We are looking to refine our general office specifications to weed out harmful materials and to prioritize sustainability for all of our clients. Have you had good experience with outsourced specification writers who are helping to push sustainability forward? Who do you recommend? Bonus points if they are familiar with Massachusetts codes and... Read more

Figured I'd throw out this topic to the hive mind!

We are working on a project in the Midwest that involves taking down and replacing an 100-ish-year-old brick building. We are hoping to find a way to salvage and reuse some of this brick in new construction. I'd love to do an LCA comparison showing the benefits of salvaging the brick vs... Read more

Hello!

I'm curious what other firms like to use to run site-specific sun path and wind path analysises that is relatively intuitive to use and generates good graphics. We have used the climate consultant software for wind roses which is free and simple. We've also used sefaira but we're hoping to crowd source more resources. We purchased... Read more

Financial literacy and speaking with clients on their terms. Guiding Questions:

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Friends, 

Might anyone be aware of research studies on the beneficial mental health effects of green buildings that you could point me to?

Thanks in advance. 

Conventional roofs contribute to heat loss, heat islands, and excessive stormwater runoff.

BuildingGreen-Approved Green Roofs

BuildingGreen approves systems with appropriate planting media that can be created from regional materials and may be blended for specific characteristics, such as:

All,

The Idaho Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses (DOPL) has undertaken the Zero-Based-Rulemaking process this year to eliminate all requirements that are not specifically life-safety related.  As such, they have proposed removing the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) 2018 provisions regarding commissioning... 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

Hi,

Has anyone been asked by a client to track welding rods on any projects? We were recently asked to do this. I was asked why the client would ask us to do this. I don't know if it has to do w/ "real property" and is a property tax-related reason, or if it is an environmental/sustainable reason. There is piping associated with the... Read more

Pat U. Mellona

Our all-volunteer Advisory Board helps BuildingGreen identify the most critical topics for our coverage, and directs our research as we investigate these topics and bring them to our readers. Their distinguished and varied service in the field of environmentally responsible building is an inspiration.

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

Welcome to the quiz portion of Measuring Energy Use in Buildings: Do Our Metrics Really Add Up?.

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


1. Explain the differences between site energy, source energy, and energy cost.
2. Summarize three ways in which source energy can... Read more

Good evening,

I am looking for suggestions to replace"wood" siding at the 25-year-old Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies and as always there is no solution that does it all. There seem to be three main options: wood, composition siding, or fiber cement siding. I am looking for something with low embodied carbon, little maintenance,... Read more

Hi folks,

Oregon’s ZERO Coalition is looking for responses to the question below on local policy for electrification, and I thought tapping this group would be helpful.

Are you aware of any local governments outside of Oregon that are promoting or enforcing electrification?