Greetings Sustainable Design Leaders,

As we begin closing out 2021, we wanted to give you a quick update that the next SDL Salary Survey will be coming to you in early January! The BuildingGreen team and SDL Steering Group have been busy this past month polishing up the questions for this anonymous survey.

A reminder of the... Read more

I am now embarking on the home page design, but before I get started I need input on what you'd like to have there. The style tiles/tidbits provided by Southface includes a home page mockup that's very similar to LEEDuser, which is fine with me, but I don't want to implement it and then find out you want something radically different.

I... Read more

We have an environmentally-minded client who asked us to look into an alternative to the blue adhesive film that is typically used to seal uninstalled ducts for IAQ purposes. From a human health and waste perspective, they were hoping to find something that was both plastic-free and reusable. Has anyone tried out other options? I thought it was... Read more

Hi All,

We are trying to make a case for hiring a full time sustainability specialist in our firm, and one of the arguments we want to use is that the ratio of sustainability specialists vs the ratio of full time employees in our company is quite low. That being said, I want to have an understanding of where other firms stand with this... Read more

Have any of you come across aqueous ozone product for hand sanitation?  https://www.3oescientific.com/

This company is selling to hospitals/schools.  May indeed be awesome, but so many "totally safe" products are proven not to be. Curious if this group has seen it or have looked at it's claims.

Hi Sages,

Thanks to those who filled out the survey and helped set our agenda for Monday's meeting. We know that this time doesn't work for everyone (no time could, of course), so we'll be alternating times each month. The April meeting will be Thursday, 4/11 at 3:00 eastern.

The agenda is here. It also has the Zoom link (in case... Read more

Sustainability leadership has requested that you take this quiz to help assess sustainability literacy across the firm. Your own results will be presented to you at the end of the quiz but will not be shared with anyone else. Only aggregated, anonymized results will be available to others.

Please don’t do research to inform your answers... Read more

Hi folks,

We're kicking off a new way for us to collaborate as a network: monthly web-based conference calls. The first one will be on Friday, Nov 15 at 1:00 eastern time. The topic will be "Sustainability and the Small Firm: Practices in Transition" -- which is the name of the proposal James has submitted (and gotten first-round... Read more

Hi folks,

In case you know someone who might be right for this Seattle-area gig:

The position is a Senior Program Manager with CBRE on the Microsoft account working with Katie Ross, MS Sustainability Program Manager, to deliver their sustainability program to their real estate globally. 

Here is the posting: https://cbre.... Read more

Hello Green Gurus!

ILFI’s annual Living Future Conference is coming up, so we thought we might host a (virtual) Show & Tell session of 5-minute versions of peer network members’ presentations like we often do in conjunction with Greenbuild. First we want to see if this is of interest to you all. Please take 30 seconds to let us know... Read more

Chillers are part of larger systems that provide cooling in large commercial buildings.

BuildingGreen-Approved Water Chillers

Because there isn't a single relevant efficiency standard for chillers, approved products use innovations such as magnetic bearings, variable frequency drives, or other technologies that significantly... Read more

RoseAnn Grimes

Welcome to the quiz portion of When Passive House Goes Big!

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


Evaluate the main barriers to achieving the Passive House Standard on a large, urban project.

Identify design strategies for successfully and cost-effectively achieving the... Read more

Hi All, 

My understanding is that SCL reporting is only for refrigerant use, or recharging for headquarters. I've asked our MEP contractor for a list of our 21 units, refrigerant use, and what quantity of refrigerants were used to charge equipment during installation or service.  

Is anyone tracking this for job sites?... Read more

Hello Sustainable Design Leaders,

Mark your calendars for an exciting webinar next Wednesday, May 27th, at 2:30pm ET and REGISTER HERE!

Missing the Forest: How forest practices impact the carbon embodied in mass timber projects is a follow-up to last month’s conversation on embodied carbon and mass timber. The presenters will be... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Integrated Design Meets the Real World.

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


1. Define the integrated design process and describe what makes it different from the conventional design process.
2. Describe the charrette process and list... Read more