Hello Sustainability Leaders,

I am writing with some news from the Peer Networks team. 

I recently accepted a job with a local college I have long admired in their advancement office. Therefore, my last day at BuildingGreen will be Fri. Feb. 11th. 

Working with you all these past four and a half years has been such an... Read more

Good morning:

I am hoping someone can point me in the direction of any higher ed campus standards or policies focused on plug load management, occupant behavior related to energy, etc. I'm especially interested in any examples of communications to faculty or students encouraging behaviors that reduce energy consumption. Thanks!

I've got exciting news to share! Ayers Saint Gross' JUST disclosure went live on Monday. See our blog post about it here: https://asg-architects.com/ideas/blog/. That has a link out to our actual disclosure as well. It's been a bananas week with our internal communications campaign on it in full swing. I know a number of your firms, based on... Read more

We all know the climates are shifting, and the ASHRAE standard that gets invoked for energy codes is shifting along with them--though not in perfect sync.  Louisiana is leaping from ASHRAE 90.1-2007 energy code to 2021 IECC (boom!).  The 2021 IECC as published uses relatively old climate maps; for Louisiana, at least, the same as the 90.1-2007... Read more

Someone made a tombstone to mark Internet Explorer’s end-of-support date

https://www.engadget.com/internet-explorer-tombstone-175433997.html

I've written waste and recycling policies many a time before for both construciton and operations... but in a volunteer committee application this morning, the maintenance team got bogged down on "how do we collect recycling without plastic bags" question. I told them there's not any kind of plastic bag that I'm aware of which can be thrown... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Energy Modeling for Early Design Decisions (recorded webcast)

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


1. Explain how energy codes and standards are pushing commercial projects beyond what they can do without modeling.
2. Describe the key... Read more

Hi everyone -
Some of you already have heard some or all of this news, but I thought I'd share today's press release with the whole group.
The headline is: 
SERA is VERY excited to announce that David Johnson, formerly the managing partner of Bill McDonough's San Francisco office, is now heading up SERA's bay area office.... Read more

Typically made from petrochemicals, carpet and its adhesives can offgas. It is also a challenge to recycle them, increasing the chances that it will be incinerated or disposed of in a landfill. Because carpet has a limited lifespan, its life-cycle performance is key.

BuildingGreen recommends modular carpet that demonstrates lower life-... Read more

Greetings, all:

AIA COTE Advocacy is working with AIA Gov't Affairs to assemble a directory of COTE-friendly AIA Members who are passionate about environmental advocacy and VOTERS in targeted congressional districts. We are organizing in-district meetings after the mid-term elections focused on the members of the Senate Energy &... Read more

We are working on a tenant improvement and want to determine the embodied carbon on bookshelves, product display cases, and desks. Initially finding that Tally is not reading furniture, casework, or fixture families. Are there any tips and tricks you have found to be successful for modeling or defining FFE items in Revit and quantifying... Read more

The Sustainable Community Design Leaders Peer Network brings together planners, architects, landscape architects, and allied leaders who are committed to leveraging the... Read more

Happy Earth Day! I'm sharing the results of our office Earth Day Mind Map, a collaborative event lead by our Green Team with office-wide participation. https://mm.tt/1471242441?t=4c76rJLKXz 

We are celebrating with a virtual happy hour later today and will use the Mind Map to generate conversation and sharing.

I would love to hear... Read more

Hi Everyone!

Does anyone have a good resource for whole-building embodied carbon benchmarks broken down by building use and building category (structure, foundation, envelope, interior)?

I know of CLF’s 2017 Benchmark Study (great resource!) and the One-Click LCA study on European Buildings but are there any others?  I know many... Read more

Sustainability leadership has requested that you take this quiz to help assess sustainability literacy across the firm. Your own results will be presented to you at the end of the quiz but will not be shared with anyone else. Only aggregated, anonymized results will be available to others.

Please don’t do research to inform your answers... Read more

Bobbie Socks

All - 

I know many of your firms do landscape design, and I wanted to make sure you were aware of a new and pretty impressive conceptual calculator to estimate the carbon impacts (emissions and sinks) of landscape design.  Developed by Pamela Conrad of CMG Landscape with grant support, Atelier 10 and an app developer, the tool allows you... Read more

Greetings Gurus!
Please sign up and spread the word (even if you can't attend, sign up to get follow up info!)

This is one of a series of Hackathons to crowdsource alternative design details that are intentionally meant for disassembly! The outputs are meant for public consumption so that anyone who doesn't have time (that's... Read more