Buildings have a tremendous impact on the environment. In North America, buildings and the building industry account for about 30% of carbon dioxide emissions, 35-40% of ozone depletion, 20-30% of municipal solid waste, vast quantities of natural resource consumption, and dramatic loss of open space each... Read more

Protecting trees and the local ecosystem when building on previously unbuilt land is a vitally important—yet often overlooked—part of environmentally responsible construction. Healthy trees and shrubs can reduce a home’s environmental impact and directly benefit homeowners in a number of ways:

•Enhancing comfort by shielding the house... Read more

The American Institute of Architects convention in Boston this past June was the setting for a changing of the guard in the American architectural establishment. The Institute’s first woman president took the reins, the Committee on the Environment became its largest and fastest growing committee, and the first installments of the Environmental... Read more

Green Gurus,

We'd love your feedback.

The MEP group is endeavoring to make progress on integrative design. It has been long accepted that integrative design is necessary to make real progress, but a lack of stellar results demonstrates that it is easier said than done.

What is your experience with successes and failures... Read more

Hello, All, Is anyone familiar with One Click LCA software and resources?  Similarities/differences from a Tally or Athena approach?  Many thanks!

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

Hello friends in the construction group!

I am advising an owner on a huge redevelopment project and - we are of course looking at carbon/embodied carbon from a design perspective - but I remember hearing some of you talking about how you are addressing emissions during construction (including both recommendations related to specific... Read more

THIS WEBINAR PURCHASE AND REGISTRATION IS CLOSED.

This one-hour crash course will review the concepts and key facts within the WELL Building... Read more

Hey there hive mind,

We went looking through LEEDuser to try and find some direction and didn't find much so I thought I'd bring my team's question here to all of you smart people. We're working on a non-combustion central plant tied to a geothermal field and grid electricity. The project has cooling towers and their associated chemical... Read more

Hi Green Gurus!

We’ve gotten GREAT feedback and input from many of you via the survey about our planned fall events. You expressed a lot of interest in all the events we proposed: a series of in-depth Integrative Design Jams, separate Summits for SDL and SCL, and regional all-network workshops, starting with one in Boston—so we’re moving... Read more

Hi All,

I'm teaching a class this semester at CU Boulder on Zero Carbon Buildings and Cities (a new class that I'm making up as I go). The hardest part, I'm finding, is locating some good materials that cover the basics of energy efficiency for non-building engineers or designers (we are energy and sustainability generalists in this... Read more

Guiding questions:

Welcome to the quiz portion of Whole-Building Life Cycle Analysis: Promises and Pitfalls.

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


1. Define whole-building life-cycle assessment.
2. Explain what whole-building life-cycle assessment can and can't do so you can work within... Read more

Greg Calnago

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