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BuildingGreen Report
Product Review
In part two of our Greenbuild expo product roundup, I’m covering CO2 heat pumps, a ground-source system heat pump system, agricultural fiber panels, construction equipment wash systems, and more.
This is Part Two in a two-part series. Part One covers IAQ equipment and low-carbon concrete.
In the first part of our Greenbuild 2023 product coverage, we looked at low-carbon concrete and IAQ monitors—showcasing innovative solutions to some of our most pressing building concerns. This second installment covers several cool categories... Read more
News Analysis
With a new program, the International WELL Building Institute aims to help users more easily find high-performance building products and systems.
Product and material selection is one of the most time-consuming parts of achieving a green and healthy building certification like LEED, WELL, or (perhaps most famously) the Living Building Challenge. Project teams must sort through hundreds of products to find safer cleaning solutions, low-VOC furniture, or air purifiers that meet performance... Read more
News Analysis
Beginning in 2025, electricity-producing facilities will need to achieve zero emissions to claim the Investment Tax Credit, making the eligibility of several currently funded technologies uncertain.
Just as project teams have started to get a handle on the huge decarbonization and resilience incentives of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), one of the law’s most significant provisions for the building industry is about to radically change.
On January 1, 2025, for the first time in its almost 50 years, the Investment Tax Credit for... Read more
News Brief
The EPA is finalizing rules that make it easier to find where and how PFAS are being used, making it easier to regulate them in the future.
PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), forever chemicals, are one of the biggest environmental challenges facing the world today. There are more than 10,000 PFAS, some of which are persistent, bioaccumulative toxic chemicals. So why don’t we just ban products that use them?
That’s hard when you don’t know which PFAS are being used... Read more
News Analysis
Community Climate Shift funds projects driving community-led decarbonization and building performance standards.
We know that decarbonizing existing buildings is crucial to meaningfully reduce the carbon footprint of the building sector, but retrofitting older building stock, especially multifamily housing, is a formidable challenge. A new initiative, Community Climate Shift, hopes to demonstrate that it can be done rapidly—and equitably.
Just 2%... Read more
News Brief
In an open letter, public health leaders implore officials to design building policies for occupant health.
“The imperative for health-driven building policy has never been more pressing. Buildings must be fortified for health.”
This statement is part of an open letter addressed to elected officials and policymakers, and signed by six former U.S. Surgeons General, six CEOs, five executive directors of leading public health organizations, and... Read more
Product Review
The Greenbuild expo floor had quite a few new products, an exciting change post-pandemic. In fact, there were too many for one article. In part one we’re covering IAQ and low-carbon concrete. Stay tuned for part two!
This is Part One in a two-part series. Part Two covers heating and cooling, interiors, structural systems, and a construction jobsite product.
With COVID-19 in the rearview mirror (mostly), Greenbuild seemed like it was on the rebound as well. The sessions I attended were lively and topical, and the... Read more
News Analysis
Lofty net-zero commitments and fledgling ESG programs typically lack realistic implementation plans. USGBC wants to fill the gap—but not with LEED.
The organization that created LEED is now advancing a whole new certification concept—one that doesn’t start with an L for leadership.
Also, only existing building portfolios need apply. And the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Portfolio Accelerator, which is still under development but is due out in 2024, will have no points and no... Read more
News Brief
A new IRA grant program will provide $100 million to help U.S. manufacturers create EPDs used to track greenhouse gas emissions, but the timeline for applications is January 16, 2024.
Update: This article was corrected on November 29 to reflect a deadline extension that EPA alerted us to. The application deadline is January 16, 2024.
An Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) grant program called Reducing Embodied Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Construction Materials and Products is out to help manufacturers fund the creation of... Read more
Webcast
Please note: LEEDuser’s informal 45-minute coffee talks are not approved for continuing education units.
This lively conversation features:
Brent Ehrlich, Products & Materials Specialist at BuildingGreen (moderator) Gioia Connell, Built Ecology Consultant, WSP... Read moreNews Brief
The pandemic popularized biophilic design, says a seminal resource, in part by emphasizing the importance of green outdoor spaces.
