Hello Sustainable Community Design Leaders!

I have an exciting announcement today, fall Peer Network events are now open for registration! You can see all the event details and register here!

Based on feedback we received from past events and the most recent surveys, we decided against doing one long week of events for this fall... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of In-House Daylight Modeling.

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


1. Explain general daylighting theory and design.
2. Simulate towards better daylighting design.
3. Demonstrate how daylight modeling is used in practice.
4.... Read more

I've been asked to author an article on urban heat mitigation, and I wanted to include a plug for the above pilot credit, which I think is a really powerful new addition to LEED. Beyond introducing the "intent" and "credit requirements", I was also hoping to do (2) things within the article:

1) provide some feedback from those who have... Read more

Greetings Gurus!
Please sign up and spread the word (even if you can't attend, sign up and get follow up info!)

This is one of a series of Hackathons to crowdsource alternative design details that are intentionally meant for disassembly! The outputs are meant for public consumption so that anyone who doesn't have time (that's... Read more

Sheathing should be designed for durability, but some sheathing materials can be toxic or may contribute to moisture issues inside the building envelope.

BuildingGreen-Approved Sheathing

Sheathing approved by BuildingGreen contains recycled content, rapidly renewable materials, or otherwise provides exceptional performance, such... Read more

I have to admit that I wasn't particularly paying attention to LEED during Greenbuild, but anyone recall the "big announcement by USGBC" that LEED v4.1 is coming?

Article can be found @ Green Building Law Update by Stuart Kaplow and the title is "LEED v4.1 Announced by USGBC at Greenbuild."

https://www.greenbuildinglawupdate.com/... Read more

"The man with one watch knows what time it is; the man with two is never sure."   --Segal's Law

We recently purchased two indoor air quality meters in the $200-$300 range and find that they never agree, not even close. I would like to find out what other people's experiences have been, and if they have tested affordable models that... Read more

Seeking a dashboard system that will take energy use data from individual (college student) apartments to display in the lobby. Something where the display is both educational, easy to understand, and that could inspire a little friendly competition. Welcome any recommendations you have installed on projects or have seen that would be cool to... Read more

Dear Colleagues,

The EPA has released a very impressive proposal for ENERGY STAR specs for residential water heaters that will strongly encourage electrification and decarbonization of these appliances. 

ENERGY STAR is a voluntary program for high performance appliances and this is a huge opportunity to begin the decarb transition... Read more

Hi folks,

No details have been sorted out yet, but I wanted everyone to have a heads-up that the SCL Steering Group is proposing that we graduate to a full, stand-alone SCL Summit in 2020. (Until now we’ve been squeezing our Summit into the day before Greenbuild, which is good in some ways, but problematic in others—and limits our time... Read more

Does anyone have language from an RFP that had specific performance criteria included that they could share? Such as a specific EUI target, detailed language about net zero, passive house, etc.

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

I’m writing to see who would be interested in collaborating during the month of December on a position paper that would be given to the incoming Biden administration, outlining things that firms in our industries (i.e. architecture, engineering and construction) would be excited to see advanced as part of Biden’s Build-Back-Better (BBB) program... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Changing Building Design Priorities for a Changing Electrical Grid!

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


Define a “Highly Variable Renewable Energy” generation asset, or VRE, and understand how VREs can most effectively contribute to the... Read more

What’s the net present value of that extra insulation? Join us on Tuesday, June 25th at 2:00 pm Eastern for a Peer Networks webinar on “Balancing Embodied and Operating Carbon.” Bill Smarzewski and Jason Fierko of Ewing Cole have developed a method for combining energy modeling with embodied carbon data to determine the carbon “payback” of... Read more

With depth of thought and a broad view of the horizon, Candace Pearson can take a nuanced vision and sharpen it into focus. Articles with her byline have appeared in GreenSource Magazine, Arch-Daily, and Architectural Record. 

Check Out Candace’s Work

BuildingGreen Articles:

How to Make Integrated Project Delivery Work for... Read more

Hello all,

We are looking at ways we can use our specs to reduce toxicity in projects and one step towards that goal may be to require RoHS compliant lighting, switches, alarms, meters, etc., as required by the Small Electrical Components exception in the Living Building Challenge. Based on LBC projects I have been involved with, it... Read more

Hi SDLers: ESG Investing is mushrooming which is a very good thing. AIA National, for example, just switched over to 100% ESG investments. With it, there seems to be a growing number of "ESG-lite" options. I'm wondering if anyone among this informed group has recommendations on how to determine a quality investment approach. I'd appreciate any... Read more