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Hi all,

I'm curious how various firms are approaching their own office projects, re green building certifications. I'm especially interested in medium-large firms that have multiple offices, but policies and processes from small firms may still be instructive.

Do you have a firm-wide policy or is it a case-by-case thing? Has... Read more

Folks, it is with a heavy heart that I write this: Lance Hosey passed away unexpectedly on Friday. 

Many of you know him from the early days of the SDL group, or as an outsized presence at any of the many conferences where we overlap. He's been a list-maker, poll-taker and all around troublemaker in my life for over 20 years; I know I am... Read more

Hi All,

How are folks funding training for your employees? Would it help to have free training opportunities besides lunch and learns or ones you do yourself?

For those of you outside of Massachusetts you may have employees or friends in MA that this could be relevant to.  I'm hoping my friends in MA have already heard this.

Friends,

We put a lot of effort into air tightness design, detailing, and construction administration, often including 6-sided mockup and parital or whole-building blower-door testing.  For commercial buildings, these tests measure air leakage in cfm/sf at 1.57 psf (75pa).  

I came across this research paper several years ago, but... Read more

Board insulation has good thermal performance ranging from about R-4 to R-8 and is used as an integral part of a building envelope’s continuous insulation system.

Because board insulation is used on the building exterior, it is not always subject to the same material health and emissions requirements as batt insulation used inside the... Read more

Have any of you heard of anyone ever using phase change material (PCM) "movable partitions" as a resiliency strategy to mitigate indoor overheating during a heat wave in passive buildings? You'd keep them stored in a basement or cool room, and deploy them into habitable spaces during the heat wave to keep the space cooler than the exterior... Read more

Hi all,

As you know, the Carbon Leadership Forum has been busy in recent years growing the tent of discipline-based commitments for reducing embodied carbon. SE 2050 and MEP 2040 provide the platform and commitment for structural and MEP respectively, and there is now interest brewing for an additional commitment in support of civil... Read more

Hello everyone - 

I'm writing today to let you all know that as of this month, I am retiring from SERA, and that I'm going to be beginning a new journey as a consultant/volunteer!

I'm going to continue dedicating my time to policy and advocacy work (focused on decarbonizing the built environment) but now I'll be doing it as a free... Read more

Our Peer Networks offer a safe haven to you and other leaders where you can support one another and work together toward sustainable solutions that are intent on moving projects and the industry forward in the best possible ways.... Read more

Hi all, how many of your companies have started ESG reporting? If so, are you working with a consultant to calculate your impact of business operations? Or are you calculating it yourself? Are you purchasing offsets? I've been getting a lot of cold calls about this, mainly from a UK-based company. We are not yet at this point, but it seems like... Read more

Dear all,

For a specific existing building application, we are looking for a half inch insulating glazing unit, preferably with low-e coating. Based on my research, 5/8" seems to be doable (1/8" glass + 3/8" air gap + 1/8" glass) but I'm yet to find a viable 1/2" solution. Have you come across any on your projects? Thanks for your... Read more

Dear Colleagues:

This is a request from AIA COTE Advocacy to sign another petition on behalf of your firm. I know it's incomprehensible that we have to do this, but we at AIA COTE Advocacy think the US Federal Emergency Management Agency's removal of the term "climate change" from all their strategic planning documents is evidence of an... Read more

Hi Gurus, given these crazy times and many good people being laid off - I'm hoping this is coming at a good time! Hope you are all safe and healthy! It's also flexible so if you are a parent of young child(ren) - also a good 'pandemic job' - sad that that's a "thing" now!

Job description: Project Manager for Green Building Startup

Welcome to the quiz portion of Energy Modeling: Early and Often.

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


1. Explain how energy codes and standards are pushing commercial projects beyond what they can do without modeling.
2. Describe the energy and cost-savings benefits... Read more

Hi All,

At the SCL Summit in November 2019, the Carbon Group discussed meeting in Q1 2019 to craft an action plan for measuring and voluntarily disclosing carbon emissions from our operations.   To kickoff that effort, we will be having an online meeting. 

If your company is already disclosing greenhouse emissions or if that's... Read more