Hi folks,

Has your firm:

- hired a consultant to conduct firmwide bias training?

- revamped its hiring process using an antiracist lens?

- developed coaching circles / reading groups around racism/anti-racism? 

- instituted new support structures for staff development around inclusivity?

- some other... Read more

Hi All -

With the holidays coming up and budgeting for 2023 - do we have any information on when and where a mini summit will be?  I heard rumors of Arizona?  Hoping to come but need the info as soon as I can.

Hi All,

I'm working on a LEED for Schools project under 2009, and received some amorphous comments back about our Mold Prevention Plan. We used the LEEDuser template as a guide, while also referencing the EPA document the credit is based around, but the reviewers feel we haven't provided proper metrics. The EPA plan is something like... Read more

Curious on stories when IAQ testing for LEED or WELL didn't come back with "all clear, everything's good" results we all hope for. 

I have a project right now where we are tracking down suspicious sources and look forward to telling the full story when it's done being written. 

Thought maybe this would be a good safe space to talk... Read more

THIS WEBINAR PURCHASE AND REGISTRATION IS CLOSED.

Are your clients asking you about wellness? You’re not alone. Employee health and wellbeing has been called the ‘second wave of sustainability.’ In this hour-long live webinar, GreenStep Education’s Alex Spilger will walk you through Fitwel certification, including its requirements... Read more

Please use this thread for you're actions / ideas for creating more sustainable job site construction office trailers.

I know that Pepper Construction led the way with a Net Zero Construction Jobsite Trailer. (Thanks Susan Heinking!)  Is this a one off?  Any lessons learned? Any one else pursing this?  Is pepper the first and only doing... Read more

All--

A few months ago, I sent around a note about an article I was writing about the state of post-occupancy studies. It finally came out, in the latest issue of Metropolis. Great quotes and work from Payette, EDR, KieranTimberlake, HKS, and others. Thanks to all for helping with this.

I don't believe it's available online yet,... Read more

Team,

After talking to UL today, I thought it will be good for them to do a presentation on what they see in embodied energy/carbon road map of MEP equipment can be like.

Should we schedule them for a 30 minutes presentation in the next call?

Best,

LL

This may seem a bit in the weeds, but I have typically paid extra at Greenbuild for the access to the materials after the conference - we use that to develop presentations back to the teams who are not able to attend. For many years it was helpful - getting some materials to help folks see what they missed.  Last year they went to a new service... Read more

As we begin to look into Scope 3 emissions reduction strategies, it's important to understand ways to reduce tranportation emissions to project sites. Is anyone aware of best practices or programs for contractor carpooling to jobsites? I know many of my colleagues travel to work together in one vehicle because of parking limitations, however,... Read more

In the run-up to Earth Day 2023, we're trying something new at VMDO: Full, public transparency on everything we know about how our portfolio is performing (or how we anticipate it performing). Here's a link to all of the details on our sixth year of reporting to the 2030 Commitment and more: https://www.vmdo.com/radical-transparency-commitment-... Read more

Hello SCL, 

For those who missed our last call, I am posting the results from the 2023 Contractor's Commitment reporting cycle. Reporting at some of the higher tiers requires sharing case studies or information with SCL or the public. All the information that can be shared publicly (or that I received express permission to share) is now... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of How to Succeed with the Living Building Challenge: 12 Teams Share Tips.

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


1. Prepare for LBC imperatives.
2. Structure an LBC process around absolute goals, with proactive leadership and follow-through... Read more

B-Boy Newsy

Hi gang,

Following up on the recent Air Quality Design Jam at the summit, I’d like to round up the folks interested in supporting an Air Quality Working Group.

Didn’t attend the summit? No worries – everyone is welcome! We had a good group the other week and several of us want to continue the conversation.

The design jam... Read more

For those of you working in jurisdictions with both prescriptive and performance-based commercial energy code pathways, roughly what percentage of your projects are using the performance pathway? How do your project teams decide which pathway to follow?

In Minnesota we are seeing very few projects pursuing the performance pathway,... Read more

My name is Boyd and I’m the newest member of the BuildingGreen Peer Networks team. I’m joining BG after a long line of jobs in the service industry. I’ve worked everywhere from breweries to adventure sports companies and I’ve loved every job along the way. I was drawn to BG because of my history of meeting people and fostering connections and... Read more

Untreated rainwater leaving a developed site is effectively a chemical spill, laden with pollutants that include oil, sediment, heavy metals, nitrogen, and phosphorous. The heat carried by stormwater is also harmful to fish and other aquatic organisms.

BuildingGreen-Approved Systems

We approve systems that:

This might be going down a rabbit hole, but in moving to California this year I noticed that "zero net energy" (ZNE) is the standard term, whereas "net zero energy" (NZE) was more common back east. The DOE's 2015 definition (below) uses "zero energy building" (ZEB), which to me implies a building uses no energy at all.

Regional... Read more