Seeing Jen's post prompted me to write in support of the Madison Park Technical Vocational High School program (Greenbuild Legacy Project). I spoke to the students earlier in the year and it is a great program. I'll reach out to our HR about interns.

I am the Director of Facilities Management Integration and Sustainability for Shawmut... Read more

Exterior shade or screening devices are generally much more effective at reducing solar heat gain than their interior counterparts.

BuildingGreen-Approved Shading

BuildingGreen approves exterior window and glazing attachments that reduce solar heat gain and glare or redirect daylight, providing important energy benefits while... Read more

The Sustainable Community Design Leaders Peer Network brings together planners, architects, landscape architects, and allied leaders who are committed to leveraging the... Read more

Hello everyone!  There hasn’t been much activity on this forum in recent months, so we wanted to give an update about what’s been happening and things coming up. 

Firstly, we are very excited for the upcoming inaugural SCL Summit the day before Greenbuild.  We currently have about 20 people signed up for the Summit and we are expecting a... Read more

Hi SDL!

Our CM recently offered up the possibility of substituting Pozzotive into our structural and paving concrete mix (www.pozzotive.com) on a large public building. Apparently it is on a level with the cost of standard cement.
We are eager to reduce the project's embodied carbon, and this seems almost too good to be true.

Hi all - I've heard from a few of you that you are interested in doing a book club or other internal education based on the Path to Zero Carbon. If you would like the word docs or pdfs of each of the 16 posts, let me konw and I'll send them to you.

I'd also like to know of those who are using it how it's going and what you're finding... Read more

Curious to see if your firms have researched metals and established a preference for what you use for roof and wall panels?  I'm interested in ranking environmental performance for painted steel, galvanize steel, weathered steel, painted aluminum, zinc, etc.

Hello Gurus,

I’m writing to share with you an effort a small group of lighting designers from the Boston area started which is now rolling into a large scale effort.  We’ve put together a Lighting Advocacy Letter to accelerate the sustainability of lighting products. Inspired by the AIA Materials Pledge, the letter is intended to... Read more

Hi Sages,

As you may have seen in my message, the Peer Networks Member List is not very helpful to us (yet), because a person can only show up in one network. Many of us are also in SDL or other networks; there are many more of us than show up when you filter that list for "Sages."

Until we can get that fixed, we'll share the... Read more

Wondering if we can have a dialog on HVAC load calculation software... we are currently still using Trane Trace 700, but with the future migration to Trace 3D+ coming are looking into other options. Never used HAP but I haven't heard great things, and we dabbled in IES VE for a while, but went back to Trace since at that time there was no... Read more

Reaching out to the collective knowledge here.  With interest in circular economy and building reuse growing, is anyone leading the charge for the concept of building reuse as a tool for maintaining community identity?  Has anyone seen successful projects with this concept in mind?  I was just in a discussion with a bunch of SDLers, and while... Read more

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By providing your credential numbers in your profile, you will enable us to automatically report these CEUs to these organizations. Please check your profile to be sure your... Read more

Hello Green Gurus,

Here are all the details about our two Peer Network events in Chicago on Tuesday, June 21st. If you'll be in town, we hope to see you!

From 1-5pm we'll have the Chicago/Midwest Region Mini-Summit, open to members of any of the five Peer Networks (Sustainability Consultants, Community Design Leaders, Contractors... Read more

Anyone using the USG EcoSmart drywall? I'm writing a short product review and am looking for some quick feedback. I'm particularly curious about reduced greenhouse gas emissions and overall cost. Thanks! Brent

Team,

You probably know on July 9th, WHO issued a document and agreed aerosol route of COVID-19 transmission is possible, but fell short of saying we need to make provisions in our buildings for it per the "Do no harm" principle.  Mary Ann Lazarus, Pauline Souza, Kay Sargent, Joyce Lee, and I (SDL members from architecture and... Read more