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
News 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
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
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
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
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
Forum topic
Greetings!
Back again re: the work we're doing with City of Cambridge, in their great leadership efforts to develop EC policy/regs/incentives and reporting requirements.
Thanks to those who responded earlier about the effort it takes you to conduct WBLCA - now we're diving into it in more depth and wanting to get together a focus... Read more
Forum topic
If yes, take a look at Tour: TM10: Transit Oriented Development: Chicago Style
https://explore.greenbuildexpo.com/Attendee/Schedule/SessionDetails/256599
It is not full yet, so there is still time to sign up. Susan King, Sustainability Leader for HED will be showing one of her projects as part of the tour: Lake Street Studios. ... Read more
Forum topic
The deadline for submitting presentations is coming up. This year ASHRAE is hosting a joint conference with Simbuild. We are just about to send out an extension announcement (It is now Feb 9th) , so there is still time to get an abstract for a presentation.
Possible ideas for topics:
Daylight - new metrics and... Read more
Quiz
Welcome to the quiz portion of Climate Analysis for Architects (recorded webcast).
Learning Objectives
Upon completing this course, participants will be able to:
1. Access climate data.
2. Choose appropriate design energy simulation tools.
3. Know when and how to run analyses with projected weather data... Read more
Forum topic
I'm going way outside of my skillset and comfort zone...venturing into HR territory to do an analysis of my company's benefits package to see if it meets exceeds or falls short of the requirements of Fitwel and WELL. Has anyone else done this within their organization? How was this received by your company's executive team?
When... Read more
Author
Amanda is BuildingGreen's Peer Networks Manager, working behind the scenes to support the Peer Networks team and members. They are passionate about sustainable design and love helping people find tangible ways to help the planet.
Prior to joining BuildingGreen in 2023, Amanda was a campaigns coordinator at a food justice... Read more
Forum topic
Hello SDL friends,
It has been an amazing opportunity to collaborate with so many of you through this group or through my work with Tally, the USGBC, ILFI, and in my role as an environmental researcher at KieranTimberlake. This is not so much a goodbye as it is a "hope to see you soon." I am making a shift away from building design into... Read more
Forum topic
Welcome to 2030 reporting season!
I brought up on the Fika today that there is a webinar December 5th to show updates to the DDx including the calculation of operational carbon from your energy data. Below is a link to register.
https://aia.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUocOutrTItHtWiySNMIqfGYv4ZbAhtjSg...
Forum topic
Hi Green Gurus!
We’ve gotten GREAT feedback and input from many of you via the survey about our planned fall events. You expressed a lot of interest in all the events we proposed: a series of in-depth Integrative Design Jams, separate Summits for SDL and SCL, and regional all-network workshops, starting with one in Boston—so we’re moving... Read more
Reports, Courses, Study Guides, Live Webinars
THIS WEBINAR PURCHASE AND REGISTRATION IS CLOSED.
This webinar took place Thursday, Nov 8th at 2:00 pm Eastern Time (11:00 am Pacific).Join Brent Ehrlich and Alex Wilson to learn about the ten most exciting green products for 2019. Every year for the past 17 years, BuildingGreen has selected ten green... Read more
Forum topic
Hi everyone - I will be holding my breath and attending the AIA conference in person this June. Is anyone else going? I'd love to reconnect with each of you!
Apologies if I've missed it - with there be a BuildingGreen meetup?
Feel free to email me if you don't want to reply all - kanderson@lmnarchitects.com
-Kjell
Forum topic
What is the lag time for historical embodied carbon data catching up with real-time information as manufacturers source renewable energy? Is our professional time best spent calculating with out-of-date information or more simply calling for manufacturers' elimination of fossil fuel combustion in their production and transportation of materials... Read more

