Product Review
The company's promotional material is the epitome of environmentally friendly packaging—like a Ben & Jerry's annual report. The article reprints sent were even bound in a jacket made from corrugated cardboard. So we were quite intrigued by the product. Syndecrete™ is a lightweight, pre-cast,... Read more
News Analysis
It isn’t just environmental zealots who are up in arms about the U.S. Forest Service’s policies on managing the nation’s timber resources. The Association of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics has jumped into the fray—from the inside. Jeff DeBonis, the Association’s founder and executive director,... Read more
Feature
Carefully stake the building site and driveway, remove trees that are within the excavation area or too close, then erect a fence to keep heavy equipment off fragile soils and away from nearby trees.
Protecting trees and the local ecosystem when building on previously unbuilt land is a vitally important—yet often overlooked—part of environmentally responsible construction. Healthy trees and shrubs can reduce a home’s environmental impact and directly benefit homeowners in a number of ways:
•Enhancing comfort by shielding the house... Read more
Feature
Ozone depletion and global warming are two of our most serious environmental problems—and foam insulation materials containing CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) contribute significantly to both of these problems. The environmentally concerned builder or designer should make it a highest priority to avoid them. Even many of the non-CFC alternatives... Read more
Feature
Susan Maxman is the first AIA president to make sustainable design a priority.
Q.Where would you say architects as a group stand on environmental issues?
A.Architects tend to be reactive rather than proactive. It is important that we take the lead on these environmental issues. The architecture schools in particular tend to be conservative. They just aren’t... Read more
News Brief
The American Institute of Architects convention in Boston this past June was the setting for a changing of the guard in the American architectural establishment. The Institute’s first woman president took the reins, the Committee on the Environment became its largest and fastest growing committee, and the first installments of the Environmental... Read more
Op-Ed
Introducing the first issue of our newsletter.
Buildings have a tremendous impact on the environment. In North America, buildings and the building industry account for about 30% of carbon dioxide emissions, 35-40% of ozone depletion, 20-30% of municipal solid waste, vast quantities of natural resource consumption, and dramatic loss of open space each... Read more
Forum topic
Hello all,
My name is Stephen Messinger. Thanks for including me in the group. I am excited to get involved. Glad to see some familiar and amazing names on this list.
A little about me: I am born and raised in Massachusetts. I live in Jamaica Plain (Boston) with my wife Lauren and two amazing daughters (Penelope, 4.... Read more
Basic page
This page contains our full User Agreement.
This Agreement sets forth the terms and conditions for your use of all webpages under both the BuildingGreen and LEEDuser names and domains, published by BuildingGreen, Inc. (collectively, the “Site”), including The BuildingGreen Report (formerly Environmental Building News) and BuildingGreen... Read more
Forum topic
Hey all,
Question for those of you who do in-house daylight analysis about modeling translucent glazing.
We use ClimateStudio for our modeling. It has plenty of material options for clear glazing but nothing for translucent glazing, and we are trying to understand the impacts of a translucent interlayer at some skylights. We can... Read more
Forum topic
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
Forum topic
Question for you all: there is this wonderful graph showing how we can shift mechanical and electrical dollars into envelope investments to make deep energy savings cost-neutral. Have you experienced this on a project?
1-minute or less survey! (two questions, more detail if you want)
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/... Read more
Forum topic
All--
Metropolis magazine asked me to write a long piece about the current state of post-occupancy studies. I'm wrestling with whether to do it and how to approach it, but it would be helpful to hear your thoughts on the following--
--importance of the topic
--typical and atypical approaches and criteria
--examples... Read more
Forum topic
Hello Green Gurus!
Here are the details for an upcoming Peer Networks webinar, Strategies for Streamlining Sustainable Materials.
Save the date! The registration link will be posted shortly.
Strategies for Streamlining Sustainable Materials
September 24th, 2020
2pm - 3pm ET (11am - Noon PT)
This session... Read more
Quiz
Thank you for joining us for this webcast! Please complete the following survey to provide us with feedback and to record the information we need to report your CEUs.
By providing the information in this survey you will enable us to automatically report these CEUs to the appropriate organizations. Everyone attending and seeking CEUs must... Read more

