ASHRAE posted this year's list of honors and right there at the top of the list is our SMEPL colleague, Cindy Cogil - now able to add FASHRAE to her signature block!  Well done, Cindy and congratulations to ASHRAE for recognizing your accomplishments.

Air movement keeps occupants comfortable when it's warm, so cooling setpoints can be higher, and natural ventilation is a viable option even at higher temps and humidity.

BuildingGreen-Approved Ceiling Fans

BuildingGreen approves Energy Star-certified ceiling fans with ECMs—motors using electronic commutators.

Energy and... Read more

Our firm was asked by a government client in Canada to update their specifications for concrete to capture low embodied carbon as a performance metric. From the SDL group's knowledge of concrete procurement:

Welcome to the quiz portion of Embracing the Economy as a Design Challenge!

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


Understand the ways that architects, community developers and others are experimenting with new financial models to support progressive design.

Approach... Read more

Hi, all.

Has anyone used Unicel's Timber Curtain Wall System? It uses engineered glulam wood mullions on the inside with aluminum mullion caps / butt joints. Has anyone gotten close to using it, but couldn't get it procured for a particular reason? They note up to 72% more energy efficienct than a conventional aluminum curtain wall and... Read more

BuildingGreen is considering hosting a reception and SDL Show & Tell at the AIA Conference on Architecture 2019. If you are planning to attend the conference, please email me directly. Your participation will influence our decision. The newly forming Small Firm SDL peer network (firm w/less than 50 employees) will have their inaugural... Read more

Greetings friends.  Our leadership has decided to create a partner-position to my role but in the engineering group of our firm.  This person would be a key ally in my work improving the high performance and sustainability of our projects with a focus on high-performance mechanical systems, net-zero, electrification, etc...  If you are... Read more

Hi!

I'd love to hear what you all--especially the New Yorkers--think about the newly adopted gas ban. Is this the bill we were hoping to see? Any concerns or questions?

One question I have--maybe just reveals my ignorance--but it seems to leave the door open to steam hookups, which I guess are still an option through much of... Read more

I'm sure many of you remember when Greenbuild 2020 was scheduled for the week of the presidential election and if was shifted back one day. 

If anyone has small kids and have gone to book your Greenbuild 2022 travel, you've potentially noticed (as I have) that I'll have to travel on 10/31 and will miss all Halloween activities with my... Read more

Hi Everyone, just as governors are regionally deciding how to reopen their economies, it's probably time we started thinking about what getting back to work looks like for us.  And, just as governors are leaning on each other for ideas and coordination, we can benefit from discussing strategies as a group.  To that end, I wanted to get your... Read more

Greetings, SDL network - We are attempting to resolve an issue with how data center projects calculate baseline EUIs for the AIA 2030 Commitment and could use some help from this network. With projects that comply with code prescriptively (i.e. not energy modeled), we have found the default baseline assumptions within the DDx platform are not... Read more

Ben Hewitt works behind the scenes to build and maintain BuildingGreen.com and LEEDuser. He brings with him over two decades of experience in his field. As an efficient problem-solver, his goal is to make the websites more user-friendly for his coworkers and designers and project teams using BuildingGreen’s resources.

Ben has proficiency... 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:

Is there a list of which number corresponds with each Best Practice? E.g. "03 Energy Audit & Planning."

Does anyone share the same feeling of stagnation? We are supposed to hit 80% pEUI reduction now and working towards 90% mark, but I don’t see it happening for majority of our projects, even the “right” ones that we implemented integrative design process & iterative energy modeling. I am wondering whether anyone would be willing to share... Read more

For my first test post I'm going to be completely boring and ask about logistics.

If we know of someone that should be part of this forum, how do we invite them? There were a couple of people that I thought were on the Wiggio who I recently found out were not. There may also be folks from our regional groups who may not have been part... Read more

Hello! Long shot here, but I thought I would try.

Alex Wilson and I are working on an article about priorities for the next four years under the Biden-Harris administration. We'd like to feature some recent photos of climate demonstrations, protest signs calling for the Green New Deal, or other environment-focused illustrations of... 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: