I hope this post finds you all well. Some news to share.  I have recently made a decision to leave Thornton Tomasetti with an eye toward finding another opportunity to use my 30+ years of green building experience, education, and advocacy to have an even larger impact on climate change. I am going to move slowly to ensure my next chapter is the... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Equity in Design and Construction: Seven Case Studies!

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


Hi there SD Leaders,

We're running an LCA on one of our projects that's about to start construction that has had serious embodied carbon goals and I got a result that really surprised me. I haven't been able to find any obvious/glaring issues with the work, but these results are strange enough that I'm not feeling confident. I'm hoping... Read more

Hello all,

This month's SCDL call was full of great discussion! We decided this month that we are feeling good about where we are for the Task Force Agreement on defining social sustainabiltiy in our work. The aim is to work with this agreement for a while and see if it holds up as a process framework. There was also interest to invite... Read more

Are you getting questions, advice, and dubious sales pitches from all comers about how to design and run an HVAC system to combat infectious disease? You’re not alone. Engineers, facility managers, architects, and other building professionals are all... Read more

Hi everyone!
I've seen a lot of claims over the years of living walls or planted buffers that can mitigate *outdoor* air pollution and have always assumed there's no real scientific basis for that idea, unless we're talking an actual forest that's 10s of feet thick. Am I wrong? Are there examples of living walls that actually have been... Read more

Hello Green Gurus,

Here is the information for your October Peer Networks Webinar, Advocating for Electrification. We hope you will join us!

Register HERE.

Advocating for Electrification
October 26th, 2020
1pm - 2pm ET (10am - 11am PT)

Description
Hear from leaders in the AEC and policy community on... Read more

Hello Gurus,

I have a client (bldg owner) who has asked me to recommend a list of firms who have the internalized resilient design in their practice.

They are *not* asking for resiliency consultants right now, but for firms that they might hire for "regular" capital projects, but since resiliency is high on their priorities, they... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Video: Energy Reporting in LEED with MPR6.

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


1. Define the role of MPRs in achieving LEED certification
2. Describe MPR6 and the pathways for achievement
3. Answer MPR6 Frequently Asked Questions... Read more

Hi folks,

We had a fun impromptu conversation on our call last week. We got most involved in the challenge of getting developers interested in taking advantage of IRA Tax Credits. That can be quite a challenge given their business model.

We also heard about emerging data on tradeoffs between embodied and operating carbon, and how... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Chemical Transparency: The HPD Issue.

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


1. Discuss why chemical transparency matters and answer common technical and practical questions regarding HPDs.
2. Offer solutions for the legitimate concerns... Read more

Hold the date. February 6, 1:00 pm Eastern.

You won't want to miss this conversation with Tim Ryder, the staff person from Senator Schumer’s office who helped lead the development of the IRA. Tim will share about the sausage-making that led to the mess of incentives we’re coming to know and… love(?) And he's interested in our ideas on... Read more

Hi folks,

Wondering if this group has insights about the low-embodied carbon product "Vertua" from Cemex, which appears to be a proprietary concrete product launched in 2020.

Our client wants to use CarbonCure; but our likely concrete sub is saying Cemex (where they typically source their concrete) offers an alternative called... Read more

Ground- and water-source heat pumps move refrigerant or water through the ground or a body of water for use as a heat source (for indoor heating) or heat sink (for indoor cooling).

BuildingGreen-Approved Heat Pumps

BuildingGreen approves:

Hi all,

We've had a number of clients in the states surrounding Texas that have been hit with really high natural gas bills for February. Some as high as $2.00+/therm. Many are healthcare facilities.  Has anyone seen any federal, state, or utility relief programs that are assisting customers with these bills?

Thanks, 

Adam... Read more