The Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) recently deemed two schools winners of its “Greenest School on Earth” Award for 2013. The Uaso Nyiro Primary School in Laikipia... Read more

Students from the University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA), have mapped the location of more than 1,200 formal urban agriculture sites and deciphered ordinances and regulations from L.A.’s 88 cities, hoping to... Read more

Programs like the Forest... Read more

Switching from a furnace fan with a permanent split capacitor (PSC) motor to one with a constant-torque brushless permanent magnet (BPM) motor would improve efficiency to the level of the standard, according to the Appliance... Read more

What if you could take a concrete deck and replace a lot of its material with air—getting not only a stronger, lighter, thinner deck, but also one that can be delivered to the jobsite for quick assembly? You’d have BubbleDeck—a matrix of plastic spheres, steel reinforcement, and concrete. It’s not only capable of replacing a significant... Read more

A new campaign called Resilient Communities for America (RC4A) is drawing on the power of mayors and other local officials to make communities across the nation more resilient. Quickly gathering... Read more

The American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) recently announced the winners of its “Designing Recovery” contest, a design competition that judged resilient house plans for New York City, New Orleans, and Joplin, Missouri.

An elevated bungalow by the Canadian architecture firm Sustainable. TO Architecture + Building took first... Read more

Concrete is the most common building material on earth, and it is infamously estimated to contribute at least 5% of global CO2 emissions. Portland cement typically takes the heat for this impact, but as the binder, it makes up only 10%–15% of the mix. Production of virgin aggregate, which makes up 60%–75%, can have major impacts as... Read more

Polystyrene insulation contains one of the most toxic flame retardants still in common use: hexabromocyclododecane, or HBCD. HBCD is a persistent, bioaccumulative toxic chemical and a human developmental toxicant (one of the reasons that EBN asked in 2009 whether this type of foam belongs in a green building at all); it will be phased out in... Read more

Updated May 30, 2025; Updates by Elene Drosos

Whether it’s 24 five-hundred-year floods since 2010, a 50% increase in the number of tropical storms in the North Atlantic, or severe droughts and wildfires in some regions, the context of building is changing. And with those changes, a new design parameter is emerging: resilience... Read more

The decision to put Green Globes on equal footing with LEED is in keeping with a February 2013 request for comments (see “Federal Government May Abandon LEED Endorsement”), in... Read more

In working on major updates and expansions to The BuildingGreen Guide to Insulation, we’ve had an opportunity to dig into some of the insulation products out there that you don't hear so much about. Some of what we’re found has been surprising.

Anyone remember urea formaldehyde foam insulation (UFFI)? Back in the late... Read more

Thirty-five years ago, when I first got involved with energy efficiency and renewable energy, the mere suggestion that one might heat with electricity... Read more

LEDs provide some of the most efficacious lighting available today, with some... Read more

We’re moving along with some of the wrap-up work on our house in Dummerston. One of those projects is installing the porch... Read more

Your healthiest insulation choices…and how to detail them in high-performance assemblies.

Determining what type of insulation to install (and how much) can be complex from many angles—environmental issues, human health, performance, and building science.

No other product category offers such a diverse range of materials and... Read more

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme, or UN-Habitat, is a UN agency focused on human settlements. It was launched in 1978... Read more