Greg Calnago

Greetings,

I posted this a while back on the MEP SDL forum but also wanted to appeal to the broader community.  We need help gathering existing plug/process load data.  We know it is out there!  Two golden stars to Becky Alexander from LHB who reached out to us after this month's meet-up with some useful material.  We need more!  Please... Read more

Hey, everyone! Eleven months after our initial release, we have now released a totally updated version of our EPIC tool. It’s available at the same location as before (https://epic.ehdd.com) and reflects thousands of hours of work over the last year. From humble beginnings in Excel, EPIC now has about 2,000 users and dozens of logins each day—... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Circular Economy at Scale: Six International Case Studies.

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


1. Define circular economy and explain its importance within the built environment.
2. Describe how to leverage long-term value over first... Read more

We're consolidating our office and I find I have back issues of EBN going back to 1999 on the bookshelf. Any use for these other than compost?

Have any of you heard of anyone ever using phase change material (PCM) "movable partitions" as a resiliency strategy to mitigate indoor overheating during a heat wave in passive buildings? You'd keep them stored in a basement or cool room, and deploy them into habitable spaces during the heat wave to keep the space cooler than the exterior... Read more

If you don’t spend your “day-to-day” in the healthy materials space, it’s hard to create strategy and align your company to meet your customers' (what seems to be) ever-changing asks and project goals. This... Read more

Recycled plastic paneling is an appropriate use for some of the various post-consumer plastic materials entering the waste stream—in particular, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) from milk and detergent bottles.

BuildingGreen-Approved Panels

BuildingGreen approves plastic paneling products with high recycled content—in some cases... Read more

We are pursuing sustainability goals (and documentation of those goals) outside of any certification/rating system for a current project.  However, we have set up a criteria list of goals by following strategies/credits from many of those systems (LEED v4 EPDs, SITES v2 threatened tree species, WELL v2 mindful eating, etc.).  This approach is... Read more

Kristen Fritsch, in the thread about ipe wood, asked about resources comparing the carbon footprint of transporting building materials vs the transport mode.  There are people who spend their lives on this topic that I won't presume to speak for, but I'll share a few observations:

Even though freight transport is something like 7% of... Read more

Hi everyone - 

The State of Oregon just posted this Policy Analyst Job Posting. The position is specifically looking for someone to assist in embodied carbon and other sustainable code items. I have heard directly from Oregon's Building Code Division that even though the position is looking for public policy, an architect or engineer (or... Read more

Everyone agreed during last Friday's meeting that we want to call the site BITuser. The question, however, is what domain name should be used.

Whatever domain name is chosen, it will redirect to the actual site URL -- https://bituser.buildinggreen.com (similar to how LEEDuser.com redirects to https://leeduser.buildinggreen.com).

... Read more

Dear all,

For a specific existing building application, we are looking for a half inch insulating glazing unit, preferably with low-e coating. Based on my research, 5/8" seems to be doable (1/8" glass + 3/8" air gap + 1/8" glass) but I'm yet to find a viable 1/2" solution. Have you come across any on your projects? Thanks for your... Read more

Friends,

We put a lot of effort into air tightness design, detailing, and construction administration, often including 6-sided mockup and parital or whole-building blower-door testing.  For commercial buildings, these tests measure air leakage in cfm/sf at 1.57 psf (75pa).  

I came across this research paper several years ago, but... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of the Wood, Forests, and Embodied Carbon Webinar!

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

1. Explain the complex relationship between forests and carbon, with an emphasis on how carbon releases from forestry affect the sustainability of buildings that... Read more