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Hi there colleagues!
Out of curiosity, do you plan on attending Greenbuild in person in San Diego in September? My staff asked me if we were going and my answer is partially contingent on the extent to which attending would mean getting to see some of our favorite people (read: all of you). Looking forward to taking the temperature of... Read more
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Dear Green Gurus: I'm so sorry to have missed seeing many of you at AIA last week. I heard the BG and COTE events were the highlights of the week! Congrats.
I'm sure by now you've heard of the dreadful Supreme Court decision about the EPA. I thought I'd share a helpful, if not sobering, perspective in an Op-Ed today in the Washington... Read more
Quiz
Welcome to the quiz portion of EPDs Are the Future of the Building Industry, Whether You Like It or Not.
Learning Objectives
Upon completing this course, participants will be able to:
1. Explain how environmental product declarations (EPDs) are made, what they tell you, and how they're best used.
2. Describe... Read more
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I was wondering if any of you have experience with integrated PVs and/or solar glass. If so, can you could recommend manufactures for each? We are working on a multistory freestanding building in an urban site for a mid-Atlantic city. Because our site and roof area are limited we are looking to maximized the areas where we can generate power.... Read more
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Hello Hive Mind,
We are exploring the sustainability attributes (or lack there of) of Pre-Engineered Metal Building Systems (PEMBS). These ubiquitous design-build structures often fly under the radar of green building design; they make up billions of square feet of construction globally and are steadily increasing due to speed of... Read more
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Hi everyone! Our sister company, Flatiron, is a heavy civil/infrastructure contractor based out of Broomfield, CO. Their sustainability team is on the hunt for a Circular Economy Manager. Our companies recently announced exciting public ESG and climate commitments, including several related to waste reduction, life cycle assessments, and more... Read more
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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
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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
Product Guide
CEUs are available for reading all the building-envelope product guides and primer. Click here to learn more and take the quiz.
Standard spray polyurethane foam (SPF) insulation is made using blowing agents with extremely high global warming potential (GWP), which can cancel out much of the potential energy savings from use over its life... Read more
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Hello Gurus,
I have a client (bldg owner) who has asked me to recommend a list of firms who have the internalized resilient design in their practice.
They are *not* asking for resiliency consultants right now, but for firms that they might hire for "regular" capital projects, but since resiliency is high on their priorities, they... Read more
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Hello Everyone,
I'm looking for projects in Chicago that are exemplary in at least one of the following topics: Biophilia, Sustainability, Resilience, or Well-being. I know there is overlap in these topics but we're doing an internal design exercise and are looking at how these different ideas relate and are articulated in buildings. We'... Read more
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All,
I've probably spoken to a few of you over the phone, but I wanted to make sure all of you know that we are hosting a 4 part webinar series on our Tally LCA software, kicking off tomorrow 10/10. We just released the new of Tally version and ended up doing far more development work than initially anticipated, in no small part due to... Read more
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Hi folks,
We had a fun impromptu conversation on our call last week. We got most involved in the challenge of getting developers interested in taking advantage of IRA Tax Credits. That can be quite a challenge given their business model.
We also heard about emerging data on tradeoffs between embodied and operating carbon, and how... Read more
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hi all! I'm almost at the finish line with this year's 2030 reporting...whew. I'm running into an issue that I wanted to throw out to this group, regarding the zero tool and national average baselines. Hoping some of y'all who manage your firm's 2030 data, or are just more familiar with CBECS and related data, have some insight / experience to... Read more
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Hi SD Leader: Please review, consider or pass along this terrific new position leading the Sustainability strategic direction at the Washington University School of Medicine. WashU has an ambitious sustainability leader role regionally and across the nation and the School of Medicine (highly ranked nationally) plays a big role in that. The job... Read more