I am getting started on a research project to evaluate the feasibility, costs, and benefits of using phase change material (PCM) to passively regulate temperature in Minnesota buildings. If anyone has experience designing with PCM, installing PCM, or occupying buildings with PCM, can you share any lessons learned that would be relevant as... Read more

(posting here for Kira)

Sustainable Design Leaders:

Is your firm using the AIA COTE Top Ten Toolkit in some fashion? COTE would like to hear from you, especially if you are willing to share your story. 

Specifically, we'd like to share best practices and lessons about how it is working (with certain types of projects, at... Read more

Wood decking requires potentially hazardous preservatives and stains, and plastic waste is a significant environmental problem.

BuildingGreen-Approved Decking

Composite decking approved by BuildingGreen has at least 50% total recycled content. For plastic decking, post-consumer content has to be greater than 50%.

Health and... Read more

Hi all - I've heard from a few of you that you are interested in doing a book club or other internal education based on the Path to Zero Carbon. If you would like the word docs or pdfs of each of the 16 posts, let me konw and I'll send them to you.

I'd also like to know of those who are using it how it's going and what you're finding... Read more

I'm happy to announce the Call for Presenters for this year's Gulf Coast Green, taking place in Houston May 17th.  Our theme is Crossroads: Inclusive Exchange.  We are especially seeking presentations that focus on how design can engage the community and foster social bonds and social justice.  I’m sure many of you have work that is relevant,... Read more

It was great to see everyone who was able to join in the peer networks webinar and to be able to share a brief update on what the Defining and Measuring Resilient Outcomes working group has accomplished over the last year... and what we are looking forward to tackling in the coming year. 

I've both attached a copy of the deck here and... Read more

Hello Green Gurus,

Here are all the details about our two Peer Network events in Chicago on Tuesday, June 21st. If you'll be in town, we hope to see you!

From 1-5pm we'll have the Chicago/Midwest Region Mini-Summit, open to members of any of the five Peer Networks (Sustainability Consultants, Community Design Leaders, Contractors... Read more

EDITED LINK

Hello, below is a link to our newly uploaded research report, Embodied Carbon in Commercial Furniture. This new research report introduces a case study and some new baselines for measuring the carbon footprint of commercial furniture, to add to a growing body of work on this topic among our peers:
Embodied Carbon in... Read more

Hi gang,

Following up on the recent Air Quality Design Jam at the summit, I’d like to round up the folks interested in supporting an Air Quality Working Group.

Didn’t attend the summit? No worries – everyone is welcome! We had a good group the other week and several of us want to continue the conversation.

The design jam... Read more

For those of you working in jurisdictions with both prescriptive and performance-based commercial energy code pathways, roughly what percentage of your projects are using the performance pathway? How do your project teams decide which pathway to follow?

In Minnesota we are seeing very few projects pursuing the performance pathway,... Read more

This might be going down a rabbit hole, but in moving to California this year I noticed that "zero net energy" (ZNE) is the standard term, whereas "net zero energy" (NZE) was more common back east. The DOE's 2015 definition (below) uses "zero energy building" (ZEB), which to me implies a building uses no energy at all.

Regional... Read more

I took a first pass at content for the Energy Audit best practice, see the uploaded file. 

I wanted to alert you to this opportunity to help develop a new ASHRAE Standard. They are especially looking for people who have not served with ASHRAE previously (aka the usual suspects)

ASHRAE Standard 242P, Standard Method for Calculation of Building Operational Greenhouse Gas Emissions

1 Purpose: This standard provides a... Read more

I'm looking to draft some one-page briefs for my consulting engineers to outline what we would like to see in their specs regarding certain materials and systems. For example, letting the plumbing and civil engineers know that we prefer to eliminate PVC pipe and want them to specify alternatives like Polypropylene, cast iron, ABS, etc. The idea... Read more