I was sitting in on the USGBC's monthly Advocacy call this afternoon and heard about a state-local policy proposal to use property tax incentive for GHG reductions.  Through a state-local partnership, owners of existing residential and commercial buildings who invest in qualifying outcome-based improvements would receive a property tax... Read more

Hi Brilliant People: 

I'm hoping you can help me with a quick research question. A local colleague is trying to make the case to replace an existing old slate roof with slate vs. "slate look" asphalt shingles on a local public historic building. The bids are 6X higher for slate over the alternative 25-30 year solutions. They understand... Read more

Hi All,

I will be catching up on learning units over Thanksgiving weekend and I am wondering if anyone else is experiencing the challenge of credential maintenance of their CPHD? Ideally we would have a client go for Passive House accreditation on a project, but lacking that, how are folks maintaining their 20 credits per year? For... Read more

Little things make a big difference in MEP systems. Pumps, fans, ducts, and dampers are at the heart of performance.

BuildingGreen-Approved HVAC Accessories

We approve the best-in-class products in each category, including:

Hello Gurus,

I am working with an owner who is making zero-carbon commitments and wants to explore setting carbon budgets in their capital plan (and subsequently their individual projects). We will be starting exploratory discussions next week and I was hoping some of you might have been working with other owners who have already... Read more

Southface will need a procedure for adding and assigning SMEs to the BITuser site. Normally you could just create the user in BITuser and assign the role right there, but we have the added complication of Salesforce SSO, which means the sequence will have a few extra steps.

Here's the basic outline:

Have you ever been accused of being "self-righteous," or "judgemental" in your role as and SDL? Anyone have tips and tricks to avoid this trap? 

THIS WEBINAR PURCHASE AND REGISTRATION IS CLOSED.

The green building world’s most anticipated awards are almost here!

With the current push for improved window performance to meet energy codes and Passive House, room side low-e coatings can significantly improve window U-values. However, back in 2018 Payette did this excellent study that showed that while room side low-e coatings improved window U-value and increased the interior radiant temperature, the... Read more

Hello all,

The Bay Area SCL contingent has recently published an anti-idling toolkit so contractors can get empowered to enact their own anti-idling policy on their jobsites. We're all in this together - if you haven't already brought this up with your company management, hopefully this toolkit serves as a good starting point. 

... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of The PVC Debate: A Fresh Look

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


1. Catalog the history of PVC in the building industry.
2. Recount the connections between PVC and chlorine, dioxins, mercury, and vinyl chloride.
3. Explain the... Read more

Hello Everyone,

We wanted to share the highlights and take-aways from the large firm Sustainable Design Leaders (SDL) 2020 Winter Summit at The Lodge at Gulf State Park, AL. Additionally, this was the first year we had a pre-summit workshop for the winter summit. Our amazing workshop facilitator, Julie Huffaker from Deeper Funner Change... 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

Hi folks - update here for our FUN saturday night "show"!! What a great way to start the year and celebrate new beginnings!

The Lighter Side of Green will air THIS coming Sat night at 7pm with Anne Hicks Harney MC'ing - check out the link to see the roster of amazing talent and log on for great tunes, humor, camraderie and community! ... Read more

In the wake of pandemic WFH requirements, we are looking to revamp employee policies and I thought this type of information share would be something we Green Gurus would love to thought-share on. 

We are a very 'low-policy company' (20 when I joined, now 75 employees currently) and our employee handbook is quite small (5 pages). Most... Read more

Hi All,

I'm working on a LEED for Schools project under 2009, and received some amorphous comments back about our Mold Prevention Plan. We used the LEEDuser template as a guide, while also referencing the EPA document the credit is based around, but the reviewers feel we haven't provided proper metrics. The EPA plan is something like... Read more

Please use this thread for you're actions / ideas for creating more sustainable job site construction office trailers.

I know that Pepper Construction led the way with a Net Zero Construction Jobsite Trailer. (Thanks Susan Heinking!)  Is this a one off?  Any lessons learned? Any one else pursing this?  Is pepper the first and only doing... Read more