Hello everyone!  There hasn’t been much activity on this forum in recent months, so we wanted to give an update about what’s been happening and things coming up. 

Firstly, we are very excited for the upcoming inaugural SCL Summit the day before Greenbuild.  We currently have about 20 people signed up for the Summit and we are expecting a... Read more

Hi friends, 

Before i forget, here is the checklist I mentioned yesterday that got such a positive response in our office - again it came about after i was asked (for the Nth time) to write a sustainability description for a concept proposal/ RFP that I was not a part of and frankly didn't have a lot going for it. So it's framed as "you... Read more

Hey there hive mind,

We went looking through LEEDuser to try and find some direction and didn't find much so I thought I'd bring my team's question here to all of you smart people. We're working on a non-combustion central plant tied to a geothermal field and grid electricity. The project has cooling towers and their associated chemical... Read more

I have a client seeking grant funding & they're vetting current US technology around large-scale prefabricated mass timber. My question to this group is if this currently exists anywhere in the US.

Qualifications:

10+ years experience manufacturing and installing large-scale prefabricated mass timber elements into completed... Read more

Lauren Shumaker (Turner Construction) and I are starting a group to focus on improving the submittal process, currently focused specifically on healthy & sustainable materials and the use of the mindful Materials library. The purpose of this working group would be to align project management and LEED project software (ex: Procore, CMiC,... Read more

Hi All- I will be starting bi-weekly mtg for the PFAS working group to align on our goals as consicous firms and finalize our message aka 'letter to manufacturers' for reducing PFAS in building materials. Please email me (pgupta-garg@wrnsstudio.com) to let me know if you are interested in being a part of the group. First mtg will be next week... Read more

Pumpy Nullifidian

THIS WEBINAR PURCHASE AND REGISTRATION IS CLOSED.

Are your clients asking you about wellness? You’re not alone. Employee health and wellbeing has been called the ‘second wave of sustainability.’ In this hour-long live webinar, GreenStep Education’s Alex Spilger will walk you through Fitwel certification, including its requirements... Read more

Team SCL,

This was a tough week. My husband coined a phrase "20% laid off."

Unfortunately, 50% of our business is currently impacted by governmental orders stating that our work is non-essential. This is bitter-sweet. I certainly want people to be safe, but we've had to make some tough decisions and in the geographies that were... Read more

Hi all,

I am working on a Div 01 sustainability spec section for our firm to include by default on all projects. I've been finding a lot of great sample language out there for embodied carbon measures and material transparency (huge thanks to anyone here who had a part in developing those resources). 

One thing I'd like to include... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of The Problem with Net-Zero Buildings (and the Case for Net-Zero Neighborhoods).

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


1. Describe several unintended consequences of focusing on net-zero-energy buildings.
2. List at least three advantages... Read more

Hi all - at the suggestion of Nadav and some of the Sustainable MEP Leaders, I'm reposting a thread I started a couple days ago in the SMEP forum.

In response to increasingly aggressive (and effective) targeting of building owners (particularly schools), a group of researchers have put their support behind a letter warning against the... Read more

Hi GGs,

We are looking to do a renovation of a very leaky old office space, and we want to get a good snapshot of air quality and effective envelope R values both before and after.

Does anyone have experience with:

1. installing heat flux sensors on windows and walls

2. deploying IAQ measurement devices that can log... Read more

I'm putting together information on natural gas bans (or put another way, all electric buildings) for an advocacy effort and looking for some experts. Anyone have thoughts on banning natural gas and other fossil fuels on residential projects? Specifically what are the considerations/challenges/opportunities at each scale (single family, low... Read more

Hi all,

We have an institutional client who has tired of LEED and is instead putting forth EarthCraft Light Commerical as a replacement certification (they like the performance verification & lower cost that ECLC provides).  Has anyone used ECLC? It seemed an odd choice but wanted to hear from others on their experiences. The... Read more

Thought I'd share this interesting research about something I hadn't considered as another pandemic impact - the use of video in Zoom etc calls vs. audio only. Maybe an excuse to keep your camera off some of the time?

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/01/210114134033.htm

MAL