mindful MATERIALS: Climate Health
Embodied carbon is an increasingly urgent consideration: massive emissions from manufacturing concrete, steel, foam, gypsum board, and other building products are happening right now. Some products save energy and carbon during building operation. Our resources help you minimize the use of the worst offenders and support climate health by preferring products that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and sequester more carbon than emitted.
mindful MATERIALS: Climate Health
Deep Dives
Get up to speed on complex topics. You can also earn CEUs and download PDF Spotlight Reports.
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How IRA Can Take Ground-Source Heat Pumps Mainstream
Feature Article
Incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act help GSHPs pay for themselves faster than conventional HVAC systems—with far better performance.
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Using Low-Carbon Concrete in Your Next Project
Feature Article
Advancements in low-carbon concrete materials and strategies have led to greater adoption in much of the U.S. Now it's time to start using them.
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ESG: 6 Things Building Professionals Need to Know
Feature Article
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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Constructing Change: The Contractor’s Commitment
Feature Article
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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Understanding Emission Scopes in the GHG Protocol
Primer
The GHG Protocol’s three emission scopes acknowledge the complexities of supply and demand while also encouraging sector-wide alignment, consistent transparency, and support for science-based decarbonization targets.
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Demystifying Climate Change Lingo: From Scope 3 to SSP
Primer
Climate change is complicated, and the terminology can also be hard to decipher. Here’s a short glossary of a few relevant terms.
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Neutralizing the Downsides of Concrete
Primer
Concrete is a durable and necessary building material, but its carbon footprint is huge. Here’s a rundown of concrete’s tradeoffs and some solutions.
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Glazing Performance Metrics
Primer
A few key metrics are important for understanding the thermal performance of glazing units used in curtainwalls and windows.
Product Guidance
Unbiased information from our product experts helps you separate green from greenwash.
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Thermal Energy Storage Increases Heat-Pump Effectiveness
Product Review
Combining water-source heat pumps and ice-based thermal storage creates a “battery” that can provide all-electric heating and cooling, even in cold climates. And it qualifies for IRA funding.
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Is Carbon-Negative Concrete Possible?
Product Review
Solid Carbon’s biochar admixture can create a carbon-negative concrete, with the help of other concrete additives and credit for avoided emissions.
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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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Innovative Products: 20th Greenbuild Edition
Product Review
The Greenbuild expo floor was a mix of familiar faces, updates, and new, innovative products.
In The News
We break news down to the essentials and provide expert analysis.
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California’s Embodied Carbon Code May Embolden Other States
News Analysis
CalGreen’s new embodied carbon requirement is unprecedented in the U.S. We analyze the code and what might come next for other states.
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MEP Engineers Urge Collective Action on Refrigerant Emissions
News Brief
The group MEP 2040 is now offering letter-writing templates asking manufacturers for equipment that uses next-generation, low-GWP refrigerants.
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With Early-Phase Carbon Tool, Designers Learn What Works
News Brief
ZeroGuide, a free tool from NBBJ, is about education as much as it is about modeling. It’s also a gateway to more refined approaches.
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New Baselines from Carbon Leadership Forum
News Brief
The Carbon Leadership Forum has updated its baseline data to keep pace with industry changes.
Perspective
Thought-provoking opinions from the most trusted minds in sustainability.
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The Universal Low-Carbon Building Standard Does Six Things
Op-Ed
Here’s how we’re going to deconstruct “net zero” and rebuild it as a comprehensive standard that applies to every building.
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This is the Universal Low-Carbon Building Standard We Need
Op-Ed
The building industry’s current net-zero-energy and net-zero-carbon standards got complicated for a reason, but they don’t have to stay that way.
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Net Zero Has Failed. We Need a Universal Carbon Standard for Buildings.
Op-Ed
The building sector’s current “net-zero” standards are not credible, not scalable, and don’t eliminate emissions. There’s a better way.
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Press Release: Major Green Building Orgs Team Up on Material Education
Blog Post
Mindful MATERIALS has partnered with BuildingGreen to expand knowledge of the Common Materials Framework across the building product manufacturing and AEC industries.
Learning Resources
Syllabus supplements and CEU content, with automatic reporting for AIA and GBCI.
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The BuildingGreen Guide to Building Product Certifications and Ecolabels- Discounted
Special Report
This BuildingGreen publication provides a no-nonsense guide to the world of green building product certifications to help designers, purchasers, manufacturers, and others in the industry to focus on what is significant and relevant so that market forces can work and the industry can focus on bigger issues.
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The BuildingGreen Guide to Building Product Certifications and Ecolabels
Special Report
This BuildingGreen publication provides a no-nonsense guide to the world of green building product certifications to help designers, purchasers, manufacturers, and others in the industry to focus on what is significant and relevant so that market forces can work and the industry can focus on bigger issues.
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Construction Emissions: A Virtual Roundtable
Webcast
In this one-hour panel discussion, we will tap the leading experts on estimating and tracking construction emissions and talk about best practices for reducing this slice of a project’s carbon footprint.
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Using Low-Carbon Concrete in Your Next Project
Spotlight Report
