You’ve probably heard that wood products are carbon neutral. You might also have heard that timber harvesting causes immense carbon emissions.

Which is it?

Could it be both?

Hi everyone,

During the "Integrating Social Sustainability" session at the Winter Summit, an idea was hatched to form a working group dedicated to understanding how equity services can benefit a client's pro forma. Our first step (of course) is to identify the range of services captured under "equity services" and we'd love to speak with... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Why High-Performance Assemblies and Why Now? (recorded webcast)

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


1. Understand how water moves on and through buildings.
2. Describe the details of continuous air, water, and thermal barriers and... Read more

Using energy for cooling during peak hours places a large demand on utilities, is expensive, and can be less efficient than off-peak energy production.

BuildingGreen-Approved Thermal Energy Storage

BuildingGreen lists a variety of  thermal energy storage systems.

About

Off-peak cooling, or thermal energy storage (TES... Read more

Hi, all. We missed you at the standing check in today. We have a couple of questions for the BG team:

1. What is the timing criteria you need for Best Practice content? We need to back into a deadline on submissions and believe your critical path timing will help define ours.

2. Can you elaborate on what LEED User/BG content may... Read more

I'm working on convincing my firm to hire a director of sustainability. I'm gaining some traction with the discussion thanks to the fantastic feedback and input from the summer summit "Role of the Sustainable Design Leader" breakout session. Thanks everyone! Does anyone have job descriptions for sustainable design leaders that they'd be willing... Read more

Hello- If you use Procore....

Are your jobs using a template to conduct and create "reports" of their IAQ inspections? Did you set it up in forms or inspections? Would you mind sharing an example template with me? I know Green Badger has a great app to do this, which we use. We would use inspections in Procore for jobs that are not using... Read more

It is with the greatest pleasure that I announce to this esteemed group the recognition of our very own and much-loved leader Nadav Malin as an Honorary AIA member. AIA COTE had the honor to serve as Nadav's sponsor and we are pleased and delighted with this outcome (but not surprised of course.) For the record, "The AIA recognizes the notable... Read more

***Cross-posting this from SCL Group***

Last year I was approached by Green Advantage, remember them from like 2005? There has been a LEED innovation credit for as long as I can remember.

Has anyone seen employed Green Advantage recently? Is anyone asking for it?

Do you see value in GCs/CMs/trades having this training... Read more

A brief non-technical rant about OneClick LCA - from someone who is not actually USING the tool, but lobbying for its access.  Wondering if you all have better intel, or if it is just me.

We are working on a number of projects for which te teams are using OneClick LCA - for some cases it has a better international data set than others. ... Read more

Hi folks,

I'm looking into lower-carbon pipe options for HVAC and plumbing. The MEP 2040 has slides from a Buro Happold study in 2020 showing PEX to be much lower in embodied carbon than copper, which is unsurprising. CPVC is also a lower-carbon option.

But PVC has its issues and neither PVC nor PEX are recyclable (especially if... Read more

Hello all, excuse the blast and the short timeline -- while not explicity sustainability-related, this is a great way to connect with the future of the profession, and can be a great opportunity for SDL firms on the west coast (a number of SDL firms already participate), specifically in Tacoma, Olympia, San Francisco, Sacramento, or San Diego.... Read more

Hello Green Gurus,

Now is a pivotal moment. Net Zero Stretch Code legislation has been proposed in the Massachusetts House and Senate, and draft code language is currently being developed by the Board of Building Regulations and Standards (BBRS). The Net Zero Stretch Code is currently the greatest single opportunity to support reduced... Read more

We have an MEP engineer that is calculating peak loads at about 6 times passive house levels on a large commercial building that is at or near passive house levels of insulation and air infiltration. We suspect one reason is that he is figuring a 50% efficiency level for the ERV. We are showing him ERV systems with 80-90% efficiency, but they... Read more

Hi all - I’m wondering if any of you have heard of or use the National Green Building Standard, which appears to be primarily for residential and mixed use: https://www.homeinnovation.com/green.

The NGBS Green certification program is based on the ICC-700 National Green Building Standard and supposedly is the program of choice for many... Read more

If anyone else has gotten confused going between parts-per-million and percentages (parts per hundred!) for material reporting here's a little infographic that might help. Feel free to use or improve!