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
News Brief
Carol Venolia, Publisher/Editor
If “progressive construction” can be defined as pushing the tools and techniques of conventional builders in the direction of less environmental destruction, then Building With Nature’s material goes beyond progressive, into the forefront of visionary thinking about construction. This bimonthly newsletter, now... Read moreNews Analysis
A study published in the June 5, 1992, issue of
Science by researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the University of Arizona suggests that smoke emitted into the atmosphere from human activities may be having a significant effect in counteracting... Read more
News Analysis
The recent ruling to allow logging on several thousand acres of old-growth forest in western Oregon was portrayed in the national media as a blow to environmentalists, but the action may not prove so damaging in the end. While the ruling permits logging on 13 of the 44 sites that were under consideration by the so-... Read more
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
Explainer
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
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
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
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
Forum topic
Gather with the Changemakers in Sustainable Design
You are invited to join BuildingGreen and your peers for the Summit that has always delivered on driving our movement forward. Over three days of collaboration, workshops, learning, sharing, networking, and socializing, we’ll explore what Sustainability Leadership looks like in 2023 and... Read more
Forum topic
Colleagues
It has been my great pleasure to serve the AIA's COTE Top Ten review process, both as a main juror and, most recently, as one of the technical review team. I have specifically reviewed the Discovery and Energy measures for the past few years. I will be serving again on the 2021 team. The AIA has already received many more... Read more
Forum topic
Hi All- I'm posting this question for my ZGF colleague Chris Chatto. Somehow he wasn't initially included on the SDL list as it moved from Wiggio to BuildingGreen's (Green Gurus) site. Happy New Year, Lona
Hi everyone –
We could use your help in developing a determining a “red list” premium for a feasibility cost... Read more
Quiz
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
Forum topic
Hello Fellow Green Guru Members: I am pleased to be a new member of the Sustainable Community Design Leaders (SCDL) forum, and look forward to learning and contributing here. Also, in case you missed it, this week there were two important steps forward towards an eventual standardized Environmental-Social-Governance (ESG) reporting system... Read more
Reports, Courses, Study Guides, Live Webinars
THIS WEBINAR PURCHASE AND REGISTRATION IS CLOSED.
Tuesday, September 17, 2:00pm Eastern (11:00am Pacific)In simpler times, our buildings were made primarily from local, natural substances like stone, wood, straw, and clay.
But lifestyles have changed dramatically since these were... Read more
Forum topic
Hi folks,
Registration is now open for the SDL Summer Summit. We expect this one to fill up, so if you plan on coming don't wait too long to register.
As usual, those of you who are coming will help set the agenda. We reviewed some ideas yesterday with the Steering Committee and agreed that some topics from January's Winter Summit... Read more
Forum topic
reposting Arathi Gowda -
https://communityhub.aia.org/blogs/arathi-p-gowda-aia/2024/12/17/cote-ad...
The Advocacy team (part of the AIA COTE leadership group) would like to amplify actions the USGBC has gathered to defend the IRA. As you may know, the IRA is a bipartisan bill with 63,000 infrastructure projects starting nationwide... Read more
Basic page
The BuildingGreen/GreenStep exam prep materials are... Read more

