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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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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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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Wood: Is It Still Good? Part One: Embodied Carbon
Feature Article
The idea that wood is inherently carbon neutral has masked negative impacts. The climate stakes are too high for us to keep buying those claims.
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AEC Was Left Out of a Key Decarbonization Pilot. What’s Next?
Feature Article
Science-based targets for the building sector no longer apply to design firms and most construction companies, but experts say AEC must continue leading the industry toward net zero.
Quick Takes
Jump straight to the essentials with these short explanations of green building concepts.
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Product Guidance
Unbiased information from our product experts helps you separate green from greenwash.
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Photovoltaics and Their Environmental Performance
Product Review
Renewable energy systems, particularly photovoltaic (PV) panels, have come under attack for using toxic materials and having a high carbon footprint. The truth is more complicated. -
An Award-Winning Energy Management Outlet
Product Review
RAB’s Lightcloud Outlet enables wireless monitoring and control of plug loads while allowing for demand response and other energy-saving scheduling.
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Fuel Cells: The Promise of Hydrogen Power
Product Review
Bloom Energy fuel cells provide on-demand electricity but use natural gas and release CO2. Switching to hydrogen could help change our energy future.
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New Blowing Agents Revolutionize XPS Industry
Product Review
Due to regulatory changes in Canada and certain U.S. states, manufacturers will be offering XPS with low global warming potential starting in 2021.
In The News
We break news down to the essentials and provide expert analysis.
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How to Identify—and Get Your Hands on—Climate-Smart Wood
News Analysis
The Climate Smart Wood Group is offering procurement guidance while simultaneously pushing toward better data.
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A Once-in-a-Lifetime Opportunity to Green Public Schools
News Analysis
With federal funds flooding in, the industry can transform K–12 education in the next three years—but only if we do it right.
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A Boatload of Building-Related Incentives in Inflation Reduction Act
News Analysis
Architects and engineers will be able to claim energy-efficiency tax credits when working for tax-exempt clients.
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4 Big Questions as Building Codes Consider Embodied Carbon
News Analysis
Beyond “buy clean” procurement policies, a newer race is on to limit embodied carbon through codes. But the fate of the effort is uncertain.
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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LEED and Life-Cycle Assessment in Buildings
Webcast
Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a way of understanding the environmental impacts of something, starting with raw material extraction and ending at a landfill or recycling plant. You can use LCA to identify the hot spots—that is, the worst impacts of the thing you’re analyzing—so you can reduce or eliminate them.
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Using Low-Carbon Concrete in Your Next Project
Spotlight Report
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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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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.
