BuildingGreen Report

Forum topic

Dear All!

I recently met a passionate new hire at an architecture firm in NYC.  Her firm is reluctant to taking meaningful steps towards increasing sustainable impacts of their projects.  (Their work is in market rate of all types.)  This new hire is frustrated with the lack of sustainable adoption and understanding.

What would... Read more

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Have any of you heard of anyone ever using phase change material (PCM) "movable partitions" as a resiliency strategy to mitigate indoor overheating during a heat wave in passive buildings? You'd keep them stored in a basement or cool room, and deploy them into habitable spaces during the heat wave to keep the space cooler than the exterior... Read more

Product Guide

CEUs are available for reading our entire plumbing guide. Click here to learn more and take the quiz.

Graywater can be treated and used for irrigation or toilet flushing, reducing significant burdens on municipal drinking water and wastewater treatment systems.

BuildingGreen-Approved Graywater Products

BuildingGreen... Read more

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Within the confines of the BuildingGreen safe space, I wanted to share the Forced Labor in the Building Material Supply Chain Mitigation Framework I shared at the 3/1 First Friday Fika. The intent is for this document to become public, but we are working through some permissions and final editing logistics. The project was collaborative... Read more

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Hi All,

I introduced BE+ CONNECTS at the Greenbuild Show & Tell and I wanted to follow-up. For those who weren't there, we've tried to create a solution to people asking, “I want to build Net Zero and I don’t know who to call….”

Check out 5 Thinks to know about BE+ CONNECTS here: https://mailchi.mp/builtenvironmentplus/... Read more

Reports, Courses, Study Guides, Live Webinars

Concrete and other cementitious materials have both environmental advantages and disadvantages. As builders and designers, should we be looking for alternatives or embracing concrete over competing materials?

This special report takes a look at how these materials are made, presents the key environmental considerations relating to their... Read more

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I'm sure may are familiar with Aqua in Chicago, and Joe Lstiburek's article on thermal bridging. (https://buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi062-thermal-bridges-redux) We have similar problem with a project that is a residential highrise building, concrete structure. Here is my questions. Will energy simulation be able to pick up the... Read more

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Hi Leaders,

If your experience was anything like mine, it was a stressful night. I'm feeling a hunger for talking with smart, passionate people about what this all means.

I'm not interested in making this into a political forum--we can all get plenty of that elsewhere. But if you'd like to hang out and just process how you're... Read more

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I am working on a new community development in St. Paul that is striving to achieve net-zero energy. We are able to get there mathematically by using the extra generation on light industrial rooftops to offset medium-density housing energy use (all buildings are anticipated to have different, private owners). However, this puts us over... Read more

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Dear fellow SCL'ers,

Recently one of our members, Ryan Poole, sustainability leader at DPR, has been facing some personal challenges. His wife is 35 weeks pregnant and was diagnosed with a brain tumor. They have moved across country - from Colorado to South Carolina - to be closer to thier parents and their support system, but they can... Read more

Firm-wide Group

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Hi all,

As follow-up to the summit, I’m attaching a draft letter on MEP embodied carbon written by our group (Luke, Kristy, Adam).  The goal is to start a dialogue with manufacturers to include embodied carbon info for major equipment.  Will explain more on the call.  Please read in advance if you get the chance!

Thanks!

Forum topic

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

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Hi! I’m working on two reports about equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in the building industry, and I’m looking for contributions from you or others in your firm. See below for what I’m looking for, and please reply directly to me at paula@buildinggreen.com.

NOTE: Ideally, I’m hoping people will want to provide names and firm names... Read more

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In the run-up to Earth Day 2023, we're trying something new at VMDO: Full, public transparency on everything we know about how our portfolio is performing (or how we anticipate it performing). Here's a link to all of the details on our sixth year of reporting to the 2030 Commitment and more: https://www.vmdo.com/radical-transparency-commitment-... Read more

Quiz

Welcome to the quiz portion of Rebuilding for Resilience in the Face of Natural Disasters!

IMPORTANT: This quiz covers three related articles within this topic. 

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


Explain the importance of resilient design at hospitals for ensuring life... Read more

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We considering PV glazing for a project in SW Louisiana. Anyone have any successful PV glazing projects? Is this ready for primetime?