BuildingGreen Report

In 2019, The American Institute of Architects announced a shift that is nothing less than transformational for the 160-year-old organization, and unprecedented among professional associations. The Institute, which has historically dedicated itself to defending the turf of licensed architects and recognizing the professional achievements of its... Read more

Inequity is woven into the fabric of our built environment.

Cities are endemically segregated by income and race. Many building projects seek to enhance the profits of developers, often at the expense of the surrounding community. The building professions lack diversity, leading to the unconscious but systemic exclusion of... Read more

This article highlights an initiative of the Sustainable MEP Leaders peer network, one of several peer networks supported by BuildingGreen. While BuildingGreen convenes the networks, initiatives are entirely directed by the participants.

As momentum builds for electrification—with some cities going so far as to ban natural gas—MEP... Read more

Which structural component would you expect to have the most embodied carbon? The foundation? The framing? The answer is actually the floors, according to an analysis of more than 600 buildings conducted by the engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti. (Disclosure: BuildingGreen’s president, Nadav Malin, is on Thornton Tomasetti’s Sustainability... Read more

You hope your building is going to last for at least 50 or 60 years—so why are you designing it for the past?

More and more building professionals are beginning to ask this question. The climate is already changing, but the weather files used to model features like passive design, choice of mechanical equipment, and sizing of stormwater... Read more

The City of Boston is projecting 40 inches of sea-level rise by 2070, putting vast new swaths of the city within the 100-year flood plain. To prepare, the Boston Planning and Development Agency has recommended adopting a zoning overlay and released a set of design guidelines for projects residing within that zone.

If the zoning overlay... Read more

Refrigerants are a unique problem in the green building world. Even the most energy-efficient chillers and heat pumps use them, and many of these refrigerants have global warming potential (GWP) more than a thousand times that of CO2. The “next generation” hydrofluoroolefin (HFO) refrigerants are a good solution, but if they are dropped into... Read more

In November, California’s Marin County adopted the world’s first building code that limits carbon emissions from concrete. (Concrete’s Portland cement content accounts for more than 6% of anthropogenic carbon emissions.) The code focuses on concrete performance, creating standards for composition that “maintains adequate strength and durability... Read more

People from marginalized communities are shockingly underrepresented in the U.S. building industry. It’s past time to change that.

In this report, we look at the depth and breadth of the building sector’s equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) problem; the negative implications for the industry; and some things individuals and firms... Read more

Black people can’t be architects.

That bigoted statement came from the mouth of a child in reference to William Bates, FAIA, 2019 president of The American Institute of Architects (AIA). Although most adults wouldn’t say such a thing, our minds might go there due to messages we’ve assimilated based on cultural norms—messages like “... Read more

The Center for Active Design (CfAD), operator of Fitwel Certification System, recently launched Fitwel 2.1 which advances a vision where every building and community is optimized for health. Fitwel 2.1 features several new and enhanced products and systems including:

Have you been moving toward electrifying HVAC systems but struggling to find the equipment you need?

Many engineers are in this position—and the Sustainable MEP Leaders are trying to change that. The Sustainable MEP Leaders peer network brings together the most committed sustainability directors from leading MEP design firms throughout... Read more

Despite the withdrawal of the U.S. from the Paris Agreement, many cities and states across the country have been moving forward with ambitious climate commitments. Boston plans to be carbon neutral by 2050. In that same year, New York City has pledged to cut its emissions by 80%. Washington, D.C. hopes to slash its carbon in half by 2032.... Read more

For the past 18 years, BuildingGreen has recognized green building products that significantly improve upon standard industry practices. This year we are focusing on the world’s greatest challenge: reducing the environmental impacts of greenhouse gases. The following products do so by conserving energy, reducing emissions, and managing carbon... Read more

In theory, district-scale energy systems are the future. But there’s a big problem: it is very difficult to model them—which in turn makes it difficult to design them. That’s now being rectified with the Urban Renewable Building and Neighborhood optimization (URBANopt), an EnergyPlus- and OpenStudio-based simulation platform being developed by... Read more

A proposed rule from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would limit which scientific studies can be used to make regulatory decisions, according to an analysis by Lisa Friedman of The New York Times. The Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science Proposed Rule calls for full transparency of underlying datasets, including the... Read more

Protecting roads, railways, and other public infrastructure from rising seas is going to be expensive. A recent report from the Center for Climate Integrity and Resilient Analytics is the first to tally the costs—an estimated $400 billion over the next 20 years. “Protecting America from climate change will be the most all-encompassing... Read more

Perhaps you’ve heard the harrowing stories of hackers accessing baby monitors and Nest thermostats. Well, it is only going to get worse, say experts. Some devices with “smart” capabilities (meaning they are able to interact with a wireless network) are best in class for energy efficiency. But with more and more destined to come on the market,... Read more

Thanks to 13 major occupational carcinogens, 10,000 Canadians per year suffer from cancer, a recent report from the Occupational Cancer Research Centre claims. Many of these hazards are associated with buildings and the construction industry. The 13 (with the estimated number of cancer sufferers) are:

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has introduced “LEED Positive,” a vision for regenerative design driven by the LEED rating systems. Unveiled at Greenbuild 2019 in Atlanta, the new, long-term vision has several waypoints: