The sheer number of building product certifications and labels is overwhelming, and even those experienced with green labels can get exhausted trying to figure out which are relevant and which aren’t.

The confusion in the market over green labels can complicate efforts of both manufacturers and design professionals... Read more

Hi all!

I've heard several people talk about developing tools for assessing/codifying a client's values for a project as part of an integrated design process (ie. a set of questions, survey, etc.). Would anyone be willing to share?

(Z, are you listening? I specifically recall you mentioning a tool like this...)

Thanks!... Read more

Hi folks,

No details have been sorted out yet, but I wanted everyone to have a heads-up that the SCL Steering Group is proposing that we graduate to a full, stand-alone SCL Summit in 2020. (Until now we’ve been squeezing our Summit into the day before Greenbuild, which is good in some ways, but problematic in others—and limits our time... Read more

Hello SCL,

Quick reminder to sign up for our SCL Summit in May! True to usual form, we ask what’s important to YOU before we finalize an agenda. In the next couple of weeks, we will be sending out a draft agenda and asking for your feedback. Sign up now so your voice will be heard. Initial ideas so far have included:

Welcome to the quiz portion of The Sound of Sustainability: Acoustics in High-Performance Design!

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


Describe how increased acoustic performance benefits indoor environmental quality (IEQ).

Recount the negative impacts of poor acoustic... Read more

Mark oversees strategic marketing and product development for BuildingGreen. In this role, he works closely with our Editorial, WebDev, and Consulting teams to conceive, plan, direct, and budget integrated marketing programs that support our outreach and meet customers’ needs. 

Joining BuildingGreen in late 2021, Mark brings... Read more

As if you weren't worrying enough already, here's a little something that I ran across through monitoring activity on the American Society of Healthcare Engineers discussion boards:  https://www.id-hub.com/2018/10/17/hospital-plumbing-reservoir-resistance-interview-amy-mathers/, "Hospital Plumbing as a Reservoir for Resistance".  This is both a... Read more

Hi folks,

Any of you who have completed WBLCA for projects - we are working on a new initiative with the City of Cambridge (building on our prior work NZ Climate Action Plan) but this time focused exclusively on embodied carbon.

We have not yet begun the work - but they have an opportunity to make a move on this on Tuesday and... 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

Jenny/Dan:

What types of content do anticipate having in the Documentation Toolkit tab? Here's an example of what we have on LEEDuser:

https://leeduser.buildinggreen.com/credit/EBOM-2009/SSc5#tab-docs (login required)

The layout is a little complicated on LEEDuser, since we had to work with a lot of legacy content, but... Read more

Hi SD Leaders,

As you may be aware, this past April a group of manufacturers calling themselves the Living Product 50 responded to the letters that many of us sent about five years ago advocating for transparency in their product ingredients.  A copy of that letter can be reviewed about midway through the page at this link:  https://... Read more

This is a bit off the thread of sustainable design leadership, but how much design and/or leadership can you get done without an adequate amount of caffeination?

We are looking for recommendations and advice on improving the sustainability of our breakrooms, particularly on the subject of beverage (mostly coffee, but also a fair amount... Read more

Sharing the below message from Mike McMeekin, who some of you know, regarding his current initiative, the Engineering Change Lab USA Climate Change Noble Purpose Statement. (Also, here is a Link to today's LinkedIn Updates on this topic.)

Greetings, I am re-sending my email from last week primarily as a reminder regarding the sign-up... Read more

Join your peers and BuildingGreen February 22–26, 2021 for an all you can eat buffet week of networking, problem solving, and connecting with sustainability leaders within your industry and across the Peer Networks! During this week we will create a space for you to offer and receive support, exchange ideas and resources, and become stronger,... Read more

Who all is implement 360-degree reviews as part of their employee review process?  Lake|Flato is thinking of implementing this and would like to talk to a few other firms who have experience they would be willing to share.  Please contact me if you'd be up for a short email discussion or phone call to discuss.  hholdridge@lakeflato.com

... Read more

Hi everyone,
The city of Portland recently expanded acceptable certifications for affordable housing projects they provide funding for to include Enterprise Green Communities Certification. Other options are LEED (flavor depends on project size) and Earth Advantage Multifamily, which is a regionally owned and operated certification. This... Read more

What’s the net present value of that extra insulation? Join us on Tuesday, June 25th at 2:00 pm Eastern for a Peer Networks webinar on “Balancing Embodied and Operating Carbon.” Bill Smarzewski and Jason Fierko of Ewing Cole have developed a method for combining energy modeling with embodied carbon data to determine the carbon “payback” of... Read more