Hi friends,

We recently tracked our water consumption on site during the structural demolition of some existing reinforced concrete buildings.  The new OSHA silica regulations required us to keep dust to virtually zero, so we had a bunch of mist cannons and water hoses pumping water around the clock.  We consumed ~855,000 gallons in a... Read more

HGA is seeking a Sustainable Materials Specialist to join our team! 

The role involves working with project teams to educate, research, and support decision-making related to sustainable materials and, in connection with sustainability experts across the firm, developing resources and tools to elevate HGA’s materials baseline.

The... Read more

Sustainability leadership has requested that you take this quiz to help assess sustainability literacy across the firm. Your own results will be presented to you at the end of the quiz but will not be shared with anyone else. Only aggregated, anonymized results will be available to others.

Please don’t do research to inform your answers... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Three Imperatives to Create the Future of Green Building.

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


 

1. Explain why it's relevant to teach cross-disciplinary skills in the green building industry.
2. Detail the reasons for encouraging... Read more

Hi all,

As you know, the Carbon Leadership Forum has been busy in recent years growing the tent of discipline-based commitments for reducing embodied carbon. SE 2050 and MEP 2040 provide the platform and commitment for structural and MEP respectively, and there is now interest brewing for an additional commitment in support of civil... Read more

Hi MEP Leaders!

Here's a reminder that our monthly meeting is coming right up--today at 2:00 pm ET.

There is a lot to talk about: James has put together a starting point for our "how to make the best use of your engineer" guide. And Summit plans...

You can view the agenda here.

All members of the SMEPL network are... Read more

Hi Leaders,

We've pulled together some highlights from each of the three half-day cross-network workshops that happened in October. This report captures the gist of each workshop:

Net Zero What? Transitioning our Metrics from Energy to Carbon Getting Better Materials Into Projects Beyond the Property Line: Bringing Clean, Resilient... Read more

Friends,

Through AIA work I have been working with Kim Shinn from TLC Engineering. Kim is involved on the ASHRAE 209 development and has been advocating that the AIA, ASHRAE and USGBC align around this standard. Personally I think this is a good idea as I expect that this standard could easily make it's way into regulations and contracts... Read more

Conventional heating systems burn fossil fuels on the building site or use outrageous amounts of electricity.

BuildingGreen-Approved Heat Pumps

The best heat pumps solve both these problems and provide efficient cooling. BuildingGreen approves air-source heat pumps with minimum HSPF and SEER levels of 10 and 20, respectively.... Read more

Help. I have a contractor in need of advice on IAQ testing agencies and I'm largely uninformed about the local market of IAQ testing agencies. Anyone have organizations they'd specifically recommend or not recommend?

Feel free to email me directly if you'd prefer - awilson@ayerssaintgross.com.

Aley

Love the profile of Anica as the "featured member" on AIA's website--congratulations, Anica!

It's great to see the "just do it" attitude to achieving the 2030 goals: "We do not rely on clients to tell us to design a high-performance building; we are going to do it anyway, it's our job."

Emily Beyda is a Los Angeles native who for the past three years has written the popular "Dear Glutton" advice column in The Austin Chronicle. A graduate of Texas State's M.F.A. program, she currently resides back in L.A. The Body Double is her first novel.

A site license allows your entire organization to access and share the report, and to keep a copy in your library. The site license does not allow multiple users to earn CEUs. If multiple individuals in your organization would like to earn CEUs from this report, please purchase individual copies.

The world’s most... Read more

Hello Green Gurus!

The Climate Smart Wood Working Group would like to give a boost to this Ecotrust initiative to support the market proliferation of mass timber with science that attributes carbon impacts to wood building products. As many of you are aware, a couple years ago, the University of Washington partnered with Ecotrust to... Read more

Greetings, All.

The Resilient Outcomes Working group has been putting together a resource list (and map) of resources for supporting resilience-focused design across the US.  So far, we have around 50 resources on the list, ranging from the AIA Resilient Design Toolkit to local Vulnerability and Adaptation reports and tools.

We... Read more

Hi MEP Leaders,

I would not normally post a job on this forum, but Placetailor is seeking to hire a mechanical engineer.  They are one of only two truly sustainable developers that I've ever heard of.  They are an integrated developer / builder / design firm that builds everything they touch to Passive House and carbon neutral standards... Read more

Here’s a nice NYTimes op ed on urban density that directly addresses the concern Gwen raised on out call today: 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/24/upshot/coronavirus-urban-density-risks.html?referringSource=articleShare