Here’s a nice NYTimes op ed on urban density that directly addresses the concern Gwen raised on out call today: 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/24/upshot/coronavirus-urban-density-risks.html?referringSource=articleShare

Wood decking requires potentially hazardous preservatives and stains, and plastic waste is a significant environmental problem.

BuildingGreen-Approved Decking

Composite decking approved by BuildingGreen has at least 50% total recycled content. For plastic decking, post-consumer content has to be greater than 50%.

Health and... Read more

Hi SDL: I'm working on a presentation and would love to highlight a completed and/or unbuilt project that seriously incorporates climate change projections in the design. Any scale would be great. It's becoming abundantly clear that we need to be doing this for any building that will be around for even a few decades. In fact, the insurance... Read more

Wanted to let everyone know that Nadav and I are very excited about gathering in Las Vegas for our very first Summit of the Small Firm SDL peer network! We'll meet Wednesday afternoon, June 5, for a 4-hour concentrated session from 1:30-5:30 in Room N205. Here's the agenda. A group of us will be meeting on Tuesday to refine the content and flow... Read more

Hello Fellow Green Guru Members:  I am pleased to be a new member of the Sustainable Community Design Leaders (SCDL) forum, and look forward to learning and contributing here.  Also, in case you missed it, this week there were two important steps forward towards an eventual standardized Environmental-Social-Governance (ESG) reporting system... Read more

The Minnesota CLF chapter’s Specification Subgroup (myself, Andy Marolt/Ryan Companies, Laura Eder/ESG, Java Nyamjav/MSR Design, with input from Annie Perkins/SFI) recently collaborated on a draft set of specification templates incorporating embodied carbon requirements into product performance and action submittals. This work builds on sample... Read more

Hello - I wanted to see if others have been having any of the same Windows security issues with a host of public software (Radiance, Window, DAYSIM, Open Studio) that we regularly use for performance analysis.

My IT team has let me know that they see serious security conflicts with THERM, as well as lot of the LBNL software (Radiance,... Read more

Colleagues

It has been my great pleasure to serve the AIA's COTE Top Ten review process, both as a main juror and, most recently, as one of the technical review team.  I have specifically reviewed the Discovery and Energy measures for the past few years.  I will be serving again on the 2021 team.  The AIA has already received many more... Read more

Gather with the Changemakers in Sustainable Design

You are invited to join BuildingGreen and your peers for the Summit that has always delivered on driving our movement forward. Over three days of collaboration, workshops, learning, sharing, networking, and socializing, we’ll explore what Sustainability Leadership looks like in 2023 and... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of The Hidden Science of High-Performance Building Assemblies.

Learning Objectives
Upon completing this course, participants will be able to:


1. Define hygrothermal pressure and explain what it requires of water, air, and thermal barriers in high-performance assemblies.
2. Explain... Read more

It’s hard to believe COP28 is upon us. Kicking off tomorrow (11.30) and concluding 12.12, it’s sure to be a full few weeks of sharing, live streams, and interesting takes.

We’ve been excited to see a few Peer Network members represented as attendees in Architecture 2030’s (in-person and virtual) delegation.

D.J. Greenspecher

Our high performance consulting team is frustrated by project teams that regularly fall back on outdated rules of thumb in their system and equipment sizing. 

What challenges do you face in your work flow to limit oversizing and promote right-sizing?

By the way, Roger Chang, our literature search on the subject turned up an eleven... Read more

Do you know something about power purchas agreements, on or off-site?  I understand that they are legal in Washington and Oregon, where most of my projects are, but I haven't come across anyone who has used one on a project.  If you have some experience or expertise, it would be great to hear from you.  

We are embarking on our first CLT projects (our at least we hope that they go that way). Would anyone with experience be willing to share some thoughts from the architect's perspective on things to consider, lessons learned, etc?

CEUs are available for reading all the building-envelope product guides and primer. Click here to learn more and take the quiz.

Stick-framed walls are labor intensive and have to be sealed and insulated in the field, where conditions are not ideal; this can lead to poor thermal performance.

BuildingGreen-Approved Structural... Read more