Since attending the SDL Summer Summit this year, I've continued soul-searching for more actionable firm-wide, walk-the-talk Climate Initiatives to push forward and sheepishly realized that our office operational emission accounting (and potential offsets) has literally fell off the radar. Since 2008.
:(

So my query:
1. Are... Read more

Hi All, this is primarily directed at our Sustainable MEP folks, but please anyone with insight feel free to weigh in.

I am increasingly seeing designs and specifications asking for Passive House levels of airtightness as verified by blower door testing, but with traditional ventilation system designs. 

To me, Passive House US has... Read more

WELL & Fitwel and beyond.

Guiding Questions:

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Dear SDL community,

I am supporting one of our health authorities in developing a business case for regenerating healthcare infrastructure as part of the indicative design for a new hospital and cancer centre. While I will be deepening this inquiry through the lens of a PhD over the next few (hopefully 4 or less!) years, I - and we - are... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of The Urgency of Embodied Carbon and What You Can Do About It​​!

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


Define “embodied carbon” and explain why embodied carbon is a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions, which threaten health and safety... Read more

Faucets with high flow rates waste water—not to mention the energy used to treat and deliver it to our buildings—and the additional water stresses our wastewater treatment systems.

Hey All,

I wish I could brag about the tremendous success Integrus has had in conducting a robust LCA on every project.  Our goal is to use Tally to conduct a WBLCA on every project, but we are struggling with issues with staff time, project schedules, scarcity of expertise, and not having a streamlined process to produce reliable... Read more

The Planning for Resilient Outcomes Working Group has had a few preliminary meetings and we would like to invite interested Green Gurus to join our group.  To give you an idea of what we are about, we have developed a purpose statement to guide our future work: 

The Planning for Resilient Outcomes working group will elevate the industry'... Read more

Hi folks,

On behalf of ILFI, I'm sharing a notice that the early registration deadline for the Living Product Expo in Pittsburgh is tomorrow! This is a great event for anyone interested in a deep dive into materials transparency, hazard avoidance, low-carbon products, overall innovation, and the Living Product Challenge. There will also... Read more

Hi folks,

Our regular SMEPLeaders call is next Tuesday, Sept 12 at 2:00 eastern (if you don't have this on your calendar, let us know and we'll resend the invite).

We've had a GREAT run of meetings that kicked off with someone sharing on a topic they're excited about or challenged by. The conversations that follow that kind of... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Re-Framing Sustainability: Green Structural Engineering.

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


1. List at least three design approaches to green structural engineering.
2. Recognize two issues that would encourage owners to invest in... Read more

This came up a number of times at the SDL Tempe Summit so I thought I would share. If you have not already I highly recommend this recent research paper from the UW-IDL on the tradeoffs of operational and embodied carbon in envelope design in different climates. As a Passive House nerd it made me question the super-insulated envelope at least... Read more

Hello all, there has been a fair amount of discussion about the emerging Cove Tool for early stage energy modelling and parametric optimization at our firm. I am very curious if any of you are using this software, and if so, what are your thoughts about it? 

https://www.covetool.com/

Thanks,

Esteban Matheus

With extensive environmental science research background, Elene Drosos provides contemporary commentary on the current climate affairs. She contributes up-to-date trends and shifts in regulations in major green building issues such as LEED and natural disasters. Her passion is to strive for biophilic design where native landscapes can dominate... Read more

Hi! Please see this query from our Products Editor, Brent Ehrlich. Feel free to reply here on the forum with any leads or insights. AND, if you will to go "on the record" for this article, please contact Brent directly to set up a phone or email interview. (He's on a tight deadline with this.) Thank you!

I am looking for some feedback on... Read more