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Products & Materials Specialist and LEED AP BD+C Brent Ehrlich excels at deep, unbiased, and nuanced technical research on the health and environmental impacts of green building products and materials. Some areas of focus include:
product and material constituents, including their risks
product certifications
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Dear Colleagues,
I proposed CarbonCure for a project and the structural engineer in the meeting was opposed to it. He later sent me detailed reasoning by email. I have not used this technology and would like to hear other more experienced opinions on the technology. The project we are working on is well integrated with climate, 99% sDA,... Read more
Peer Network Event
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Hey Sages, Just lobbing this over the transome - not sure if anyone else cares :) but this would be a great group to dig in if anyone IS interested.
For the past few years, I've been working on melding two completely separate worlds - our world (with typical project delivery) and the world of Agile (not just software development process... Read more
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If you have been wondering about the Contractor Commitment, we have an update for you!
Several weeks ago, the subgroup leaders and the Steering Committee members gathered to agree on a basic structure for the Commitment. The idea was to align the basic expectations around issues like how many tiers there would be, what would be disclosed... Read more
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Curious if folks know of any resources on hempcrete, specific to durability. We have a one-story carbon-neutral operational energy project where the design team and client have bought into the aesthetics and carbon-sequestering potential of hempcrete, and amazingly it is looking to be no more expensive than a more typical concrete wall... Read more
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Whether you're selecting windows for a 99-unit condo project or for a single-family home, you're making a choice your client will have to live with for years, maybe decades.
And no matter how large or small... Read more
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Hello Sustainable Design Leaders,
On October 5th a number of us gathered for the Fall 2021 SDL Virtual Summit and the BuildingGreen team is happy to now share with you all the event report here!
This report can be shared publicly. If you think someone would like to see it, such as firm leadership or prospective Peer Networks... Read more
Product Guide
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
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Greetings, colleagues!
Here's an opportunity for this community from AIA COTE Advocacy: US Congressman Paul Tonko (D-NY), Ranking Member of the Environment Subcommittee of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, is looking for input from national stakeholder groups to help develop new federal climate legislation. Congressman Tonko... Read more
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Southface will need a procedure for adding and assigning SMEs to the BITuser site. Normally you could just create the user in BITuser and assign the role right there, but we have the added complication of Salesforce SSO, which means the sequence will have a few extra steps.
Here's the basic outline:
Create an account for the SME on... Read moreForum topic
I'm looking to draft some one-page briefs for my consulting engineers to outline what we would like to see in their specs regarding certain materials and systems. For example, letting the plumbing and civil engineers know that we prefer to eliminate PVC pipe and want them to specify alternatives like Polypropylene, cast iron, ABS, etc. The idea... Read more
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Apologize in advance if this has been posted before but we are trying to get manufacturers of stage curtains to give documentation that proves that the product does not have halogenated fire retardants. Manufacturers say they don't have them or concentrations are limited to 100ppm but they don't seem to have documentation to provide for it.... Read more
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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
Quiz
Welcome to the quiz portion of The Building Envelope: Primers from Environmental Building News.
Learning Objectives
Upon completing this course, participants will be able to:
1. Explain how thermal mass helps maintain indoor thermal comfort in buildings.
2. Describe the differences between closed-cell and... Read more
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Hello All,
A group of us (three architects and a builder- sounds like there should be a joke here) were debating this and we are stumped.
Application: Residential exterior trim.
50 year warrantied composite product of agricultural byproduct with PVC (EPD not published yet) vs 100 year (if primed on all sides and painted or... Read more
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Hi Green Gurus (esp. Sustainable MEP leaders...)
I'm looking for suggestions of contacts for MEP consultants, especially in the Chicagoland region, ideally with sustainability highly integrated into the work, specialization in geothermal systems, and indoor agriculture. (doesn't necessarily have to be all-in-one)
For context, we... Read more