Colleagues

It has been my great pleasure to serve the AIA's COTE Top Ten review process, both as a main juror and, most recently, as one of the technical review team.  I have specifically reviewed the Discovery and Energy measures for the past few years.  I will be serving again on the 2021 team.  The AIA has already received many more... Read more

AIA is looking for additional technical review jurors for their 2022 COTE Top Ten Award program particularly in the Water/Ecosystems and Energy/Discovery categories.  If you are interested please go to this webpage and complete the form.

Time is of the essence, so please complete the form no later than Friday, January 14, 2022.

Hey, everyone! Reaching out to share about the currently-under-development IEA Annex 89: Ways to Implement Net-zero Whole Life Carbon Buildings. The current committee is really the who's who of building LCA in Europe, but it does seem like it suffers from a lack of North American representation. The one North American on the committee, in fact... Read more

Here are additional slide decks from people who presented in one of our general sessions: at Max's Pot, or in the mornings. Also Jerelyn's Wednesday evening presentation on BuildingGreen's work on sustainability literacy.

Among those included here are my slides on the Rich Earth Institute and urine diversion into fertilizer--did you... Read more

Hi folks,

We've arranged a room where we can gather for an hour and check in during the Thursday afternoon reception time at Living Future. If you'll be there, come join us!

Thursday, May 2 at 5:30, Skykomish Room (#604, 6th floor)

The group will be mostly Sustainable Design Leaders, as that's by far our largest group, but... Read more

Pipe that delivers domestic water in North America is typically made from copper, chlorinated polyvinyl chloride (CPVC), cross-linked polyethylene (PEX), all of which present environmental challenges. Bimodal polyethylene  (PE-RT) and polypropylene (PP) are potential alternatives with lower climate and health impacts.
... Read more

Save the Date: If you'll be in DC for AIA's Conference on Architecture or just happen to live nearby, hold 6:00–8:30 pm on Wednesday, June 5 for this event.

We have partners! This event will be hosted by ZGF Architects (on their lovely rooftop patio) in collaboration with US Architects... Read more

Is there a list of which number corresponds with each Best Practice? E.g. "03 Energy Audit & Planning."

I was sitting in on the USGBC's monthly Advocacy call this afternoon and heard about a state-local policy proposal to use property tax incentive for GHG reductions.  Through a state-local partnership, owners of existing residential and commercial buildings who invest in qualifying outcome-based improvements would receive a property tax... Read more

Welcome to 2030 reporting season!

I brought up on the Fika today that there is a webinar December 5th to show updates to the DDx including the calculation of operational carbon from your energy data.  Below is a link to register.

https://aia.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUocOutrTItHtWiySNMIqfGYv4ZbAhtjSg...

What is the lag time for historical embodied carbon data catching up with real-time information as manufacturers source renewable energy? Is our professional time best spent calculating with out-of-date information or more simply calling for manufacturers' elimination of fossil fuel combustion in their production and transportation of materials... Read more

Thanks to everyone who joined us for the Show and Tell at Greenbuild! Here are slides from the presentations:

Greetings!

Back again re: the work we're doing with City of Cambridge, in their great leadership efforts to develop EC policy/regs/incentives and reporting requirements.

Thanks to those who responded earlier about the effort it takes you to conduct WBLCA - now we're diving into it in more depth and wanting to get together a focus... Read more

THIS WEBINAR REGISTRATION IS CLOSED.

Point: Green building is all about the environment—not social justice.

Counterpoint: The green building movement must ensure that the benefits... Read more

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

The site license permits the purchaser to share the PDF Study-Guide file within their company/organization and... Read more

ASHRAE 209 in all its glory has been uploaded. This will impact our architectural process, for better or worse, so we should embrace it and learn from it. The revised AIA Energy Modeling Design Guide (due out next year) has been timed to correspond roughly to 209 coming out and will include references to it. The first few energy modeling '... Read more

Hi all,

I am working on a Div 01 sustainability spec section for our firm to include by default on all projects. I've been finding a lot of great sample language out there for embodied carbon measures and material transparency (huge thanks to anyone here who had a part in developing those resources). 

One thing I'd like to include... Read more

An induction range capable of replacing a standard gas range offers the potential of significantly reducing the energy required for ventilation in a commercial kitchen and improves IAQ at home.

We look for commercial-scale as well as residential induction cooktops and ranges designed to reduce indoor... Read more