Hi folks,

We’re working on the agenda for what’s shaping up to be a really awesome Summer Summit at a great new venue in Massachusetts. There is an awesome group already registered, and we’d like to fill the remaining slots soon so that we can develop the agenda with your input.

If you’ve been planning to register, please do it... Read more

Should the Best Practice names always be accompanied by their number? See the attached screenshots, all taken from the main forum page:

Hi folks,

Here's a neat resource that just showed up. Pages 5-7 list exactly what kinds of activities could be covered by new federal funds, and what part of the legislation relates to each activity...

From USGBC:

With the passage of the American Rescue Plan Act, the Federal government has now approved $176 billion for K-12... Read more

Sheathing should be designed for durability, but some sheathing materials can be toxic or may contribute to moisture issues inside the building envelope.

BuildingGreen-Approved Sheathing

Sheathing approved by BuildingGreen contains recycled content, rapidly renewable materials, or otherwise provides exceptional performance, such... Read more

Lake|Flato is growing our design performance team!  If you know any great applicants for our new design technologist position, please send them our way:

Design Technologist in San Antonio.pdf (lakeflato.com)

Hello all, 

Our firm recently signed onto the Material Pledge and while there is no reporting requirements at this time we are wondering how other architectural firms are, or plan to, report projects. 

Thanks for any insight that can be shared!

-Dave

Hi folks,

Some of you have seen me do a 5-minute presentation on an initiative to divert urine from wastewater. That team is now developing a building-scale urine treatment technology with support from the National Science Foundation's Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) award. 

In order to learn more about the sustainable... Read more

Team,

Many of you saw the BlackRock letter.

https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/investor-relations/larry-fink-ceo-letter

Should we hold our consultants and suppliers accountable for climate change?

Best,
LL

https://www.linkedin.com/company/buildinggreen/jobs/

Welcome to the quiz portion of Designing Natural Ventilation.

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


1. Explain how natural venting and cooling potentials are realized in buildings.
2. Show how natural ventilation and passive cooling strategies can amount to increased... Read more

The headlines are everywhere—from heat waves in Europe to wildfires in the Western U.S. to tropical cyclone flooding in Australia. In this age of climate change, just as there’s an urgent need to reduce carbon emissions and other greenhouse gasses, we also need to adapt and invest in resilience.

Increasingly, owners are asking for risk... Read more

Hello everyone. I am seeking some guidance on crafting an arguement for why my firm should support a change to the Washington State Energy Code which would mandate electric heat pumps for commercial builidngs.  AIA WA is working on the state commercial energy code update under consideration this spring.  We have been invited to sign on to an... Read more

HI All,

I am curious if others are using THERM in-house for your envelope design?

We usually use our building envelope/curtain wall consultants (Boston - so mostly RWDI and Heintjes) but our teams are finding that they need the information faster than our consultants can provide, they are backlogged, or we have some curtain wall... Read more

I'm in search of anyone who's done a LEED ACP Pilot Credit. It's unclear to me whether using one of these pathways replaces the way the base prereq or credit would function in the rating system being used by a project seeking certification or if it's a strategy to achieve Innovation in Design credits only. The documentation I've been able to... Read more

Hi all - Reflecting on the COTE Top Ten Awards and Lloyd Alter's recent article  https://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/keep-aiacotes-its-time-scrap-aia-awards.html, I am curious how many local/state AIA awards programs have incorporated sustainability reporting metrics as a requirement for all awards submissions, not just for categories... Read more

We've gotten some requests recently, so it must be time to update our salary survey. For those didn't participate in the past, we last did one in 2015, and collected some really interesting data about compensation for SDLeaders.

Our first step in getting this started is to recruit a few volunteers who are interested enough in the data we... Read more

Hello Green Gurus,

Here’s a reminder that our first Show & Tell for 2021 is happening next week! Monday, February 1st from 7-8pm ET and Tuesday, February 2nd from 4-5pm ET, come see your peers from all networks present for five minutes each on a variety of topics relating to their work.

This event is connected with the Summit-... Read more