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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Integrated Project Delivery: A Platform for Efficient Construction
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Integrated project delivery, or IPD, is a new contract mechanism for design and construction. Among its benefits for green building, it enshrines integrated design and building information modeling (BIM) into a legally supportive framework.
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Finding the Green Lining: Surviving and Thriving in an Economic Downturn
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A sharp slowdown in nearly all sectors of design and construction has been a defining component of the current recession. Green building has remained a relative bright spot, however, giving firms with strong green capabilities a leg up. This article examines the current climate and offers specific pointers on thriving with a green agenda.
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Growing Food Locally: Integrating Agriculture Into the Built Environment
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With a little ingenuity, the flat roofs and vacant lots of urban centers can be used effectively for food production. Numerous models can bring building-integrated food production to your project, while making our food supply chain more sustainable.
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The Folly of Building-Integrated Wind
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Wind turbines on buildings could produce electricity where it's needed and catch high winds above ground level. However, wind turbulence, safety, cost, and poor performance all make building-integrated wind a limited strategy.
Quick Takes
Jump straight to the essentials with these short explanations of green building concepts.
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Owner’s Project Requirements: What It Is, What It Could Be
Explainer
Clients, designers, and commissioning agents don’t always get what they need out of the OPR. Some teams are trying to change that.
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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.
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Ethnography: A Creative Tool for Human-Centered Design
Explainer
Social science research methods can generate innovative and sophisticated design solutions that respond to human needs and cultural values.
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Product as a Service: Buying the Lumen, Not the Lightbulb
Explainer
Proponents of the circular economy point to PaaS as one of the strongest tools we have to take control of our energy and material waste.
Product Guidance
Unbiased information from our product experts helps you separate green from greenwash.
In The News
We break news down to the essentials and provide expert analysis.
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Report Guides Carbon Offset Customers
News Analysis
A new report helps buyers evaluate providers of carbon offsets, which help individuals and buildings reduce their carbon footprints.
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TimberSIL Business Rebuilding
News Analysis
Timber Treatment Technologies, the maker of the nontoxic treated wood alternative TimberSIL, is distributing in the Southeast as it regroups following several setbacks.
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EPA Limits Wood Preservative ACC to Commercial Uses
News Analysis
In a decision that was both surprising to and welcomed by environmental groups, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has disallowed the wood preservative acid copper chromate (ACC) in residential uses.
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USGBC Releases Final Report on PVC Avoidance
News Analysis
The Technical and Scientific Advisory Committee of the U.S. Green Building Council has found that that evidence does not support an anti-PVC credit in the LEED rating system.
Perspective
Thought-provoking opinions from the most trusted minds in sustainability.
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BAC Launches Sustainable Design Institute
Op-Ed
Boston Architectural College has created the Sustainable Design Institute to house its online continuing education course offerings in sustainable design.
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Integrate Food Production and Green Building
Op-Ed
Adding local food production to the goals of green building makes sense for the environment and human health.
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Climate Change Fatigue? How to Read the IPCC Reports
Op-Ed
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, has been busy churning out report after report. Rather than tuning out, we should be reading closely.
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Three Steps To Make Green Globes Part of the Solution
Op-Ed
An entry-level alternative pushing LEED to get better would be great, but GBI’s Green Globes needs to start by joining the green building community.
Learning Resources
Syllabus supplements and CEU content, with automatic reporting for AIA and GBCI.
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Constructing Change: The Contractor’s Commitment
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.
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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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Affordable Housing or Green Housing? We Can Say Yes to Both
Webcast
Yes, available funding for building and rehabilitating affordable housing is inadequate—but that’s all the more reason to get this right when we get the chance.
Just For Fun
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