April Fools
The WELL standard for healthy spaces and lifestyles is backed by onsite auditing, but some occupants would prefer to slowly kill themselves in peace.
April 1, 2015
A spokesperson for the International Well Building Institute (IWBI) responded today to allegations that an auditor for its certification program, WELL, stole private property during his visit to a commercial high-rise in Manhattan.
“All... Read more
April Fools
Pilot AIA-certified green projects are changing the rules for “green,” throwing sacred cows out of the many, many windows.
April 1, 2015
The green building cognoscenti are chopping off their rules of thumb as projects certified through a pilot American Institute of Architects (AIA) program are showing unexpected benefits.
“Architectural solutions pioneered by our members haven... Read more
April Fools
Despite a perfect 10 for Yost from two of the judges, this year’s WUFIlympics gold medal goes instead to Terry Brennan.
April 1, 2015
The crowds roared and pocket-protector-bumped in the stands as U.S. WUFIlympian Peter Yost, vice president of technical services at BuildingGreen, stuck the landing on the first perfect WUFI run in the entire recorded history of hygrothermal modeling (see Go with... Read more
April Fools
Having failed at his recent task of making Green Globes a credible standard, Yudelson still has twelve to complete.
April 1, 2015
The goddess Hera announced today that green building writer and consultant Jerry Yudelson will be returning to Mount Olympus to “have another go” at completing the first of twelve tasks she has set for him in penance for alleged slights against the Greek pantheon... Read more
April Fools
The industry’s most respected semanticists have developed a new eco-prefix—but do they have the numbers to back up their claims?
Claiming a “once-in-a-lifetime semantic breakthrough,” researchers at Dow Linguistic today introduced a new additive they say could boost any product’s sustainability 165% compared with conventional eco-prefixes.
“This is the graphene of morphemes,” quipped lead developer Iima Silliman, Ph.D. “It out-... Read more
April Fools
Self-propulsion wins the night at this year’s Rizzies, but a controversy brews.
After weeks of rumor and speculation, Baba Yaga’s Dancing Hut took home resilient design’s highest honor—Most Resilient Building in the World 2015—last night at a black-fly gala in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. The nonprofit Resilient Design Institute (RDI) offers the Alex Wilson Resilient Design Awards annually for the highest... Read more
April Fools
Two great movements—from the past and present—come together in a towable 45,000 lb. package.
It’s been a tough decade for fans of Brutalist architecture. Every few months another concrete masterpiece is demolished, and proponents of the 20th century’s most reviled style feel helpless to protect landmark structures by Paul Rudolph, John M. Johansen, and others.
However, a new company—supported... Read more
News Analysis
The design of Google’s green headquarters hinges on new technologies, like a “glass fabric” enclosure.
Google’s proposed design for its new headquarters in Mountain View, California, shows translucent glass canopies draped over what look like tent poles. The idea—from a collaboration between top-tier architects Bjarke Ingles of Demark and Thomas Heatherwick of England—is to “free spaces from traditional architectural limitations... Read more
News Analysis
After just over a year at the helm of the Green Building Initiative (GBI), Jerry Yudelson has made a sudden exit, with an old hand stepping back up to lead.
Note: This article has been revised to include quotes from an interview with Jerry Yudelson.
The developer of the Green Globes rating system, the Green Building Initiative (GBI), has announced the departure of Jerry Yudelson as its president. Vicki Worden, president of... Read more
News Brief
Researchers unlock the secret of eternal youth for glass and cement by studying optimal pressure during manufacturing.
Concrete that won’t crack? Glass that won’t warp? We might be closer to both, thanks to new research that identifies the ideal pressure at which to manufacture these materials so that they won’t change shape over time or through temperature changes.
Certain conditions improve the angles at which... Read more
News Brief
Overly complex loop designs and controls limit the commercial applicability of ground-source heat pumps. A new guide shows a better way.
ASHRAE published a guide on non-residential ground-source heat pumps in 1997, but demand for the technology—along with improper design and installation of these systems—has continued, prompting the organization to release an updated version that also covers commercial-scale systems.
“There is a widely... Read more
News Analysis
Rebranded as thinkstep, the life-cycle assessment firm PE International promises a new platform to integrate product data and more.
Life-cycle assessments. Corporate sustainability reporting. Supply-chain tracking. While the datasets underlying these tools have the potential to bridge products, companies, and buildings, they’ve always been siloed. That has increased expenses for companies and confusion for the green building community. PE International is... Read more
Product Review
Three lounge seating manufacturers have been certified to BIFMA e3 level 3, but tracking chemicals of concern in these products is still a challenge.
Are you sitting down? Take a moment to appreciate the many complex environmental stories lying beneath (and woven into) that sofa or chair.
Lounge seating typically contains wood or metal framing, steel coils, adhesives, treated upholstery, and various foam padding and cushioning materials that can come... Read more
News Analysis
More trade groups are publishing industry-wide environmental product declarations to meet LEED v4 requirements.
Vinyl roofing manufacturers are the latest to release an industry-wide environmental product declaration, or EPD. EPDs disclose a number of quantifiable environmental impacts resulting from extraction of raw materials, manufacturing, and sometimes other stages of the product life cycle.
The vinyl roofing... Read more
News Brief
Knowing the chemical ingredients in a product’s supply chain just makes good business sense, according to a United Nations report.
Companies that know more about the chemicals in their products and in their supply chains avoid big financial losses and are better able to stay ahead of market demands, finds a report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
The report warns of some of the potential consequences for... Read more
Product Review
International Wastewater’s heat pumps provide heating or cooling using sewage and don’t require dual plumbing.
Every time hot water goes down the drain from showers, sinks, dishwashers, clothes washers, and yes, even toilets, energy is wasted—to the tune of about 350 billion kWh, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
A few wastewater treatment plants have started recovering some of that energy by using heat... Read more
News Analysis
An Oregon nonprofit is seeking to suspend Plum Creek’s SFI certificate in Oregon due to legal violations. The company says it has already addressed the issues.
Editor’s Note: This story is part of an in-depth study of SFI by BuildingGreen. For the rest of the report, see Certified Wood: How SFI Compares to FSC on the Metrics That Matter.
In December 2014, the Center for Sustainable Economy (CSE), an Oregon nonprofit, issued a formal complaint calling for the... Read more
Explainer
HFOs usher in a new era of refrigerants and foam insulation blowing agents with low global warming potential.
Foam insulation and energy-efficient cooling equipment may seem like disparate products, but they share a common ingredient—and problem. The hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) blowing agents and refrigerants used in these ubiquitous building components are powerful greenhouse gases that reduce the products’ positive environmental impact.... Read more
News Brief
A new study shows biofiltration systems save the lives of salmon and the insects they prey on. How’s that for a stormwater quality metric?
Scientists spend a lot of time measuring markers of stormwater quality, and yet we often don’t know exactly how pollution levels in runoff affect fish and invertebrates. So one group of scientists, led by J.K. McIntyre of Washington State University, decided to skip right to the point in quantifying how effective biofiltration... Read more
