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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LEED and WELL Product Labels: A Guide and Analysis
Feature
LEED and WELL encourage a lot of different programs for green products. Learn the essentials—plus what’s behind the labels.
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Is Using Smart Glass Smart?
Feature
Electrochromic glazing holds the promise of less glare and better energy efficiency with fewer attachments. The reality is much more complicated.
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Constructing Change: The Contractor’s Commitment
Feature
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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Product Guidance
Unbiased information from our product experts helps you separate green from greenwash.
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BuildingGreen Announces Top 10 Products for 2021
Product Review
These innovative products reduce carbon emissions and include negative embodied carbon carpet, repurposed EV battery storage, carbon sequestering aggregate, and more.
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Blue Planet: Cost-Effective Carbon Sequestration
Product Review
Blue Planet turns industrial CO2 into aggregate, cost-effectively sequestering carbon while producing a viable commodity.
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High-Efficiency Commercial Window Inserts
Product Review
Alpen’s WinSert commercial window inserts significantly improve the thermal performance of aging window systems, without the cost or aesthetic concerns of full replacements.
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Commercial Heat Pump Water Heaters Using CO2 Refrigerant
Product Review
Mitsubishi’s Heat2O commercial heat-pump water heater uses CO2 as a refrigerant and is now available in the U.S.
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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New Climate-Smart-Wood Guidance and a Call for Pilot Partners
News Analysis
As more project teams question timber’s “carbon neutrality,” a growing coalition blazes a common-sense but potentially perilous path forward.
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Interior Products Can Have Enormous Carbon Footprint
News Brief
The structure and envelope have the most up-front embodied carbon, but replacement cycles may make interiors more important than previously thought.
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A Growing Embodied Carbon Library
News Brief
The Carbon Leadership Forum has published a whole library on embodied carbon—and it’s crowdsourcing more resources every day
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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Is Using Smart Glass Smart?
Spotlight Report
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Constructing Change: The Contractor’s Commitment
Spotlight Report
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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.