Hi Green Commons,

It’s been eerily quiet here since Tuesday night. I’ve been quiet mostly because I just didn’t know what to say. The election results are certainly a blow to pretty much everything we’ve been working for. There is so much we don’t know about things might play out, but I’m feeling a range of emotions ranging from... Read more

Hi SDL'ers, as promised I am sending information about how to support getting flame retardants out of foam insulation. I am attaching a draft letter to Foam Manufacturers, an intro to that letter giving some background and a list of From manufacturers.   Thanks, please contact if you have any questions.   Larry Strain, Siegel & Strain... Read more

Greetings all, and welcome to all those who already introduced themselves!  My name is Steven Burke and I am a Sustainability Manager at Consigli Construction in Massachusetts.  We are East Coast only, but we have a few offices from DC up to Maine.  I’ve been helping Jenn and Nadav get this group up and running, and I’m relatively new to the... Read more

Green Gurus,

First of all, it was great to see so many of you joining our last month BSA COTE webinar! I hope you enjoyed it.

Coming up next Wednesday at 2pm EDT (11am PDT, 12pm MDT, 1pm CDT), we'll have the inspiring Ashley Rao from Leers Weinzapfel leading the presentation titled INTEGRATED SUSTAINABILITY AT THE JOHN W. OLVER... Read more

Dear all,

A mechanical engineer on a healthcare project we are working on has asked for help in dividing the ventilation calculations between ASHRAE Standards 170 and 62.1; can anyone here help shed some light on it?

"This is the first time I am working on LEED for a hospital and I am not sure how the template wants me to show... Read more

tate 

A draft of AIA’s Top Ten Toolkit was just published!

http://bit.ly/COTEtoolkit

Hopefully useful for everyone toward making more very high performance buildings. More updates to come, including interactive tools like a superspreadsheet. 

All the best,

Tate

Welcome to the quiz portion of The Building Envelope: Primers from Environmental Building News.

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


1. Explain how thermal mass helps maintain indoor thermal comfort in buildings.
2. Describe the differences between closed-cell and... Read more

I have a colleague (lawyer) who is trying to assemble a list of precedent projects that used penalties or incentives for achieving energy targets. The topic she is addressing is how contracts may be changed to address growing climate change concerns.

At the moment, the only concrete example she has is a project in Washington by the US... Read more

Valentina works on the UX/UI design and front-end of the BuildingGreen and LEEDuser websites. With over 10 years’ experience focused on websites usability, she develops prototypes and cross-browser web interfaces as part of the WebDev team. She also collaborates closely with marketing and editorial to create any other visual design project for... Read more

Hello SCL,

Version 2.0 of the Contractor's Commitment has officially been ratified with 33 "yes" votes out of 52 members. Congratulations, and a big thank you to everyone who helped move this forward--especilly Amanda Atkinson, who really took this project by the horns. 

You can find the updated version here.

Next, I'll be... Read more

Hello Green Gurus,

Here is an exciting event we're planning for the end of the month!

Innovative Projects Showcase - “The Power of Collaboration”

A selection of your fellow sustainability leaders will showcase a few recent projects that exemplify integrative process and cross-disciplinary collaboration. Each presentation... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of LEED vs. Green Globes: What's the Difference? (recorded webcast)

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


1. Explain how LEED and Green Globes in turn approach key credit requirements.
2. Describe differences between LEED and Green Globes... Read more

Another Break-out by Firm Size.

Guiding Questions:

SDL Best Practices by Firm Size

What's working and what's not? How are others integrating successes?

What strategies are effective in each of these areas: ongoing education, research, knowledge sharing?

How can we structure our green team across... Read more

Hi folks,

Here's a neat resource that just showed up. Pages 5-7 list exactly what kinds of activities could be covered by new federal funds, and what part of the legislation relates to each activity...

From USGBC:

With the passage of the American Rescue Plan Act, the Federal government has now approved $176 billion for K-12... Read more

Hello everyone,

Wondering if anyone has evaluated/considered/specified wood fiber insulation for use in lieu of mineral wool as the exterior wall insulation?  Am mostly looking to better understand domestic availability, r-value and fire/combustibility.

We have a multi-family building in DC where the client is interested in using... Read more