Hello All,

News Bulletin: The 2020 SDL Winter Summit will be held January 29th - January 31st, 2020 at The Lodge at Gulf State Park, Alabama!

During the 2019 Winter Summit, we discovered such an amazing venue at the Gulf State Park in Alabama that we’ve decided to go back! This incredible beachfront hotel designed by Lake|Flato is... Read more

Is everyone else having trouble with a dysfunctionally slow LEED-Online today (i.e., worse than the usual incredibly slow performance)?

Hi all,

We are trying to encourage participation in take-back programs and using recyclable packaging with our vendors and I was wondering how we can add it to specifications. Does anyone have any examples on how we can add wording in specs about participation in take-back programs, using recyclable packaging and/or reducing non-... Read more

Hi all,

We are growing our sustainability group at Flad -- we have a great opportunity to make significant progress as we approach 2030, and we are currently looking for someone to join us in our Madison office. If you know someone who is looking for an entry-level sustainability position, and would enjoy living in Madison, Wisconsin, my... Read more

Thank you BuildingGreen for yesterday's fun news and much needed chuckles.  I really appreciated the GOOP article the most! I mean, dare I say, a kegel powered elevator - absolutely brilliant!

If you have not seen the April Fool's edition, take a look at the talent and time that was put into these stories.

https://www.... Read more

Hi all -

I got this yesterday from Renew Oregon, a credible environmental NGO here in the state.

"A secretive special interest group has filed a petition at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to take “net metering” rules away from states and make it a federal issue.  Net metering is the program that allows homes and... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of The Great Eight: High-Impact Material Choices for Green Building.

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


1. Specify green building materials in product categories that truly make a difference for human health, the environment, or both.
2. Conduct a... Read more

Hi folks, we have a client who is interested in good precedents for measuring wellness. A little background: the project is a student health and wellness building, and what we'd typically measure (healthcare visits, staff absenteeism, etc) are pretty disease focused. We'd like to put in place systems for measuring positive things, like how many... Read more

Hi folks,

We had a great conversation about this today, following up on a past agenda item that we didn't get to, but that Kim wrote about a few weeks ago on a different thread. He said:

We didn't get to item 7:  "Question about company size as a qualification for the network".  I'd like to offer this input:  I'd like to open it... Read more

Sages,

I suspect that some of you have already seen this or already signed it, but just in case, for your consideration:

Add your voice to the powerful chorus for climate policy and sign the LEAD statement.

More than 500 sustainability professionals have now signed, and the number is growing! 

To learn more about... Read more

We've gotten some requests recently, so it must be time to update our salary survey. For those didn't participate in the past, we last did one in 2015, and collected some really interesting data about compensation for SDLeaders.

Our first step in getting this started is to recruit a few volunteers who are interested enough in the data we... Read more

Exterior paints, stains, and primers—particularly alkyds—can have very high volatile organic compound (VOC) levels and can contain numerous chemicals of concern.

BuildingGreen-Approved Coatings

BuildingGreen lists exterior coatings that meet the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s (SCAQMD) VOC requirements of 50 grams... Read more

Hey, team. Would it be possible to get premium access to LEED User while we're developing the best practices resources? (without subscribing to it- I don't LEED consult any longer)  Southface has basic membership, so I can't see what's available, etc. Thanks.

Hi all - Reflecting on the COTE Top Ten Awards and Lloyd Alter's recent article  https://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/keep-aiacotes-its-time-scrap-aia-awards.html, I am curious how many local/state AIA awards programs have incorporated sustainability reporting metrics as a requirement for all awards submissions, not just for categories... Read more