(posting here for Kira)

Sustainable Design Leaders:

Is your firm using the AIA COTE Top Ten Toolkit in some fashion? COTE would like to hear from you, especially if you are willing to share your story. 

Specifically, we'd like to share best practices and lessons about how it is working (with certain types of projects, at... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Choosing Windows: Looking Through the Options.

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


1. Choose a frame material based on its structural characteristics, thermal insulation, durability, maintenance requirements, cost, and effects on the... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of LEED and WELL Product Labels: A Guide and Analysis!

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


Recognize product-related programs for LEED v4 BD+C, LEED v4.1 BD+C, WELL v1, and WELL v2 that contribute to the sustainability of projects and the health and... Read more

Reaching out to the collective knowledge here.  With interest in circular economy and building reuse growing, is anyone leading the charge for the concept of building reuse as a tool for maintaining community identity?  Has anyone seen successful projects with this concept in mind?  I was just in a discussion with a bunch of SDLers, and while... Read more

Hi Sages,

As you may have seen in my message, the Peer Networks Member List is not very helpful to us (yet), because a person can only show up in one network. Many of us are also in SDL or other networks; there are many more of us than show up when you filter that list for "Sages."

Until we can get that fixed, we'll share the... Read more

Hi All,

Wanted to let you all know about an ADSDL inspired event we are having on Thursday in Boston.  We’re having close to 40 presenters giving 5 minute presentations (sound familiar?) on the latest and greatest strategies getting us to net positive energy buildings.

Please forward this on to folks in your Boston offices.  ... Read more

It was great to see everyone who was able to join in the peer networks webinar and to be able to share a brief update on what the Defining and Measuring Resilient Outcomes working group has accomplished over the last year... and what we are looking forward to tackling in the coming year. 

I've both attached a copy of the deck here and... Read more

As we begin to look into Scope 3 emissions reduction strategies, it's important to understand ways to reduce tranportation emissions to project sites. Is anyone aware of best practices or programs for contractor carpooling to jobsites? I know many of my colleagues travel to work together in one vehicle because of parking limitations, however,... Read more

Our Green Team is holding a Biophilic Design workshop on Earth Day with our own staff for biophilic interventions within our office space. We are referencing the Biophilic Design Guidebook from LBC but it will be a shorter time frame, about 1.5 hours total. Last summer we introduced biophilia to the office through the exercise where each person... Read more

Hi folks,

I’m sorry to be so last minute with this. LEED v5’s second public comment period ends TOMORROW (Monday, Oct 28). As it currently stands, LEED has eliminated its preferential support for FSC over other forest certification programs and is silent on climate-smart forestry.

I’m hoping that the Climate Smart folks in this... Read more

For those of you working in jurisdictions with both prescriptive and performance-based commercial energy code pathways, roughly what percentage of your projects are using the performance pathway? How do your project teams decide which pathway to follow?

In Minnesota we are seeing very few projects pursuing the performance pathway,... Read more

What better way to follow up the magic of a live presentation from Peter Yost than with 15 free days of BuildingGreen Premium?

Hi Gurus!

I'm desperately seeking any case studies (past/currently on the boards) of labs that have been designed without natural gas infrastructure (the topic I have to debate is about commercial spec labs but any lab case study, wet or dry, is welcomed). This is for a development authority that will be setting guidelines for new... Read more

I just saw this post from Conor on LinkedIn.

Starting in January 2019, all new Columbia Construction Company projects require LED temp lighting.

Are others doing this too? Frankly, given all the benefits and how quickly the industry is matured, it's hard for me to understand why anyone would use anything other than LEDs on a job.... Read more

This might be going down a rabbit hole, but in moving to California this year I noticed that "zero net energy" (ZNE) is the standard term, whereas "net zero energy" (NZE) was more common back east. The DOE's 2015 definition (below) uses "zero energy building" (ZEB), which to me implies a building uses no energy at all.

Regional... Read more

Hi gang,

Following up on the recent Air Quality Design Jam at the summit, I’d like to round up the folks interested in supporting an Air Quality Working Group.

Didn’t attend the summit? No worries – everyone is welcome! We had a good group the other week and several of us want to continue the conversation.

The design jam... Read more