If anyone else has gotten confused going between parts-per-million and percentages (parts per hundred!) for material reporting here's a little infographic that might help. Feel free to use or improve! 

Hello all!

I'm new to the group, and so excited to be here. Two part question here (as we think about processes and new year goals).

I am at a smallish firm (20 people) in Boston helping to reform our processes to enable even those that are not steeped in sustainability at a daily level to be comfortable looking for opporutunities... Read more

We are having trouble sourcing a LEED compliant wallcovering adhesive. We specified Roman Pro-880 which is low VOC but doesn't have sufficient back up for TVOCs. Have you had success with other products?

Hi, folks! 

I was recently asked if BuildingGreen could connect prospective speakers to an event organizer in Chicago. Beyond the leaders in the BuildingGreen networks relayed, I wanted to share that the exercise led me to the Women and Climate speaker database: https://www.womenandclimate.co/speaker-database 

When filtering by... Read more

Following up on one of our conversations on the vision vacuum and sustainability beyond certifications, I would like to help facilitate an offline conversation with anyone working within their firm to use the AIA COTE measures as a guiding framework in their firms/projects. Attached are my slides on my first pass at thinking about this at Page... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Can Concrete Save Us? Locking Up Carbon in Building Materials

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


1. Explain current strategies of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS).
2. Detail how concrete offers another possible pathway to... Read more

We think fresh water supplies are endless, but this idealistic vision is clouded by the smoke of countless forest fires in the U.S. West and elsewhere. Instead of endless bounty, climate change is bringing us catastrophic droughts and flooding that now dominate the headlines and threaten entire regions.

This report covers innovative... Read more

Dear SDL: Thanks to all who have already given their support to the AIA Resolution on Urgent and Sustained Climate Action. We're into the final push of getting out the vote to pass the resolution next Wednesday, June 5th afternoon in Las Vegas. This requires 2/3s of the voting delegates to pass. So we're asking anyone who 1) is attending as a... Read more

Hello,

We’re looking for Design Energy Code Equivalents for Chinese commercial energy codes. Do any of you have  any good sources? I’ve only found data comparing ASHRAE 90.1 2013 to the Chinese Code at that time. We understand the Chinese code require a 65-75% energy savings over the baseline but don’t have good information for defining... Read more

On a large sports project, we worked with the structural engineer to spec low carbon / high SCM concrete mixes. Much of the floor area will be sealed and polished concrete, and a concrete sub is pushing back on the SCMs saying they should not be above 20% (with a preference for 0%) for the polish to finish properly, per the manufacturer. Anyone... Read more

For more than 30 years, Alex Wilson has been the most trusted voice on energy efficiency and environmentally responsible design and construction. Since launching Environmental Building News (EBN) in 1992, he’s built a reputation, resources, and staff to provide the foundation for BuildingGreen, a consulting and information company... Read more

Hello all,

This month's SCDL call was full of great discussion! We decided this month that we are feeling good about where we are for the Task Force Agreement on defining social sustainabiltiy in our work. The aim is to work with this agreement for a while and see if it holds up as a process framework. There was also interest to invite... Read more

CEUs are available for reading our entire plumbing guide. Click here to learn more and take the quiz.

Graywater can be treated and used for irrigation or toilet flushing, reducing significant burdens on municipal drinking water and wastewater treatment systems.

BuildingGreen-Approved Graywater Products

BuildingGreen... Read more

Hi there SD Leaders,

We're running an LCA on one of our projects that's about to start construction that has had serious embodied carbon goals and I got a result that really surprised me. I haven't been able to find any obvious/glaring issues with the work, but these results are strange enough that I'm not feeling confident. I'm hoping... Read more

Hi All,

Someone just told me that 80% of his previously certified Energy Star Projects no longer earn certification with the update baselines.  Have any of you started digging into this yet?

-Meredith

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

Asking for a colleague:

"Have you ever had a large number of fire retardant tarps used to temporarily enclose a building during construction? Do you know of any solutions for recycling/reusing them or another product that doesn't use toxic fire-retardants that meets the performance criteria?"

I think we've all seen poly or fabric... Read more