A beloved resource by Terrapin Bright Green was recently updated with pandemic-era lessons that make an even stronger financial case for biophilic design. The Economics of Biophilia is now in its second edition and is free to download. (Disclosure: Paula Melton, BuildingGreen’s editorial director, helped edit the report.)
The report... Read more
News Brief
The Climate Explorer and the CMRA translate nerdy climate projections into eye-opening images that should be well worth more than a thousand words in the push for resilient design.
Just as people began suffering through last summer’s heat waves and bracing for hurricane season, the Biden administration published a press release touting its resilience efforts, including Heat.gov, the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard, and the National Climate Resilience Framework. The White House also pointed to a rapidly expanding... Read more
News Analysis
As more project teams question timber’s “carbon neutrality,” a growing coalition blazes a common-sense but potentially perilous path forward.
Building professionals looking to reduce embodied carbon don’t have to go very far before tripping over the claim that new buildings—and even entire cities—can become carbon sinks instead of carbon emitters through the use of mass timber.
But in a space often characterized by murky math and madcap marketing, the Climate Smart Wood... Read more
News Brief
The pressure is on in the U.S. to mandate existing building decarbonization. ACEEE has analyzed domestic and international laws for best practices to broaden the reach of this climate change mitigation tool.
The U.S. building industry’s decades-long battle against climate change has focused outsize resources and effort on new construction. But existing building decarbonization must become a central mission, and soon, according to an analysis from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE).
Steven Nadel and Adam Hinge, the... Read more
News Analysis
Millions in tax credits are available from the Inflation Reduction Act, but even some long-standing rules are now being questioned. Lean on your tax advisors, and expect updates as the first projects go through the process.
Wyatt Ross of CMTA and Chris Colasanti of JB&B Consulting Engineers contributed to this article.
This article has been prepared for informational purposes only; it is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal, or accounting advice. You should consult your firm’s tax, legal, and accounting advisors before... Read more
Product Review
Portland cement has a massive carbon footprint, but it has seemed indispensable to concrete—until now. C-Crete aims to replace portland cement with other cementitious materials and its proprietary low-carbon chemistry.
Concrete is responsible for about 5% to 8% of the world’s anthropogenic carbon emissions, and that is largely due to the binder that holds it together, portland cement. So creating a low-carbon concrete that does not use portland cement is the green building industry’s holy grail. One manufacturer claims it has ended the quest.
Portland... Read moreNews Analysis
Climate change symptoms, including wildfire smoke and extreme heat, are endangering outdoor workers and changing assumptions about productivity and construction timelines.
Climate change is threatening outdoor construction workers. Extreme heat and dangerous air quality from wildfire smoke are becoming more frequent and prolonged, occurring in places that have not previously experienced them. And without federal regulations in place, employers must make judgment calls about safety breaks and work stoppages in an... Read more
Op-Ed
Bringing forth a habitable planet will require energy, ambition, and purpose. What will fuel this work? Not data and doomsaying—instead, imagination.
Last week, I saw the future. Here is what it looked like.
Because of unprecedented investments in clean energy, the world still had a chance of staying under the 1.5°C heating target that 194 nations and the E.U. agreed to in Paris in 2015. The building industry had finally prioritized decarbonizing existing buildings over predicting... Read moreNews Brief
The new standard, announced at Greenbuild 2023, aims to bring all buildings along—not just a few high performers. It comes on the heels of a similar proposal in a BuildingGreen series.
The Biden administration will soon release a national standard for zero-emission buildings. The standard will apply to new construction and major renovation, but details are not yet available on whether or how it will address existing building operations.
Citing climate action as a “north star” for the administration, national climate... Read more
Spotlight Report
PFAS “forever chemicals” are persistent in the environment and have a number of potential negative health and environmental impacts. Yet they pervade our lives—and are even infiltrating remote ecosystems once considered pristine.
PFAS are everywhere, from microwave popcorn packaging to industrial metal coatings, so... Read more