Welcome to the quiz portion of Counting Carbon: Understanding Carbon Footprints of Buildings.

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


1. Differentiate carbon counting approaches based on regulation or monetization from approaches aiming just to reduce carbon emissions.
2... Read more

Conventional stormwater management treats rain as the enemy—a dangerous and destructive force that must be deflected away from building sites as quickly as possible.

But as we pave more and more of paradise,... Read more

I am putting together my conference/training budgets for 2023 and I am hoping to add a BuidlingGreen SDL in-person summit to my list. Are there any plans for in-person summits in 2023? I seem to remember Nadav speculating about Puerto Rico as a location for a Winter summit. Wishful thinking?

Greetings Sustainable Design Leaders,

As we begin closing out 2021, we wanted to give you a quick update that the next SDL Salary Survey will be coming to you in early January! The BuildingGreen team and SDL Steering Group have been busy this past month polishing up the questions for this anonymous survey.

A reminder of the... Read more

The Winter Summit participants have had this for a few weeks now, and no one has screamed about anything being inaccurate, misleading, or too revealing, so it's time to share the latest Summit report more widely. 

Per our long-standing policy, this report can be shared outside our "safe space"--it's a great way to share the wealth of... Read more

This question of what equity looks like in project design is one I have been musing on for a while now, and I was excited that several of us were able to talk about it at the SDL Summer Summit earlier this month.  That conversation has prompted me to post here, asking what all of you think equity looks like in project design... with a few... Read more

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

Be aware of key dates in the history of the LEED rating system.

Have a clear understanding of the new impact areas present in the updated rating system.

Ascertain which types of new credits belong to which impact areas in the LEED v5 rating system.

Dear SD Leader Community: I'm excited to announce the 2021 Steedman Research Fellowship that provides $75K for international travel for recent architectural grads (within 8 years.) I have the honor of serving as this year's jury chair with a fantastic jur. The topic is "Disruption" (seems most appropriate.)

More details here: https://... Read more

Hi Sages,

Thanks to those who filled out the survey and helped set our agenda for Monday's meeting. We know that this time doesn't work for everyone (no time could, of course), so we'll be alternating times each month. The April meeting will be Thursday, 4/11 at 3:00 eastern.

The agenda is here. It also has the Zoom link (in case... Read more

Hi folks,

Some of you have seen me do a 5-minute presentation on an initiative to divert urine from wastewater. That team is now developing a building-scale urine treatment technology with support from the National Science Foundation's Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) award. 

In order to learn more about the sustainable... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of How Buildings Fail Their Users!

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


Explain the importance of finding common ground between a client’s project goals and the project team’s sustainability building goals for successful projects that incorporate... Read more

Should the Best Practice names always be accompanied by their number? See the attached screenshots, all taken from the main forum page:

Hello Green Gurus!

ILFI’s annual Living Future Conference is coming up, so we thought we might host a (virtual) Show & Tell session of 5-minute versions of peer network members’ presentations like we often do in conjunction with Greenbuild. First we want to see if this is of interest to you all. Please take 30 seconds to let us know... Read more

Greetings, green gurus:

Is anyone in this group attending the AIA Annual Business Meeting on Wednesday, June 5 at AIA Conference on Architecture in Las Vegas? If you are, and you're a voting delegate from your AIA Chapter, could you support a floor Resolution recommending that the AIA Board take urgent and sustained climate action? My... Read more

If I'm remembering correctly, someone at the summer summit mentioned working on / or being familiar with the Berkeley CA gas ban. A town here in MA is also considering a ban and wanted to get some feedback from Berkeley.

Are you ready to share the story about your best projects?

AIA COTE Top Ten Awards is a great way to get recognition for your best work and the call for submissions for the 2024 cycle is now open!

The awards cycle has shifted, and the deadline for the 2024 awards is October 26.

So NOW is the time to pull together... Read more

People tracking pollutants and dirt into buildings can cause indoor environmental quality (IEQ) problems, increase maintenance costs, and reduce the life of the floor. When they track rain and snow on hard surfaces, it increases the risk of personal injury due to slips and falls.

BuildingGreen-Approved Track-Off Systems

... Read more

I'm teaching a LEED GA study group and was rambling on the differences between CIR and precident-setting LEED Interpretation (that gets posted in the addenda library and all). Then I went onto LEED Online and was showing how those are submitted... but can't actually figure out how a LEED Interpretation would be submitted. Has anyone done this... Read more

Composting toilets convert human waste into nutrient-rich fertilizer for nonfood plants, rather than mixing the waste with potable water and flushing it down the drain. They can also save infrastructure costs and minimize the burden on wastewater systems.

They’re not for every project, but they do warrant consideration. Composting... Read more