Built Environment Plus (was USGBC MA- aka Meredith Elbaum's band) has organized this awesome sustainability scavenger hunt.

It's fun. It's easy. Anyone can participate from anywhere - it's all app based, and it's a great way to get energized for Earth Day or week! And it's for a good cause, a fundraiser for supportive organization. Have... Read more

All - 

We have corporate clients that are starting to request antimicrobials in response to Covid-19. I assume we are not the only ones seeing an increase in these requests. Knowing that the evidence supporting antimicrobials has limited to no efficacy, how are you approaching these conversations? We want to continue to advise based on... Read more

Friends,

This is a personal note. My son was just diagnosed with Asthma. I’m started to wonder if it’s just coincidence that this corresponded with him starting kindergarten in a school where they clean with Chlorine bleach. I found substitutes for his small preschool and at home.  My understanding is that there’... Read more

As many of you may already be aware, Greenbuild 2020 is scheduled for the week of the Presidential Election, Nov. 3rd, 2020. 

The partners organizing Greenbuild 2020 are USGSBC and Informa Exhibitions. If you have concerns regarding Greenbuild happening during that week, you may want to consider reaching out to whoever you have contact... Read more

The headlines are everywhere—from heat waves in Europe to wildfires in the Western U.S. to tropical cyclone flooding in Australia. In this age of climate change, just as there’s an urgent need to reduce carbon emissions and other greenhouse gasses, we also need to adapt and invest in resilience.

Increasingly, owners are asking for risk... Read more

Hi folks,

It's here! Highlights, key takeaways, and pics from our packed few days together in Ashland, Mass. in the 2023 Summer Summit report.

From the intro:

Effectively meeting the challenge of the moment is what the world needs from us. Being grounded and energized by connections and sharing with our peers in a safe... Read more

Hi all,

All members of the WA Building Code Council received an email from Tim Attebery of the Washington State AGC and I'm trying to make sense of the role of the AGC and whether it is representing the consensus option of general contractors in Washington or not. The letter is very much against the energy code advancement, which... Read more

I see that the Architect 50 questions this year are organized around AIA 2030 Commitment reporting. I have a question about how people are answering them. The DDX reports have percentages that are by GSF. Are people using this percentage to answer the questions? Or are you calculating the percentage based on number of projects out of total... Read more

Hello all, 

Many of you have been asking about the CC reporting template for 2023 projects. It is still in-progress, but we can promise a huge upgrade from the past couple of years. In particular, the new template is designed for ongoing project tracking over the course of the year (rather than purely documentaion after the fact).  ... Read more

First, special shout out to Carolyn Day from Perkins Eastman for getting permission to use their Pro-zoom account for this Greenbuild wrap-up social session, because...frankly...Greenbuild just wasn't the same without all of you.

So, while we can't be together in person, that doesn't mean we are stuck by ourselves. Grab a refreshment and... Read more

Welcome to this practice session for the LEED AP v4 exam, and good luck!

All the exam questions and explanations that follow were authored by Alex Spilger, LEED AP BD+C of GreenStep Education, and are provided in this BuildingGreen "exam simulator" through a special partnership with GreenStep and with our friends at the Poplar Network.... Read more

Many on this list teach or have strong contacts with university programs, so I'm hoping to leverage our network in service of something that may be of general benefit.

EDR has a Research Fellowship program where we host young talent for 3 or 12 months addressing new theme each year. The Fellow(s) get "academic freedom" and have no... Read more

Hello everyone. I am seeking some guidance on crafting an arguement for why my firm should support a change to the Washington State Energy Code which would mandate electric heat pumps for commercial builidngs.  AIA WA is working on the state commercial energy code update under consideration this spring.  We have been invited to sign on to an... Read more

I can hear Kjell saying "All models are wrong, but some are useful." Having said that we are having trouble getting usuable predictive energy use information from our electrical design engineer. They are telling us that their energy models are not for accurate pEUIs but just to compare various scenarios. Are they being lazy? Should we push for... Read more

Has anyone had experience working with Hyper Metro (http://hypermetro.co/)? If so, did you find this company to provide value especially in dense urban environments where on-site segregation poses challenges to manage multiple C&D material streams on site? Hyper Metro claims to be able to provide rebates and to pay us for our trash.