Exterior shade or screening devices are generally much more effective at reducing solar heat gain than their interior counterparts.

BuildingGreen-Approved Shading

BuildingGreen approves exterior window and glazing attachments that reduce solar heat gain and glare or redirect daylight, providing important energy benefits while... Read more

Typically made from petrochemicals, carpet and its adhesives can offgas. It is also a challenge to recycle them, increasing the chances that it will be incinerated or disposed of in a landfill. Because carpet has a limited lifespan, its life-cycle performance is key.

BuildingGreen recommends modular carpet that demonstrates lower life-... Read more

Hello Green Gurus,

Back at the retreat in March 2021 (does anyone remember back that far?), we formed an Air Quality Working Group with members from SDL, SMEPL, and SCL. Drawing on our collective experience, standards, research, and other resources, we began navigating the murkiness of indoor air quality considerations. We came up with a... Read more

How much does every designer need to know? How to support that basic literacy?

Guiding Questions:

Hi everyone, 

We’re excited to announce that registration for the Spring 2024 Sustainable Construction Leaders Summit is now open! Join us at Perkins&Will’s Atlanta office on May 6th, the day before the Living Future Conference. Register early to save your seat, and feel free to reach out to me with any questions at amanda@... Read more

Hello Green Gurus,

Here’s a reminder that our first Show & Tell for 2021 is happening next week! Monday, February 1st from 7-8pm ET and Tuesday, February 2nd from 4-5pm ET, come see your peers from all networks present for five minutes each on a variety of topics relating to their work.

This event is connected with the Summit-... Read more

All,

Beck is making great strides in our AIA 2030 Commitment and we are looking for an experienced energy modeler to join our team, please reach out if you know of anyone that is looking and has energy modeling experience.  the job is posted on our website:  https://beckgroup.applicantpro.com/jobs/1011136.html

Hello,

We are in the very early planning phase of a k-8 public school project to be designed and built in an economically challenged urban location with very limited site options. The project is not LEEDv4 registered yet.  We are at feasibility and costing the soil remediation, needless to say that we would really hope there would be... Read more

Sustainability leadership has requested that you take this quiz to help assess sustainability literacy across the firm. Your own results will be presented to you at the end of the quiz but will not be shared with anyone else. Only aggregated, anonymized results will be available to others.

Please don’t do research to inform your answers... Read more

Https://www.metropolismag.com/architecture/yale-un-environment-eco-living-module/pic/44437/

Many of you will be passing through NYC on your way to the SDL Summit in Garrsion this week. I encourage you to make a pit stop at the United Nations. You’ve heard me talk about the next generation, tech transfer building systems... Read more

Hello Sustainable Construction Leaders, 

Mark your calendars! The next quarterly SCL call will be Wednesday, July 28th, 3pm ET (noon PT) and will focus on ESG.

Check in with three contractors at varying levels of development in their ESG programs. Julia Gisewite from Turner Construction, Jennifer Taranto from STO Building Group,... Read more

Hello Green Gurus! We are diving deep into our carbon metrics this year and are finalizing some of our emissions factors for our Scope 1 and 2 emissions and in a few more months Scope 3. I'm hoping this brain trust has some recent knowledge to share on this topic. What we've found is there's a fairly big variance in what we've seen in published... Read more

The Resilient Outcomes Working Group grew from a session at the 2020 Winter Summit in Gulf Shores AL, and we are still going strong.  We are currently focused on three primary objectives: 1) bringing awareness to resilient design through a presentation at the GreenBuild 2024 Resilience Summit (we'd love to see some peer network friends at our... Read more

Hi All - I wanted to share out the All For Reuse initiative below by two peers in the sustainable materials management network. I know some SDL have already done much research on this from quite a few angles, and those with LBC experience probably even moreso in practice. 

Frances Yang (Arup) and Andrew Ellsworth (Doors Unhinged) have... Read more

This question came to me via our mutual friend Josh Jacobs, but while interesting it's a bit out of my range of expertise... 

In short, a critical materials assessment specifically focused on airbourne byproducts from a manufacturing process that would be first-of-its-kind in the U.S. 

Can furniture be hazardous? You bet it can…

From flame retardants in foam cushions to unnecessary stain and dirt repellents on upholstery materials, everyday... Read more

We have a client thats going through a TI remodel in a building thats a LEED Core+Shell certified building. One of the questions we are trying to figure out is are there things we need to be doing to not imperil the building's certification. 

I think the answer is that the landlord had to write tenant guidelines at the time of... Read more