If your HVAC designers are addicted to the crack that is Trace 700, and knowing that Trane is giving up on that product in the coming year, what loads program are you weaning* them onto?

Asking for a friend:  Have any of you had success in using the Revit plug-in for loads?

*When told that they should use IESVE for loads, our HVAC... Read more

Hey team,

I'll go look to see who's in the MEP group, but does anyone in this circle have a northern California design engineer for institutional work that they'd particularly recommend? A group of folks we're engaged with is apparently having difficulty identifying a California-based MEP that everyone universally likes for high-... Read more

If you don’t spend your “day-to-day” in the healthy materials space, it’s hard to create strategy and align your company to meet your customers' (what seems to be) ever-changing asks and project goals. This... Read more

Hi! Over the last 10 years, the firm where I work in Boston has predominately designed housing & senior living projects in the the Boston Metro region, with the occassional project in NH, CT, RI, and NY. We have built projects as far south at DC, but never designed anything to my knowledge in California in our 55 years of operation. A... Read more

I'm sure we'll learn more soon, but several people have asked on various platforms about how Betsy del Monte is doing (she lives in Asheville, NC, which was hard hit by Hurricane Helene). 

I had a brief text exchange with her on Saturday 28 September, and I feel sure that she would be OK with my sharing it with you all: 

We’re... Read more

B-Boy Newsy

Hey Gurus:

I have a client who is interested in reporting to their superiors on the status on energy codes in different states across the US. They are hoping to find some kind of summary that might show relative costs for HVAC systems under the various energy codes in effect across states. They are also interested in data that is... Read more

We are looking for someone early in their career to take over our green building certifications (mostly LEED).  They will also be helping our office build expertise in other certifications, keeping up with green building ordinances in our markets, and (hopefully) help me answer all those questions about energy codes. 

They do not need... Read more

Wall and corner guards increase durability, but these products are typically made of PVC.

BuildingGreen-Approved Guards

BuildingGreen approves products that avoid the use of PVC and are made with recycled content, FSC-certified wood, other biobased materials, or less-problematic plastics. 

Health and Environmental... Read more

Hi Sustainable MEP Leaders!

As we discussed at the Summit, we are going to have monthly calls to check in and advance our various initiatives. Let's go with the 2nd Tuesday of the Month.

Please join if you can--we have a lot to follow up on! (See the report I posted earlier this week for details.)

Thanks, and have a great... Read more

Hi Everyone! 

I am building our internal/firm resources around sustainable design, and creating our post-occupancy evaluations is one of those resources. Does anyone have references or resources they'd recommend me to look into for post-occupancy evaluations? So far I am considering a few evalutation types: building user input, building... Read more

Does anyone have any research studies they could share on the effect of construction/renovation noise and activity on employee productivity?  I'm trying to make a case for the measurable negative impacts of having ongoing renovation construction activity in an office environment.  Thanks!

Both Z Smith and Lois Vitt Sale have been notified that they have been elected to the College of Fellows of the AIA, class of 2018.

Please join me in congratulating Z and Lois, and post here if you know of others who can now carry the FAIA label.

Well done guys!

Hi all - 

I have heard a good deal about SBTI in the last while and am wondering about this group’s firms’ engagement with them. We reported one year through CDP, and it was not very useful. It focused entirely on Scope 1 and 2 emissions, which are over 1000x times less than our semi-controllable Scope 3 (buildings’ embodied carbon and... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of LEED v4 Tips from Early Adopters: Earn High Ratings Without Added Costs.

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


1. Explain how the Integrative Process credit rewards good design but is tricky for taxpayer-funded projects.
2. Describe how... Read more

For those of you who are close to CLT and mass timber, has the jump in US wood price also impacted the pricing of CLT on your projects, or viability of CLT compared to the cost of steel or concrete frame buildings?  

If anyone has price data comparing CLT today to pre-Covid pricing or any metric that would describe the percentage change... Read more

Hello friends. On a current school project, an abuse resistant wall covering has been proposed as an alternative to our typical MDF wainscot. The proposed product has been used successfully in healthcare, and switching to it will save the project almost $1million, which is no small amount when the project is over budget and 7-figure cost... Read more