Greetings Sustainable Design Leaders,

As we begin closing out 2021, we wanted to give you a quick update that the next SDL Salary Survey will be coming to you in early January! The BuildingGreen team and SDL Steering Group have been busy this past month polishing up the questions for this anonymous survey.

A reminder of the... Read more

Hello, Sustainability Leaders! 

I’m excited to be sharing a virtual hello to this network more formally (waving, big yellow energy, sparkle emoji - all of the above). If we’ve yet to meet, I’m so looking forward to chatting down the road. I’m Jill Maltby-Abbott, BuildingGreen’s newest team member. I'm working most closely with Brent,... Read more

Hi - I'm wondering if you have recommendations for a web/mobile app for occupants to self-assess comfort at regular intervals. I've downloaded comfy, but it wants to actually DO something about thermal discomfort by alerting discomfort and connecting, I believe, to the BMS. We just want to collect information at this point. And since I'm a... Read more

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

Constructed wetlands and other natural filtration systems close the nutrient and water loop, permitting safe and sustainable wastewater treatment and reuse right on the site.

We look for... Read more

Great career opportunity to make an impact on existing buildings and emissions reductions. City of Seattle will be hiring a full time Building Emissions Reduction Technical Advisor. Closing date to apply is August 6. Please share if you know someone who may be a candidate.

Description from city of Seattle:
Want to influence large... Read more

Hi all -- 

We have a national restaurant client who is looking to source furniture (both indoor and outdoor) made with a minimum of 40% salvaged/recycled material, and they're very interested in finding a vendor that's woman- and/or minority-owned or that would qualify as a "disadvantaged organization" (their terminology).  They would... Read more

Hi All, 

My understanding is that SCL reporting is only for refrigerant use, or recharging for headquarters. I've asked our MEP contractor for a list of our 21 units, refrigerant use, and what quantity of refrigerants were used to charge equipment during installation or service.  

Is anyone tracking this for job sites?... Read more

Hi - Posting on behalf of Pete Munoz at Biohabitats

Biohabitats is hiring a proposal coordinator in Portland. Please spread the word. Thanks!

PROPOSAL COORDINATOR

Cascadia Bioregion Portland, Oregon is the preferred location, but will consider Denver, Colorado or  Santa Fe, New Mexico  

Years of Experience: 5+ years... Read more

Hey Gurus. Might anyone have experience, or thoughts, with regard to establishing an energy use baseline for a new advanced manufacturing facility we are working on for a regional technical community college? This type of academic facility is so relatively new, the program doesn't fall into the typical "College/University" building type from ... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of How to Build Green At No Added Cost

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


1. Know how to make a value proposition for green buildings.
2. Explain how shrinking a green building and investing in its envelope can reduce first costs of its... Read more

All,

I'm sure a few of you attended our recent  webinar on the LEED v4.1 LCA webinar. In case you missed it, the recording is posted. We were stunned by the amount of engagement from the audience; we allotted 30 minutes for questions and I think it went even longer. The webinar recording should be a great starting point for anyone... 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

Hi all!

I've heard several people talk about developing tools for assessing/codifying a client's values for a project as part of an integrated design process (ie. a set of questions, survey, etc.). Would anyone be willing to share?

(Z, are you listening? I specifically recall you mentioning a tool like this...)

Thanks!... Read more

Meet the winners:

2024
2023
2022
2021

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

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