Hello SDL Leaders,

Over the past month, I have been working with ILFI to navigate the question of residuals in LBC compliant products vs. products reporting for a Declare label.

Through our conversations, it came to light that ILFI considers the LBC Red List threshold to be 10,000 ppm, rather than the 100 ppm written into the... Read more

Hello,

We are having a discussion / a bit of a debate in our office about the merits and sustainability of different roofing materials. Our current standard is to use a PVC membrane, which we all know is highly toxic. TPO is an obvious alternative that is less toxic, but it has some performance concerns and can often lead to leaking (not... Read more

Hi everyone,

I'm interested in identifying any in-person opportunities (local to Greater Boston) to engage my office during Earth Week. We are all excited to be able to do things in person now, so if anyone has anything on their radar please let me know (a panel, educational activity, or volunteer opportunity!)
 

Thanks,... Read more

Hi folks - update here for our FUN saturday night "show"!! What a great way to start the year and celebrate new beginnings!

The Lighter Side of Green will air THIS coming Sat night at 7pm with Anne Hicks Harney MC'ing - check out the link to see the roster of amazing talent and log on for great tunes, humor, camraderie and community! ... Read more

How much will it cost to achieve LEED v4 certification?

“We’d love a green building, but can we afford it?”

“We’re required to be LEED Silver, but we’re not sure how to get there under the new rating system.”

“Sure, we’re interested in LEED, as long as it doesn’t cost extra.”

LEED v4 and cost uncertainty

With... Read more

THIS WEBINAR PURCHASE AND REGISTRATION IS CLOSED.

Katrina Amaral
Timberdoodle Farm

Jacob Dunn
ZGF

Steve Rigdon
Yakama Forest Products

Jennifer Shakun
New England Forestry... Read more

This may seem a bit in the weeds, but I have typically paid extra at Greenbuild for the access to the materials after the conference - we use that to develop presentations back to the teams who are not able to attend. For many years it was helpful - getting some materials to help folks see what they missed.  Last year they went to a new service... Read more

Is there a way for southface staff or guest experts to "pin" or "tag" the "right" answer in a forum question? It might be useful to designate the right answer and pin it to the top of a forum thread. I don't want the answer selected via crowd source but by staff or volunteers. Thanks.

Welcome to the quiz portion of The PVC Debate: A Fresh Look

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


1. Catalog the history of PVC in the building industry.
2. Recount the connections between PVC and chlorine, dioxins, mercury, and vinyl chloride.
3. Explain the... Read more

Anyone have experience with electric boilers? I think in cold climates it's perhaps the first thought when trying to reduce scope 1 emissions in an HVAC application that would have historically used gas-fired boilers... but it seems like they're only an incremental improvement compared to heat pumps / geothermal / VRF type solutions. We haven't... Read more

Hello AEC Sustainability Leaders (aka the Green Gurus)!

As we continue to promote and expand the use of mass timber on our projects, it is becoming increasingly important that we learn more about the spectrum of impacts that this material selection is having on the forests and communities from which we’re sourcing our wood fiber…both... Read more

Thought this was worth sharing - Lance Davis, who manages the P100 program for GSA just posted to an email group i belong to that the GSA P100 program is to be updated in 2024.  In service to that, there is a "P100 Change Proposal Form" available for folks to make helpful suggestions.

They are asking for suggestions, i think we should... Read more

Seeking Pros/Cons, Feedback/Commentary about signing the US Architects Declare Commitment. 

https://us.architectsdeclare.com/

Reviewing against the "shoulds" and "shalls" of the 2020 AIA Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct ... and other commitments that are out there ... any feedback welcome.

Tips for how your workflow... Read more

Is there a list of which number corresponds with each Best Practice? E.g. "03 Energy Audit & Planning."

Hello,

We are in the very early planning phase of a k-8 public school project to be designed and built in an economically challenged urban location with very limited site options. The project is not LEEDv4 registered yet.  We are at feasibility and costing the soil remediation, needless to say that we would really hope there would be... Read more

Hello Green Gurus! We are diving deep into our carbon metrics this year and are finalizing some of our emissions factors for our Scope 1 and 2 emissions and in a few more months Scope 3. I'm hoping this brain trust has some recent knowledge to share on this topic. What we've found is there's a fairly big variance in what we've seen in published... Read more