For anyone attending this year's APA conference in person in San Diego, please consider joining us for our divison's annual reception and Awards for Excellence in Sustainability. We will be joined by members of the City Management & Planning, New Urbanism divisions, and the National Capital Area Chapter. Here's a link to register for the... Read more

We're now mid-way through Summer Summit season! One of the “good problem to have” challenges we’ve had at recent SDL Summits has been too many great five-minute presentations. It’s hard to find time for them all. This year, since we’ll be online anyway, we can get a jump on that by starting the five-minute presentations early in addition to... Read more

Hi SDLers! I hope early fall is finding you well.

There is a current opportunity to make a difference in the campaign to reduce use of toxic flame retardants.

Arlene Blum and the Green Science Policy Institute, whom many of you know, are currently organizing a campaign of support for the CA State Fire Marshal's proposal to allow... Read more

Rise above the competition in sustainability, and meet your colleagues where they are.

Our affordable firm-wide pricing offers resources that your whole firm can take advantage of, with trusted, ad-free... Read more

Happy Thursday, all!

I will be presenting with my colleague, Emily Hoffman, and our counterpart from Seattle, Duane Jonlin, on how firms can contribute more to aggressive energy and carbon targets, from the perspective of three people that see thousands of projects each year.  We see the best and the worst, and we're convinced that our... Read more

Hi everyone! I saw that BuildingGreen won't be faciliating a meet-up in Atlanta but are there any other peers attending Living Future next week and want to self-organize? If we can find a venue - i wonder if there are any locals on this list with a recommendation? Could do Wednesday 7-8:30 between the two scheduled reception and after-hours... Read more

I understand the AIA 2030 team is hoping for as many firms (and projects) to submit some form of LCA data in the new DDx website this week, in order to learn how the industry is tracking embodied carbon.  We have four projects that dabbled with Tally last year, which we'd like to report this week.

Has anyone run into a hurdle where you... Read more

Has anyone developed a disclaimer to be issued with LCA models and reports? I have been asked to look into developing a disclaimer to be used with LCAs, and unfortuantely I have not been able to find past precedence on this. 

Thank you,

Stephanie Fargas

HGA is collaborating with the University of Minnesota Climate Adaptation Partnership (MCAP) to research how the AE industry is currently using climate projection data, and what they need in order to grow their use of data. MCAP is currently producing a set of dynamical downscaled climate projections for the state of Minnesota and unlike other... Read more

If anyone else has gotten confused going between parts-per-million and percentages (parts per hundred!) for material reporting here's a little infographic that might help. Feel free to use or improve! 

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

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

I've been asked to author an article on urban heat mitigation, and I wanted to include a plug for the above pilot credit, which I think is a really powerful new addition to LEED. Beyond introducing the "intent" and "credit requirements", I was also hoping to do (2) things within the article:

1) provide some feedback from those who have... Read more

The BuildingGreen Guide to Thermal Insulation provides detailed guidance on insulation products and practices, including recommendations on what insulation to use and what to avoid. It's a treasure trove of information for architects and designers, builders, and anyone who is actively considering the impact of insulation on the quality of your... Read more

Sages - see below for what was posted in the SDL forum

seems this topic needs all of you - to guide, critique, move, question

nadav forgive the blend posting but I dont know who sees what, and the SAGES are the bomb on this kind of troublemaking

thoughts all?

PFAS is in everything and you – Please join

Hello... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Full-Blown Energy Modeling.

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


1. Explain the role of the energy modeler and how each energy model opens an informed discussion between the entire project team about the interactions between architectural and... Read more