Product Guide
Early laminate flooring had problems with premature surface wear, moisture damage, and hazardous formaldehyde emissions—and some products may still have these problems.
BuildingGreen-Approved Flooring
Laminate flooring products listed by BuildingGreen have high recycled content (greater than 70%) or FSC-certified content and:... Read more
Author
Products & Materials Specialist Brent Ehrlich excels at deep, unbiased, and nuanced technical research on the health and environmental impacts of green building products and materials. Some areas of focus include:
product and material constituents, including their risks
product certifications
third-party product... Read more
Forum topic
This is specifically to Chris but also to anybody who is interested in the topic - which Chris raised on our SAL call today, regarding how to influence change:
From this article, which i thought was good but had a great paragraph pulled below.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/12/business/Steve-Mollenkopf-Qualcomm-corner-office.html... Read more
Forum topic
On Wednesday, November 10th (4-5:50pm PST), the Women in Green committees of California are hosting an exciting session to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Women in Green - Steadfast and Strong.
Join us for a dynamic and lively conversation from women leading in all areas of sustainability including policy, corporate, non-profit, and... Read more
Quiz
Welcome to the quiz portion of EPDs Are the Future of the Building Industry, Whether You Like It or Not.
Learning Objectives
Upon completing this course, participants will be able to:
1. Explain how environmental product declarations (EPDs) are made, what they tell you, and how they're best used.
2. Describe... Read more
Forum topic
Does anyone here have a draft spec for low embodied carbon concrete they could share? I see the GSA has a standards sheet with MGWP limits, but we are hoping to actually specify the mix for upcoming projects.
Forum topic
Hello Gurus,
I am working with an owner who is making zero-carbon commitments and wants to explore setting carbon budgets in their capital plan (and subsequently their individual projects). We will be starting exploratory discussions next week and I was hoping some of you might have been working with other owners who have already... Read more
Forum topic
Hello Sustainable Advising Leaders!
I have an exciting announcement today, fall Peer Network events are now open for registration! You can see all the event details and register here!
Based on feedback we received from past events and the most recent surveys, we decided against doing one long week of events for this fall and... Read more
Forum topic
For my first test post I'm going to be completely boring and ask about logistics.
If we know of someone that should be part of this forum, how do we invite them? There were a couple of people that I thought were on the Wiggio who I recently found out were not. There may also be folks from our regional groups who may not have been part... Read more
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Hi all,
I'm sure many (most? all?) of us have heard the changes to LEEDv4's energy standard are coming. If this is news to you, info on the balloted measures that have passed is available online here: https://www.usgbc.org/articles/leed-v4-energy-update-approved-member-ballot.
My question to MEP friends in the Green Commons: In... Read more
Forum topic
The Center for the Built Environment (CBE) at the University of California, Berkeley is conducting a survey to understand current practices and outlooks among design practitioners: architects, engineers, energy modelers, and related professionals. Our goal with this work is to improve climate change adaptation guidelines that support building... Read more
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Hi All - as Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) becomes increasingly prevalent, I'm trying to learn more about what types of requests for ESG-related information folks are actually receiving and what types of trainings on ESG would be most helpful. Drilling down a bit, I'm curious as to how ESG data points are moving down the supply... Read more
Forum topic
Following up something I mentioned at the summit - the EPA is hosting public comment webinars related to the IRA and construction. The first one seems particularly relevant, 3/2/23 from 2-3.30pm EST “Reducing Embodied GHG Emissions: Construction Materials Prioritization and Environmental Data Improvement”. Good opportunity to have our voices... Read more
Forum topic
All--
A few months ago, I sent around a note about an article I was writing about the state of post-occupancy studies. It finally came out, in the latest issue of Metropolis. Great quotes and work from Payette, EDR, KieranTimberlake, HKS, and others. Thanks to all for helping with this.
I don't believe it's available online yet,... Read more
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Dear Colleagues,
I proposed CarbonCure for a project and the structural engineer in the meeting was opposed to it. He later sent me detailed reasoning by email. I have not used this technology and would like to hear other more experienced opinions on the technology. The project we are working on is well integrated with climate, 99% sDA,... Read more
Product Guide
Most products sold as “ceramic tile” are fired at lower temperatures and are less durable.
For porcelain tile, BuildingGreen starts with the Green2 standard for sustainable tiling—ANSI A138.1 American National Standard Specifications for Sustainable Ceramic Tiles, Glass Tiles, and Tile Installation Materials. This is a multi-attribute... Read more