Buildings & Project Types
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Buildings & Project Types
Deep Dives
Get up to speed on complex topics. You can also earn CEUs and download PDF Spotlight Reports.
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The Secret Math Behind RMI’s New Headquarters
Feature Short
Designing for net-zero energy and carbon in the nation’s coldest climate is not just a physics problem. There’s also the chemistry.
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Six Ways Existing Buildings Can Save the Planet
Feature Short
Renovations, retrofits, and better-informed O&M will determine how quickly the developed world slows its carbon emissions.
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How Six Affordable Housing Projects Got to Green
Feature Short
Stories of designers and developers who overcame the challenges of building affordable housing that is also green, sustainable, and healthy.
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Elevated New Orleans Buildings Pass a Flood Test
Feature Short
A housing project that replaced one damaged by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans was designed high enough to withstand a recent flood.
Quick Takes
Jump straight to the essentials with these short explanations of green building concepts.
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Checklist for Implementing an Occupant Engagement Campaign
Infographic
Use this checklist as a guide to implementing an occupant engagement campaign.
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Putting the “Pre” in Post-Occupancy Evaluations
Infographic
Don’t just take a survey and walk away. There’s a better way to do POEs that can dovetail with the integrative process, improve project outcomes, and save clients money.
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Retrofit or Build New? How Product Teams are Choosing
Infographic
Reasons to retrofit, reasons to tear down and build new, and how to decide.
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Sitting Is the New Smoking: Fad or Fact?
Explainer
Active design is looking less like a luxury and more like a public health imperative.
Product Guidance
Unbiased information from our product experts helps you separate green from greenwash.
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Retrofitting Exterior Foam on Existing Walls
Product Review
The R-etro System from Quad-Lock makes installing exterior foam for deep-energy retrofits easier and less expensive.
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An Efficient Retrofit for Commercial Hot Water on Demand
Product Review
D'Mand Circ for commercial buildings recirculates hot water only when it's needed, saving fuel and electricity-and even the pipes.
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HOBO Data Loggers: No Longer Just for Researchers
Product Review
Understanding how buildings work is becoming more and more important, and Onset Computer offers a wide range of HOBO data loggers to serve this need.
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Making Wall Outlets Safer—and Smarter
Product Review
In addition to protecting against electric shock and fire, SafePlug uses RFID tags to help track energy use from individual appliances and turn them on and off remotely.
In The News
We break news down to the essentials and provide expert analysis.
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Guidelines in Development for Residential Remodeling
News Analysis
The Regreen program aims to give residential remodeling designers and contractors, as well as homeowners, an integrated guide to making their projects green.
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Cities Move to Improve Energy Efficiency
News Analysis
Three cities have released plans that would require energy-efficient retrofits of existing buildings.
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Federal Support for Sustainable Communities Grows
News Analysis
A partnership between three federal agencies, designed to facilitate sustainability planning, is bearing fruit, and may see a large funding increase in 2011.
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USGBC Launches LEED-ND
News Analysis
The U.S. Green Building Council has launched its LEED for Neighborhood Development rating system, and registrations are open.
Perspective
Thought-provoking opinions from the most trusted minds in sustainability.
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Building Materials and the Time Value of Carbon
Op-Ed
When you save matters. What you build matters. Here’s why we need to build well and rebuild better.
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On the Path to Net Zero
Op-Ed
At Leonard Farm, we’ve taken another big step in our quest for net-zero energy and net-zero carbon—but we’re not there yet!
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America’s Greenest Office Building
Blog Post
The Bullitt Center in Seattle is showing that a six-story, 52,000 square-foot building can meet the net-zero-energy, net-zero-water Living Building Challenge
Learning Resources
Syllabus supplements and CEU content, with automatic reporting for AIA and GBCI.
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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 -
We Must Decarbonize Existing Buildings by 2050—but How?
Feature
Curbing carbon emissions requires that we address our vast stock of existing buildings. Here’s how to make the case and get it done.
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Build Green on a Budget: Lessons from Affordable Housing
Spotlight Report
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Build More or Build Green? Affordable Housing’s False Choice
Feature
The housing crisis is also a climate crisis and a social equity crisis. If we change our ways, we can address them all at once.
Just For Fun
Something weird happens every April at BuildingGreen...
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Inspired by 2021 Pritzker Winner, Bjarke Ingels Renounces New Construction
April Fools
News that BIG will no longer design new buildings shocks the architecture profession.
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World’s Smartest Building Shuts Down
April Fools
The Beacon of Hope, which once held the promise of making buildings and humanity better, has had to shut down due to problems with its artificial intelligence platform.
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ILFI Debuts Self-Help Affirmations for Existing Buildings
April Fools
Outdated, inefficient buildings find a new path forward—and inward.
