Hi SDL,

I'm heading to Greenbuild next week and one of my teammates who's not attending has asked me to look for expo hall vendors who are involved in Design for Freedom. He's starting up a new project that he thinks could be a good DFF pilot and wants to get some manufacturer contacts. Is there any kind of informal DFF meetup happening... Read more

Just had a contractor call who said they had a university client interested in using natural-gas-fed fuel cells as an alternative to grid power in some applications.  They were interested in an intermediate scale: 300kW.

Anyone with any experience with these devices? 

Welcome to the quiz portion of Mouth, Meet Money: Case Studies of Outcome-Based Design!

Important: This quiz covers all related articles within this topic. Scroll to the bottom of the article page to find links to all the articles covered by this quiz.

Learning Objectives
Upon completing this course, participants will be... Read more

Hi Green Gurus,

We're off to a great start with First Friday Fikas* this year. We've had good turnout and lots of fun. This new tradition continues this Friday at 11:00 am Eastern Time (8:00 am Pacific). We have more fun planned, with prompts to help us get to know each other.

If you registered previously you can use that same... Read more

The overwhelming majority of wallcoverings are flexible vinyl, laden with all the life-cycle concerns that come with PVC. Products used to contain orthophthalate plasticizers—which make up a large percentage of these products. Phthalates are not bound in the material and can slough off in dust, exposing occupants during everyday work or play.... Read more

Anyone know of tools/methodologies for estimating embodied carbon and carbon sequestration potential of individual green infrastructure projects (e.g. bioswale along bikeway)? I've seen tools for the larger scale (e.g. land use change) as well as specific to trees (e.g. i-Tree), but these don't fully meet my needs.

Thanks!

Sustainability leadership has requested that you take this quiz to help assess sustainability literacy across the firm. Your own results will be presented to you at the end of the quiz but will not be shared with anyone else. Only aggregated, anonymized results will be available to others.

Please don’t do research to inform your answers... Read more

I've been seeing Armstrong's DC flexzone ceiling system at Greenbuild for many years. I'm working on a net zero project with LED lights and solar panels. In theory, the transmission losses in going from DC power from panels to AC for the building to DC for the lights would be eliminated. But does anyone actually have experience using this... Read more

So every year about this time I get to spend many lovely moments with our AIA 2030 Reporting data. In order to make the data useful the CBECS baselines/National baselines aren't great in telling us how we did.

For about half our 15 projects that we report in the average year - performing arts, convention, data science schools, etc - a... Read more

Hi Folks - 

The "request for participation" email below is from Brendan Owens, who most of you know was at the USGBC for over 18 years, and is now the Chief Sustainability Officer for the US Dept of Defense. As I read the text, I couldn't help but think of this group as a deep well of expertise and experience that could undoubtedly help... Read more

Hi SD Leaders: I wanted you to know about a terrific initiative that is part of the Project Drawdown effort called Project Drawdown Ecochallenge. The Project Drawdown EcoChallenge is a fun and social way to learn about and take action on the 100 most substantive solutions to global warming. 
Drawdown EcoChallenge provides tools and... Read more

I’m a volunteer member of the ASHRAE 209 ("Energy Simulation Aided Design for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings”) Committee.  Are you familiar with ASHRAE 209? It was first published in 2018, and it outlines a process for incorporating energy modeling into the design process. 

From the forward: 

 ASHRAE Standard 209... Read more

Last summer I shared a request here for folks to take a survey we had open that aimed to understand how architects and engineers are (or aren't) using climate projections to inform design. This white paper, written in collaboration with HGA and the University of Minnesota Climate Adaptation Partnership, reports on the results of that research. ... Read more

I'm definitely slow on the draw here, but happy to be congratulating you, Allen! What a great recognition of your work as a firm! And I love that the story about it highlights the firm's diversity.

Also worth noting--just 'cause no one here has said it yet--how cool it is that Ed Mazria won the Gold Medal this, and that AIA updated it's... Read more

The AIA has just (finally!) amended the Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct to include new "Obligations to the Public" and  "Obligations to the Environment", that requires architects to advise their clients of their obligations to the environment, obligates architects to promote sustainable design and development, and to implement energy... Read more