Dear SDLers,

I wanted to share that Canadian Architectural Professionals declared a Climate and Biodiversity Emergency and Committed to Urgent and Sustained Action. The declaration was launched last Friday as part of a week of events surrounding the UN Climate Action Summit in New York. Like others around the world, the week of global... Read more

Are your clients asking you about wellness? You’re not alone. Healthy interiors and wellbeing are the trending buzzwords of sustainable design. Lighting design for circadian rhythm and water filtration methods might be on the... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of How Buildings Fail Their Users!

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


Explain the importance of finding common ground between a client’s project goals and the project team’s sustainability building goals for successful projects that incorporate... Read more

I am wanting to take the pulse of this group on behalf of a manufacturer who has asked us a similar question.

The company in question makes wood products and has had FSC CoC for over a decade. Recently, they are encountering issues with sourcing FSC for about 50% of the wood species they offer. There just aren't FSC sources available.... Read more

Hello Sustainable Advising Leaders,

Here are the notes from the last Zoom call. We had a great turnout! Looking ahead, now that things are rolling along we’d like to get into the rhythm of a regularly scheduled monthly call. Since Tuesdays seem to work well for most people, I am proposing the 4th Tuesday of the month from 3-4pm ET. That... Read more

Are your firms discussing the health effects of silica dust on people working with engineered stone and the recent announcement of the upcoming ban in Australia, as of July 2024?

https://www.dezeen.com/2023/12/14/australia-bans-engineered-stone-silico...

According to the article, a recent report says that there is no safe level of... Read more

Beginning this year, Miller Hull will not only continue to quantify the upfront embodied carbon of every project we finish through construction, but now purchase third-party certified carbon offsets equivalent to one-third of the project’s impact. Great design is no longer enough - we must take responsibility for our architectural impact in the... Read more

Some of you saw my 5-minute presentation about the Rich Earth Institute in Brattleboro, Vermont and how it is inventing new ways to keep excess nutrients from urine out of surface waters and use them instead as fertilizer. Now you can also hear about it on Planet Money: https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/01/26/581156723/episode-820-p-is... Read more

Though BuildingGreen has long supported the use of electric hand dryers as a more environmentally friendly hand drying option, the majority of evidence appears to support paper towels as a preferred method of controlling the spread of potential pathogens. 

And even the most efficient hand dryers contribute significant CO2 to the... Read more

Hi all,

All members of the WA Building Code Council received an email from Tim Attebery of the Washington State AGC and I'm trying to make sense of the role of the AGC and whether it is representing the consensus option of general contractors in Washington or not. The letter is very much against the energy code advancement, which... Read more

It may take hundreds or thousands of years to return to pre-industrial-age levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, but the loss of animal and plant species that is occurring today is, practically speaking, irreversible. It will take millions of years for evolution to fill the ecological niches being vacated by extinctions and restore healthy... Read more

Greetings AEC Sustainability Leaders -

This is an update on where we stand with the BBB letter. In addition to posting this to the AEC SDL (Green Gurus) Forum, we are sending the same message to all current signatories by email to make sure everyone is notified. Apologies for putting two items in your inboxes!

First, please read... Read more

Hi All, 

Not sure if this is the right location for this (as I'm a new member) but we're Planning the upcoming Water Conservation Showcase in Northern CA. Some details below

The Water Conservation Showcase brings together water, energy, and green building professionals to amplify and discuss innovative water management solutions... Read more

For those that missed Z's subtle mention of this a few weeks ago, Bora finally decided sustainability is important enough to have someone dedicated full-time to it, and then went out and got one of the best:

https://bora.co/bora-hires-sustainability-director-corey-squire/?tax=all-posts

I've been sharing Corey's thoughts on... Read more

I am forwarding this request from Kate Simonen from the Carbon Leadership Forum to support a grant application for this research. I don't know if the link will work in this format but if you have questions or want to sign you can contact me or Kate and I can send you the mail with the link my email is:  lstrain@siegelstrain.com     Thanks... Read more