Design Process
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Design Process
Deep Dives
Get up to speed on complex topics. You can also earn CEUs and download PDF Spotlight Reports.
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The Urgency of Embodied Carbon and What You Can Do about It
Feature Article
Building materials emit massive amounts of carbon long before the lights go on. Here’s how thoughtful design can reduce global warming impact.
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How Buildings Fail Their Users
Feature Article
A building doesn’t have to be falling down to fail. We share seven stories of green buildings gone wrong—along with tips for prevention.
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When Passive House Goes Big
Feature Article
More projects are proving Passive House is achievable for large urban buildings. The lessons learned along the way can help guide cities to a low-energy, resilient future.
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Community-Scale Sustainability: Accelerating Change for People and Planet
Feature Article
By working at the neighborhood scale, designers and developers can more dramatically improve environmental performance and social equity.
Quick Takes
Jump straight to the essentials with these short explanations of green building concepts.
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Our Buildings Are Killing Our Oceans
Explainer
Carbon is more deadly than many other toxic substances we fret about every day. And acidification might be more of a problem than climate change.
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Getting “Conflict Minerals” Out of Our Products
Explainer
While “blood diamonds” get attention, mining of metals like tin and tungsten helps finance civil wars. Here’s a look at the movement to change that.
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Net-Positive, Regenerative Design, and Other Ways Buildings Can Do Good
Explainer
Instead of making a big fat net-zero your goal, regenerative design encourages whole-systems thinking and projects that actually add benefit to the environment.
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Biophilic Design: Indulging Our Love of Life
Explainer
New biophilia metrics pin down what it means to engage the love of nature through design.
Product Guidance
Unbiased information from our product experts helps you separate green from greenwash.
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BioPCM: Finally, a Low-Cost, Practical Phase-Change Material
Product Review
A sea change for phase-change materials? BioPCM brings phase change into the 21st century with biobased mats.
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LED Systems Provide Huge Energy Savings for Jobsite Lighting
Product Review
New LED technology is revolutionizing lighting on construction sites, but investing in the high-performing fixtures is a challenge for contractors who are used to disposable strings of light bulbs.
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Building a Better Building Block-Pozzotive Plus
Product Review
Kingston Block & Masonry Supply has introduced a line of CMUs and concrete facing brick made with a post-consumer-recycled-glass pozzolan substituting for 30% of the portland cement as well as about 50% post-consumer recycled aggregate.
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iCrete Mixes Stronger Concrete With Less Cement
Product Review
iCrete is an approach to concrete mix design that uses a proprietary algorithm, informed by detailed analysis of available aggregates, to optimize particle packing and use only as much cement as necessary.
In The News
We break news down to the essentials and provide expert analysis.
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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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Affordable Housing Gets Billions for Resilience Retrofits
News Brief
HUD releases guidance for its Green Resilient and Retrofit Program, part of the Inflation Reduction Act, which seeks to improve the efficiency and resilience of low-income housing.
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Resilience SOS: How to Save Kids’ Minds, Lungs, and Housing
News Analysis
Global heating is already making today’s children more vulnerable, a new EPA report reveals. Adaptation measures are needed to protect them.
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Biden Firms Up His Environmental Justice Agenda
News Brief
Biden's executive order 14096 on Revitalizing Our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All looks to protect communities burdened by pollution.
Perspective
Thought-provoking opinions from the most trusted minds in sustainability.
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Earth Day’s 50th Anniversary
Op-Ed
Fifty years out, the increased awareness of the environment is heartwarming and the accomplishments significant, but our challenges are greater than ever.
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Let’s Bounce Forward from the COVID-19 Pandemic
Op-Ed
What lessons can we learn from the coronavirus pandemic that will help us end up in a better place when the crisis is over?
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The Green New Deal—an Opportunity for the Green Building Industry
Op-Ed
Achieving the goals of the Green New Deal will be tremendously challenging—but not impossible.
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Carbon Emissions Are Up, But We Can Get Back on Track
Op-Ed
Carbon emissions rose in a year of natural disasters. Here’s what we can do about it.
Learning Resources
Syllabus supplements and CEU content, with automatic reporting for AIA and GBCI.
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On-demand Webinar- The Integrative Process: A Virtual Roundtable
Webcast
This intermediate-level webinar is for people who know something about the integrative process and are ready to deepen and broaden their knowledge and practice—and perhaps even change their firm's culture.
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ESG Deep Dive: A Virtual Roundtable
Webcast
Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) programs and reporting platforms are changing how companies do business—including how they think about their building portfolios. These programs, along with emerging public policy, are driving more and more organizations toward decarbonization and other sustainable development goals.
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Integrative Process: Pathways to Performance and Regeneration
Spotlight Report
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ESG for AEC: Does it Change How We Approach Green Building?
Webcast
Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting is an increasingly common expectation throughout financial sectors, and the real estate industry is no exception.
Just For Fun
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