BuildingGreen Report

Author

Erika Heet is the Editor-in-Chief of BuildingGreen. She is the former Editor-in-Chief of Interiors magazine. She has held senior editor positions at Dwell and Architectural Digest, and is the author of two books on modern architecture. She has served on the boards of Greenbuild and the Sustainable Furnishings Council, as well as on juries for... Read more

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If you haven't already, please post a brief introduction to the group with your firm, the roles you play especially as they focus on sustainability, a bit about your background and anything you are particularly passionate about. Thanks! 

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Join the sustainable design movement Embrace the future with these industry leaders

Are you a design or building professional who wants to learn more about sustainability—such as how to do energy modeling, improve the building envelope, or use renewables on a project? Now more than ever, it's time to join the sustainable... Read more

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I received this email from Cathy Higgins at NBI, and thought some of you may know the right folks who might be interested:
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Hi colleagues,

You are exactly the folks that might know a high-caliber person to join NBI’s team. We are looking for someone ideally based in California but could be elsewhere with... Read more

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Greetings Gurus!! I'm super excited to invite you all to help each other :)

As many of you know, BuildingEase (a completely free tool!) has been born this year, the newest function we just launched is the Crowdsourcing function.

Crowdsourcing lets anyone contribute products to a public Material List (similar to an Outline Spec)... Read more

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Hello SDL!

Has anyone set "Ecosystem Benefits/Service" targets for an individual project or for all their projects? I was previously against the idea of even measuring ecosystem benefits but I've had my mind changed in recent months!

Currently we want to set a target for every project to: "Improve ecosystem benefits on every site... Read more

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Hi all, we have a date for our SCL Carbon Group online meeting.  Looking forward to connecting with you all on 2/26!

Please see agenda below.

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Join Skype Meeting      

Trouble... Read more

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Hi Everyone - I hope this isn't a repeat topic. We are starting to get familiar with TallyCAT at SAR+ and have a few people testing our projects in it. Is anyone willing to help us troubleshoot or share lessons learned? We're running into a few errors and wonder if our Revit models and workflow are the issue, or if we need to be doing something... Read more

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Hi all,

We are taking a deep look at green accreditations within our firm. Gone are the days when we could say: "our staff is XX% LEED APs!" as a metric of firm progress. Here are a few questions we are asking ourselves, and I'm wondering how you approach this in your firms:

​How does your firm "recognize" accreditations: are they... Read more

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As if you weren't worrying enough already, here's a little something that I ran across through monitoring activity on the American Society of Healthcare Engineers discussion boards:  https://www.id-hub.com/2018/10/17/hospital-plumbing-reservoir-resistance-interview-amy-mathers/, "Hospital Plumbing as a Reservoir for Resistance".  This is both a... Read more

Quiz

Welcome to the quiz portion of The BuildingGreen Guide to Insulation!

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


1. Discuss how insulation works to increase the energy efficiency and environmental sustainability of buildings; 
2. Explain why certain materials make more sense than... Read more

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Has anyone completed an LCA for an engineering structures lab, particularly one that has a strong wall and strong floor? 

Quiz

Welcome to the quiz portion of Cladding: More Than Just a Pretty Façade

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


 

1. Explain how different commercial wall assemblies handle moisture.
2. Know what questions to ask to determine a cladding system's environmental impact.... Read more

Forum topic

Have any of you relied on Green Badger for LEED documentation on projects?

I am familiar with the tool and know Tommy from my time in Atlanta, but have not used it on a construction project.

Have you found value? Thoughts?

Either way, they publish a pretty nifty "LEED v4 Construction Tool Kit" that may be useful for your... Read more

Product Guide

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

Author

Ben Hewitt works behind the scenes to build and maintain BuildingGreen.com and LEEDuser. He brings with him over two decades of experience in his field. As an efficient problem-solver, his goal is to make the websites more user-friendly for his coworkers and designers and project teams using BuildingGreen’s resources.

Ben has proficiency... Read more

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Hi SD Leaders,

As you may be aware, this past April a group of manufacturers calling themselves the Living Product 50 responded to the letters that many of us sent about five years ago advocating for transparency in their product ingredients.  A copy of that letter can be reviewed about midway through the page at this link:  https://... Read more

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Some of you are aware of my ongoing saga of off-site renewable energy and a LEED certification we are pursuing. The short version is that there is a new-construction corporate headquarters office building (Building #2 on the attached graphic). This building is pursuing LEED certification. 

The company also just installed a 1 MW... Read more

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Hi: Please check out the fantastic editorial from Ned Cramer at Architect on "The Future of Architecture Education is the Future of Civilization". The deadline to comment on the latest draft of the NAAB accreditation criteria is November 22 and, as in the past draft, it falls far short of prioritizing climate action and sustainability. VERY... Read more