BuildingGreen Report

What if you had a natural building material that could be grown from seed to harvest in three to four months, is good at sequestering carbon, requires no fertilizer, helps fix nitrogen in the soils, requires little water, can be grown on a small plot so it can replace more polluting and/or slower-growing materials such as... Read more

“It’s a huge opportunity, and we’d be crazy to miss it.”

Jonathan Klein, cofounder of the nonprofit UndauntedK12, wants building professionals to know they have a major role to play in transforming public education in the next three years. That’s because unprecedented federal funds are pouring into school districts, thanks to the... Read more

Energy modeling and whole-building life-cycle assessment are sophisticated software for predicting the energy use and carbon footprint of a building. But often, these methods are used too late in design to make a difference. Now, a free online tool from architecture firm EHDD can help project teams home in on lower-carbon... Read more

Unconstitutional. Draconian. Short sighted and dangerous.

That’s how a lawsuit brought by building owners describes New York City’s carbon caps for buildings—a.k.a. Local Law 97. The building performance standard (BPS) has yet to go into effect, but owners are already anticipating the fines they’ll have to pay come 2024, and some aren’t... Read more

The International Living Futures Institute recently added 4,844 perfluorinated and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) to its Red List and 5,947 to its Priority List. PFAS are a group of chemical compounds that do not break down in the environment and can cause potentially serious health and environmental problems. Beyond... Read more

Health and wellness are in high demand in sustainable design. Soft daylight, superb indoor air quality, enhanced thermal comfort, great ergonomics … all these design elements and more are becoming standard for students, patients, and office workers.

Once design is done, though, the human beings who... Read more

UPDATE: This article was updated on June 8, 2022 to reflect the news that Biden will waive the tariff threat for two years. 

In March the US Department of Commerce (DOC) announced its investigation into whether Chinese companies are circumventing U.S. tariffs by moving components for solar panels through four Southeast Asian countries. ... Read more

When it comes to weighing sustainability, design, and comfort, few products have the challenges that carpet does. On the one hand, it is comfortable to walk on, it absorbs sound, and there are colors and patterns to complement nearly any design. But for all these positives, carpet has a history of containing potentially... Read more

Health and wellness are in high demand in sustainable design. Soft daylight, superb indoor air quality, enhanced thermal comfort, great ergonomics … all these design elements and more are becoming standard for students, patients, and office workers.

Once design is done, though, the human beings who construct the resulting high... Read more

Electrochromic glazing holds the promise of less glare and better energy efficiency with fewer moving parts. The reality is much more complicated and includes information you won’t hear from the sales reps.

Join us for a conversation with the nation’s leading experts on smart glass technology. We'll explore how the performance has... Read more

Resilient flooring is often made from PVC, which BuildingGreen does not recommend due to potential life-cycle impacts. Once installed, emissions from frequent stripping and floor cycles can hurt indoor air quality.

There are a wide variety of acoustic materials that can be used to manage interior noise and help create a welcoming space. The acoustic wall and ceiling panels described here are typically part of a noise reduction strategy that incorporates carpet, acoustic ceiling tiles, and other interior products. (For information on acoustic ceiling... Read more

The Biden administration has released new procurement rules—one focused on embodied carbon and the other on operational carbon—affecting all federal government building projects.

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) will require concrete to meet newer, more stringent requirements.... Read more

Choosing flooring may be one of the hardest decisions in the building industry. Performance, design options, budget, installation, maintenance, embodied impacts, and durability all come into play: with all that in mind, there’s no perfect solution. Even after you’ve narrowed it down based on application and decided resilient flooring is best,... Read more

The International WELL Building Institute, owner of the WELL Building Standard, recently launched the WELL Performance Rating, a considerably narrower take on building wellness that requires verified data. Elements measured are:

The Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy loan program (C-PACE) offers low-interest capital to projects pursuing energy and water savings; the loan gets paid back through a special tax assessment. Pretty good deal, but the New Buildings Institute (NBI) and PACE Equity have teamed up to make it even better.

Project teams committing... Read more

Contributed by these guest authors:

Lance Davis, Federal Agency Sustainability Architect and chair of the LEED Steering Committee; Melissa Baker, SVP, LEED Technical Development, U.S. Green Building Council; and Laurie Kerr, FAIA, Principal Climate Advisor, U.S. Green Building Council

Earlier this week, BuildingGreen ran an op-... Read more

Contributed by these guest authors:

Greg Kats, Kevin Hydes, Anica Landreneau, Gunnar Hubbard, Vivian Loftness, Rob Watson, Mark MacCracken, Anthony Bernheim, Dan Burgoyne, Doug Farr, and David Gottfried

LEED, the great global green building design standard, has failed to adequately respond to climate change. The program—... Read more

Controlling excessive interior sound is critical for creating a warm, welcoming space. This can be particularly important in low-embodied-carbon interiors that use structure as finish, such as polished concrete floors or exposed beams—materials that do not absorb sound well.  

There are a variety of... Read more

Good indoor air quality is vital to sustainable building, but accomplishing it—and verifying that you’ve done so—is not easy. “Considerations for Continuous Air Quality Monitoring: Simple tips for getting it right, according to IAQ consultants” is a free white paper, written by members of the BuildingGreen Peer Networks,... Read more