Replacing windows is expensive and comes with high impacts, but simple films can improve performance.

BuildingGreen-Approved Films

BuildingGreen approves three types of window films:

Energy... Read more

Hi all,

The USGBC Pacific Region is launching a new award this year that recognizes projects that have aspires to promote health of occupants and surrounding communities.  In true USGBC style, this award has not been properly publicized, so they are still looking for submissions.  I believe the deadline will be extended to June 7.  I... Read more

Hello Sustainable Construction Leaders,

Save the date! The network's next quarterly call is scheduled for 1pm ET (10am PT), Tuesday November 16th. Topic TBD. Steering Group member Emi LaFountain from Turner will be leading the conversation.

Keep an eye on this thread for more details and Zoom information.

Jen

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

Hello Everyone!

Please mark your calendars and stay tuned for more information regarding an All Peer Networks 2020 Summit Season Closing August 10th, 3-5pm ET (Noon-2pm PT).

Register HERE to get it on your calendar! The staff at BuildingGreen are looking forward to planning a fun and engaging cross-network event focused on this... Read more

Anne Hicks Harney, FAIA, has more than 30 years of experience, focusing on high-quality design imbued with a solid technical and sustainable foundation. At Long Green Specs, she provides sustainability-focused construction specifications and building material expertise to architectural firms across the country. She was chair of the AIA... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Doing Daylighting Right.

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


1. Explain occupants' needs and habits when it comes to daylighting.
2. Recognize at least three recent mistakes in daylighting design and their respective alternatives going... Read more

Happy Thursday, all!

I will be presenting with my colleague, Emily Hoffman, and our counterpart from Seattle, Duane Jonlin, on how firms can contribute more to aggressive energy and carbon targets, from the perspective of three people that see thousands of projects each year.  We see the best and the worst, and we're convinced that our... Read more

Team,

Many of you saw this from BlackRock.

https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/investor-relations/larry-fink-ceo-letter

SOM, starting with London office, is drafting a letter to our MEP consultants, demanding and holding them accountable for climate change as a preference on consultants selection.

Best,
LL 

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

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

If only a few of the Best Practices will have checklists, which will be included under the "Implementation Toolkit" tab, I'm thinking we can simplify them (compared with LEEDuser).

I've attached a screenshot of a LEEDuser checklist. But I don't think BITuser will need the four types of icons, and the legend will take up more space than... Read more

Hi all,

We have a newly constructed, core/shell project having some hot water issues in the core restrooms.

There is a 0.35 Toto lav installed throughout. The hot water heaters are adjacent on each floor, located in the janitor closets. We did the math, and there could be a gallon of water standing and cooling in the pipe between... Read more

Hi everyone! Our sister company, Flatiron, is a heavy civil/infrastructure contractor based out of Broomfield, CO. Their sustainability team is on the hunt for a Circular Economy Manager. Our companies recently announced exciting public ESG and climate commitments, including several related to waste reduction, life cycle assessments, and more... Read more

Hi everyone,

Have your projects explored, pursued, or successfully achieved the domestic content bonus for PV systems within the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) Investment Tax Credit? I have a project that is considering adding the IRA domestic content requirements and we are trying to understand the nuances and potential challenges (cost... Read more

We had these conversations grouped by size of firm. 

Guiding Questions:

Knowledge Management By Firm Size

How to give people the info they need, when they need it?

Is the COTE Top Ten a good framework?

This seems extremely daunting in a large firm. How do we manage content that is produced and shared... 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