Friends, I reviewed the firm's 2019 AIA 2030 data with a Principal, having organized the data in such a way that we could manipulate it. I included the average EUI and weighted EUI, since the latter gives a truer picture of where we are as a studio. In the past, the assumption was we would raise all boats with efforts to improve our practice in... Read more

Hi everyone -
Some of you already have heard some or all of this news, but I thought I'd share today's press release with the whole group.
The headline is: 
SERA is VERY excited to announce that David Johnson, formerly the managing partner of Bill McDonough's San Francisco office, is now heading up SERA's bay area office.... Read more

Plans are coming together for this Summit! Here's what we know (at least tentatively) so far:

Location:
Chicago, SmithGroup office

Timing: 
July 9-10, 2019

1:00 p.m. start time on 9th, 3:00 p.m. end on 10th

Hi folks,

Oregon’s ZERO Coalition is looking for responses to the question below on local policy for electrification, and I thought tapping this group would be helpful.

Are you aware of any local governments outside of Oregon that are promoting or enforcing electrification?

Engineered wood efficiently utilizes fast-growing, small-diameter trees.

When sourced from responsibly managed forests, engineered wood can store carbon that would otherwise enter the atmosphere, and can replace high-embodied-carbon concrete and steel in some structural applications.

Engineered wood products can also provide a... Read more

Hi everyone! LMN is embarking on a 17-part series to explore a more comprehensive carbon metric via summaries of various topics with lots of link. This dovetails with many other efforts in the industry and will reference all the best stuff that we are aware of...such as MEP 2040, SE 2050, CLF stuff, Epic tool, CARE tool, Arch 2030 publications... Read more

Michael led Opsis through several workshops as we began our journey to create a more equitable and socially just workplace. Michael had a great sense of humor and a really kind manner. I feel deep gratitude for having known him and for the lasting impact he has had on our lives. I know others in this group also worked with Michael and would... Read more

Greetings Green Gurus!

You've probably been hearing about the infrastructure package on the news... apparently things are heating up on this topic in Washington DC as they try to get the package sorted out before the August congressional recess. Because of this, both the USGBC and the AIA are mounting advocacy campaigns in this regard,... Read more

Hi all, 

I'm posting this on behalf of Wyck Knox of our office. He can be reached at knox@vmdo.com: 

"I’m on the editorial board of the Green Schools Catalyst Quarterly, the only peer reviewed journal dedicated to sustainable K-12 schools. (http://catalyst.greenschoolsnationalnetwork.org/gscatalyst)

One of my tasks in that... Read more

Hello All,

Through a regional School of Architecture, our firm has been connected with a very intriguing startup that has been engineering a new rooftop wind energy technology. They are developing a system to economically capture the increased wind flows at the edges of commercial building rooftops. They have engineered this system,... Read more

The High Performance Buildings Database (HPB) provides case studies of projects ranging from homes and commercial interiors to large buildings and even whole campuses and neighborhoods. These may be certified green projects, or simply projects that have one or more notable environmental features. We review each published case study to focus on... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Certified Wood: How SFI Compares to FSC.

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


1. Describe how forestry standards engage with pesticide use, protection of old growth forests and forest biota, and prevention of deforestation.
2. Discuss... Read more

THIS WEBINAR PURCHASE AND REGISTRATION IS CLOSED.

Glazing is by far the most complex single component of our enclosures and it must be climate-tuned to boot. Getting the amount, the location, and the performance attributes of glazing is key to... Read more

Hi SD Leaders: I'm hoping that you guys can be a great resource for a family member who teaches at Carnegie Mellon University, Professor Marvin Sirbu. Marvin teaches and does research in the Energy and Public Policy department and each year leads a class that takes on a challenging real-world problem to arrive at innovative solutions. This time... Read more

At Living Future last week a woman from Google asked about cost comparisons and I shared that the City of Santa Monica conducted a study analyzing the costs of a prototypical mixed-use project for a Living Building vs. LEED v4 Platinum vs. code compliant (Title 24, part 6). I thought this group might be interested as well so here is the link... Read more