Green Gurus,

Taking advantage of the good stuff that this pandemic is leaving us with, the Boston COTE has gone virtual for its meetings. That means that all of you around the country can join our great program.

Coming up next Wednesday at 2pm EDT (11am PDT, 1pm CDT) we'll have the always inspiring Andrea Love present along with... Read more

Hello Sustainable Advising Leaders,

Happy 2022! Here's your reminder that this network's first monthly call of the year is next Tuesday, January 25 at 3pm ET. Zoom call information is below.

All members of the network are welcome! You can see the agenda here. Here's a quick preview:

Dear All!

Crowdsourcing here to see if anyone has access to two LCA's that can be used to compare functionally equivalent consumer products: a fossil fuel powered to a battery one?  (A good product might be a car or stove, or a heating system with a boiler compared to a heat pump, perhaps?  Needs to include the B-use phase probably...)... Read more

I received this email from Cathy Higgins at NBI, and thought some of you may know the right folks who might be interested:
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Hi colleagues,

You are exactly the folks that might know a high-caliber person to join NBI’s team. We are looking for someone ideally based in California but could be elsewhere with... Read more

Ben Hewitt works behind the scenes to build and maintain BuildingGreen.com and LEEDuser. He brings with him over two decades of experience in his field. As an efficient problem-solver, his goal is to make the websites more user-friendly for his coworkers and designers and project teams using BuildingGreen’s resources.

Ben has proficiency... Read more

All,

I've probably spoken to a few of you over the phone, but I wanted to make sure all of you know that we are hosting a 4 part webinar series on our Tally LCA software, kicking off tomorrow 10/10. We just released the new of Tally version and ended up doing far more development work than initially anticipated, in no small part due to... Read more

Hi Everyone, 

Our Vancouver team is looking for some innovative, high performance  building retrofit case studies. We are have been retained to retrofit a significant heritage building in Vancouver and the client has a net zero carbon institutional goal. As such we are looking for some innovative precedents that will provide design and... Read more

Hi all,

Just a reminder that the last day to RSVP for the Living Future 2023 Peer Networks Meetup is tomrorow, April 26th! There are still some spaces left, with 34 people currently signed up. Please RSVP here if you'll be attending.

When: Wednesday May 3, 2023, 7:30-9pm ET

Where: SmithGroup, 1700 New York Avenue, NW, Suite... Read more

What thoughts do you have? What have others said that you feel we want to capture?

The Vision Vacuum: What’s driving environmental and social progress in architecture today? What should be driving it, and where should we be going?

Hi folks,

I know the last thing we all need is another assignment, but I took a look at this survey and it really should be pretty quick. And we've been talking a lot about how we can be better advocates for the things we care about...maybe this is a chance to do that? 

From an email request: 

I am writing on behalf of an... Read more

Hey all - sorry I won't be able to join our call today. I had a client request an emergency meeting today (boo) because corporate mandated that they eliminate fossil fuel use from all their buildings (yay!) by 2025 and they've got a project underway that needs to pivot quickly. 

Had I been able to join, I wanted to share this in case... Read more

The construction sector’s take-make-waste approach to materials needs an overhaul. Materials and construction account for an estimated 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions annually. At the other end of the life cycle, demolition in the United States annually generates 90% of some 600 million tons of construction-sector debris. Getting trashed... Read more

I was shocked to see this new research. Bad news is that acrylic paints are causing 58% of the microplastics pollution in our ocean. Yes, they are plastic. A recent study by Environmental Action, a Swiss-based scientific research firm, shows us that acrylic paint's role in plastic pollution is much greater than most of us realize. The good news... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Whole-Building Life Cycle Analysis: Promises and Pitfalls.

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


1. Define whole-building life-cycle assessment.
2. Explain what whole-building life-cycle assessment can and can't do so you can work within... Read more

Hi everyone, on our SDL Regional Leaders call today we touched on how different offices are engaging with the Youth Climate Strike on Sept 20, and I offered to share a few resources that we've developed:  

1) Here is our public-facing official statement/endorsement: https://www.vmdo.com/architecture-blog/vmdo-youth-climate-strike/?fbclid... Read more

Fluid-applied roofing materials can be added to an existing roof to extend its life and provide reflective characteristics.

BuildingGreen-Approved Roofing

Products listed by BuildingGreen have VOC levels below 50 g/l and reflective surfaces to reduce heat gain.

Energy Star requires initial reflectance of 0.65 for low slopes... Read more

I have a colleague researching existing, proposed, or anticipated changes to urban planning and building codes that encourage lower carbon footprints.

Can anyone comment on or point me to resources on how cities are using carbon footprint analysis and carbon reduction in permitting, now or in the future?

Some specific topics that... Read more