities for Savings in Existing Buildings
Feature Article
Between lighting, water use, mechanical systems, the building envelope, and occupant health, existing buildings are rife with cost-effective retrofits and operational opportunities that also offer environmental benefits. Improvements range from the painfully obvious to the more complex and involved.
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Making Air Barriers that Work: Why and How to Tighten Up Buildings
Feature Article
Incorporating a continuous air barrier into a building's design and construction can save energy and improve the indoor environment, among other benefits. The right materials and assemblies can help accomplish that goal, but careful attention during design and close oversight during construction are essential.
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Prefabricating Green: Building Environmentally Friendly Houses Off Site
Feature Article
Prefabricated housing offers several potential environmental benefits, including reduced transportation impacts, reduced waste, and quality control for better durability and performance. Aside from a few industry leaders, however, most manufacturers do not take full advantage of those efficiencies to create affordable high-performance houses.
Quick Takes
Jump straight to the essentials with these short explanations of green building concepts.
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Reducing Heat Flow Through Windows
Explainer
Bringing daylight into a building through windows usually means a loss of heat; low-emissivity coatings, multiple panes, and gas fills can make windows more energy-efficient.
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Foam-in-Place Polyurethane Insulation
Explainer
Sprayed polyurethane foam offers several advantages over other forms of insulation, including R-value and airtightness. Installation, R-value, and ozone safety vary with the type of foam used.
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Vapor Retarders and Air Barriers: Managing Moisture in Building Envelopes
Explainer
Air barriers, which prevent air leakage, and vapor retarders, which control moisture diffusion, are both important for controlling moisture in a building envelope.
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Thermal Mass: What It Is and When It Improves Comfort
Explainer
Heavy or massive objects like masonry can help improve thermal comfort, if used properly. They often don't insulate well, however.
Product Guidance
Unbiased information from our product experts helps you separate green from greenwash.
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BuildingGreen Announces Top-10 Products for 2015
Product Review
Transformative products eliminate toxic chemicals and fossil fuels, and improve building and site performance.
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An Air Barrier Engineered for Real-World Jobsites
Product Review
The continuity of air and water barriers depends on the quality of workmanship, and Prosoco’s Cat 5 system is hard to get wrong.
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For a Low-Maintenance Green Roof, Give Plants Better Soil
Product Review
Inventors of the WaterGrip growing medium say it supports near-miraculous growth—but do their claims hold as much water as their soil?
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Silicone Air Barrier Offers Simple, Systematic Approach
Product Review
A whole-building air barrier system with a 15-year warranty is offered as a package from Dow Corning.
In The News
We break news down to the essentials and provide expert analysis.
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Passive House Standards to Add Net-Zero-Energy Options
News Analysis
New categories of certification under the Passive House standards will recognize buildings that offset energy use with onsite renewables.
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Pushing Weatherization, Feds Look the Other Way on Radon
News Analysis
When using federal dollars to button up, low-income homeowners don't get additional funding for radon mitigation. What happens next? The government isn't telling.
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Thermal Bridging Can Degrade Wall Performance 70%
News Brief
The Devil is in your details, and he’s letting staggering amounts of energy escape.
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2015 Energy Code Could Back Off on Envelope Requirements
News Analysis
Mechanical tradeoffs may once again give builders more flexibility to bring a building up to code.
Perspective
Thought-provoking opinions from the most trusted minds in sustainability.
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Learning Resources
Syllabus supplements and CEU content, with automatic reporting for AIA and GBCI.
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