Dear All,

Greetings. On this Earth Day, I hope you're enjoying our planet's gifts and also giving your gift with reckless abandon.

As I take a short break to plan what I want to do next, this coming Friday, April 26, will be my last day at HKS. Maybe I will get a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy tattoo like Paula. 

I... Read more

Hello SAL Members - after last month's call, and invitation to do some thinking around the direction of the group, a few of us connected and brainstormed questions that might help guide and refine our network. It would be great to have a conversation around everyone's needs and goals, so if you could please take 5 minutes to respond to these... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Video: Energy Reporting in LEED with MPR6.

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


1. Define the role of MPRs in achieving LEED certification
2. Describe MPR6 and the pathways for achievement
3. Answer MPR6 Frequently Asked Questions... Read more

Dear Gurus,

At Greenbuild this year I'll be discussing how statistics can lie (in the context of green building claims).  I'm collecting examples of this to prepare.  If any of you know of examples, please send them to me! 

Here are a few of the fun ways statistics might lie that I would be looking for: biased or too-small sample... Read more

Hello Sustainable Community Design Leaders,

The SDL Winter Summit (Jan 23-25, Tempe AZ) has a few spots still open, so we are excited to invite SCDL members to join! This is an opportunity to plug into the conversations happening in the Sustainable Design Leaders group, plus a possible chance to carve out some in-person SCDL time.

Has anyone submited this credit in lieu of demand response before?  I'm attempting on multiple projects but not sure what to expect review wise or how much confidence to have in the ability to get more than 1 point for trying.

https://www.usgbc.org/credits/gridoptimal-152-v4?return=/credits/New%20C...

Would anyone have an example LEED Homes v4 specification they would be willing to share?  We are working on our first LEED Homes project, a midrise low income housing development here in Houston.  We have a LEED Homes provider, but she will not provide the specifications, which seem to be quite different in requirements and submittals from our... Read more

Hi all,

I see that this was a hot topic for the Winter Retreat this past year, but I am wondering how your firms manage standard materials across your practice. two aspects - standard specification items, and also designer choice materials. 

1. Do you have a spec baseline with high performance materials that you start with for all... Read more

Well done and rivhly deserved, brother.  That makes you a Fellow Squared.

We have a client thats going through a TI remodel in a building thats a LEED Core+Shell certified building. One of the questions we are trying to figure out is are there things we need to be doing to not imperil the building's certification. 

I think the answer is that the landlord had to write tenant guidelines at the time of... Read more

Depending on seating type­­, these products can contain PVC, toxic flame retardants, hazardous adhesives and finishes, and other unsustainable materials.

BuildingGreen-Approved Seating

BuildingGreen’s seating meets ONE of the following sets of criteria:

Wondering if anyone has a slide presentation on the Framework for Design Excellence that they would be willing to share (to present to students). Rather than defining my request as lazy I'd like to offer up the qualification of efficiency.  

Hello all, 

Many of you have been asking about the CC reporting template for 2023 projects. It is still in-progress, but we can promise a huge upgrade from the past couple of years. In particular, the new template is designed for ongoing project tracking over the course of the year (rather than purely documentaion after the fact).  ... Read more

Lake|Flato is growing our design performance team!  If you know any great applicants for our new design technologist position, please send them our way:

Design Technologist in San Antonio.pdf (lakeflato.com)

Welcome to the quiz portion of The Great Eight: High-Impact Material Choices for Green Building.

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


1. Specify green building materials in product categories that truly make a difference for human health, the environment, or both.
2. Conduct a... Read more