Sustainable Design Leaders in NYC

New York City has been discussing implementing PACE Financing for years but has not taken action. Over 48 municipalities in New York State have PACE financing for Commercial (including multi-family) properties, it's time NYC does as well. I recently learned from colleagues in the City that all of the... Read more

Hi folks,

It's here! Highlights, key takeaways, and pics from our packed few days together in Ashland, Mass. in the 2023 Summer Summit report.

From the intro:

Effectively meeting the challenge of the moment is what the world needs from us. Being grounded and energized by connections and sharing with our peers in a safe... Read more

THIS WEBINAR PURCHASE AND REGISTRATION IS CLOSED.

Looking for another study option? See BuildingGreen's WELL AP Exam Study Guide and Practice Exams

This one-hour crash course will review the concepts and key facts within the WELL Building Standard that are covered most extensively on the WELL AP exam. By... Read more

Show & Tell Break-out Session: Post Occupancy Evaluations and Occupant Behavior

Presentations: 

Preliminary findings from our first year of data collection. Measured results in WELL Stories about visiting our past clients and teaching them about their energy use habits.
 

Hello Sustainable Community Design Leaders,

The SDL Winter Summit (Jan 23-25, Tempe AZ) has a few spots still open, so we are excited to invite SCDL members to join! This is an opportunity to plug into the conversations happening in the Sustainable Design Leaders group, plus a possible chance to carve out some in-person SCDL time.

... Read more

CEUs are available for reading our entire plumbing guide. Click here to learn more and take the quiz.

Excess heat generated by air conditioners, refrigerators, boilers, and water flowing through pipes typically goes unused.

BuildingGreen-Approved Water Heat Exchangers

BuildingGreen lists desuperheating technologies and... 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

This just in from Liz York at CDC: There's a webinar on Friday 11/2 at 3-4 ET on Building Design and Pandemics. For those who signed the petition to WHO urging action on aerosol emissions and have been following the ups and downs of those advisories, this is an especially welcome chance to hear from experts and ask questions. 

Centers... Read more

All - 

We have corporate clients that are starting to request antimicrobials in response to Covid-19. I assume we are not the only ones seeing an increase in these requests. Knowing that the evidence supporting antimicrobials has limited to no efficacy, how are you approaching these conversations? We want to continue to advise based on... Read more

Dear all,

On a major renovation where the wall R-value/U-value needs to be brought up to energy code, specifically a mass wall situation, does anyone have insights on how the situation is best dealt with? On the project in question for me, the continuous insulation might have to be added to the inside surface of the mass wall and there... Read more

Built Environment Plus (was USGBC MA- aka Meredith Elbaum's band) has organized this awesome sustainability scavenger hunt.

It's fun. It's easy. Anyone can participate from anywhere - it's all app based, and it's a great way to get energized for Earth Day or week! And it's for a good cause, a fundraiser for supportive organization. Have... Read more

Hello Green Gurus.

I've been looking into EPDs lately and ran across a few companies with Product Envionmental Profiles (PEPs) which they say are also known as EPDs. Does anyone have any experience with PEPs or know if they actually are EPDs? They reference ISO standards 14040 and 14044 in the writing and ISO 14025 in the list of... Read more

Hey Team,

I'm in a Living Future session where a number of manufacturers are talking about the low uptake they're seeing in their take back programs. Contractor friends... What barriers (if any) are you running into in using take back programs? How might we as architects help increase utilization of these programs?

Aley

Welcome to the quiz portion of Green Building Product Certifications: Getting What You Need.

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


 

1. Differentiate between a standard and a certification.
2. Describe "greenwashing" and list at least two ways to spot it.
3.... Read more

I am wanting to take the pulse of this group on behalf of a manufacturer who has asked us a similar question.

The company in question makes wood products and has had FSC CoC for over a decade. Recently, they are encountering issues with sourcing FSC for about 50% of the wood species they offer. There just aren't FSC sources available.... Read more

My colleague, Kira Gould, from the AIA National COTE communications committee, has a great question I am reposting here...

AIA National COTE: In the early 00s, COTE supported an initiative through which we created a Guide to the Green RFP and collected sample RFP language. That now dated guide is no longer findable in our resources and... Read more

The headlines are everywhere—from heat waves in Europe to wildfires in the Western U.S. to tropical cyclone flooding in Australia. In this age of climate change, just as there’s an urgent need to reduce carbon emissions and other greenhouse gasses, we also need to adapt and invest in resilience.

Increasingly, owners are asking for risk... Read more

Five types of green buildings explained. Check out this great infographic by the Pembina Institute: What do net-zero and zero-carbon buildings mean for energy use and climate pollution?

Imagine folks have seen this, but thought it was worth bringing up: this study which shows the great need to build new renewable infrastructure to support electrification.

I've been in a few discussions with folks where we've discussed how electrification is objectively a good goal, but are we passing carbon from one source to another?... Read more