BuildingGreen Report

A movement started in the United Kingdom called Architects Declare is now spreading globally and has picked up steam in the U.S. In addition to biodiversity and climate, the U.S. chapter has added justice to the list of issues it’s declaring as emergencies and hoping to address.

Architecture firms are... Read more

Ever heard of a sugar-on-snow supper? Before the pandemic took hold, that’s the way churches, fire departments, and grange halls here in Vermont would advertise their late winter fundraising dinners—by enticing people with these old-time maple-syrup-on-snow sweets. These clever promoters knew that, even though the wholesome... Read more

Computers, monitors, printers, and other office equipment typically continue to consume energy even after the office or school closes. Offices now on standby due to the pandemic are not immune from this waste. These plug and process loads (PPL) can account for more than 30% of a commercial building’s electricity consumption—and even more in... Read more

The first time I visited a prison, as I was walking out of the last of many claustrophobia-inducing checkpoints, I watched a monarch butterfly glide through the razor-wire fencing to the outside. It hit me hard that none of the incarcerated people inside would be slipping out so easily. The harsh design of the facility also... Read more

At least four states—Connecticut, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Washington—have delayed the effective dates of new energy codes due to process disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

There was no pattern to be found among those that have delayed, according to Eric Lacey of the Responsible Energy... Read more

Editor’s Note: Guest blogger Nicole DeNamur owns Sustainable Strategies, a consulting firm that helps companies manage sustainable innovation by applying a legal and risk-management lens to innovative projects. Prior to launching Sustainable Strategies, Nicole practiced construction and insurance coverage law in Seattle for more than a decade.... Read more

Final results for the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code were recently released and will be published for cities and towns to adopt this fall.

The updated code is estimated to improve efficiency in both residential and commercial buildings by at least 10%, according to the New Buildings Institute. For commercial buildings,... Read more

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, ASHRAE has released a position paper on managing the risk of spreading infectious disease pathogens through HVAC systems. The organization recommends a number of strategies, ranked by evidence level, including these “A-level” actions:

When BuildingGreen started publication in 1992, simply finding building products designed with environmental benefits in mind was a big challenge. We responded to that challenge in the late 1990s by developing GreenSpec, a guide to the industry’s top green building products. In the years since, we’ve seen rapid advances in green building... Read more

Almost half the households in Canada have lost income due to the COVID-19 pandemic, catalyzing a severe recession that will be hard to get out of. Typically, infrastructure and building projects create vital jobs that aid recovery, but the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) is calling on the Canadian federal government to... Read more

Conventional wisdom tells us that the structure of a building, and secondarily the envelope components, are the main considerations when measuring embodied carbon—the upfront emissions caused by production of building materials. Yet a new study from architecture and design firm Hawley Peterson Snyder suggests interior products... Read more

The American Institute of Architects (AIA), drafter of the most widely used design contracts, recently updated its Guide for Sustainable Projects (D503) and added a new contract for sustainability consultants working on conventional builds: Sustainability Consultant Scope of Services (C204). Together, these updates ensure that: any project (... Read more

For some time now, the ultimate goal for building sustainability, at least with regard to energy and carbon, has been the achievement of net-zero energy (NZE). The original definition is fairly well known and understood—that of producing all of the building’s annual energy needs with onsite renewable energy; but that original definition, which... Read more

The building industry could achieve net-zero embodied carbon of structural materials by 2050, according to a working group of the Structural Engineering Institute. Through the use of carbon sequestration, this is possible even without purchasing carbon offsets, claims a white paper on the group’s findings.

While some small buildings have taken to electrification retrofits, large multifamily buildings have been a harder nut to crack. Seeing “virtually no progress in this sector” in New York City, the Urban Green Council studied the reasons why and released a report detailing the existing multifamily building type that could... Read more

Wary of returning to your usual workplace? You’re not alone. Zoom might be a strain, and the home office might not provide the work–life balance you need, but to many the alternative seems scary—even unthinkable. It would be crazy for people to return to offices and other workplaces without some kind of reassurance that the... Read more

Medium-density fiberboard and particleboard are non-structural panels manufactured from sawmill waste that is typically held together with phenol formaldehyde (PF), melamine formaldehyde (MF), or urea formaldehyde (UF), resins. Formaldehyde-free methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) resins are also used.

Particleboard is made from... Read more

Whole-building life-cycle assessment (WBLCA) can help project teams reduce embodied carbon as well as many other environmental impacts of building materials. And it’s incentivized in LEED and other rating systems. But how do you do it? In this course, we’ll review the basics of WBLCA and then look in-depth at two software tools for conducting... Read more

Dr. Gail Brager, Professor of Architecture at UC Berkeley, discusses the value of (mostly thermal) variability in terms of human experience, and implications for design of the built environment.

Gail begins with a visual argument for why variability is important, followed by some research examples showing evidence of the positive and... Read more

Ground glass can be a low-global-warming-potential replacement for portland cement, but using it on a project has been difficult because there has been no standard way to specify the material. ASTM has published ASTM C1866, Standard Specification for Recycled Ground-Glass Pozzolan for Use in Concrete. ASTM C1866 will make it... Read more