Hello SCL- as we move closer towards the release of the Contractors Commitment we have realized that we need a donation of graphics/marketing help from one of our member firms.

We are looking for help with a BG SCL Contractors Commitment logo, landing page, document organization, and any graphics we might need to highlight the... Read more

I hope this post finds you all well. Some news to share.  I have recently made a decision to leave Thornton Tomasetti with an eye toward finding another opportunity to use my 30+ years of green building experience, education, and advocacy to have an even larger impact on climate change. I am going to move slowly to ensure my next chapter is the... Read more

In a recent e-mail to BuildingGreen subscribers, Paula Melton pointed out that USGBC has opened the call for suggestions for LEED v5.

Every day, I encounter dripping skepticism from building owners about LEED for New Construction, because of the many many times that the fanciful outcomes of energy, water, and daylight models bear little ... Read more

What’s the net present value of that extra insulation? Join us on Tuesday, June 25th at 2:00 pm Eastern for a Peer Networks webinar on “Balancing Embodied and Operating Carbon.” Bill Smarzewski and Jason Fierko of Ewing Cole have developed a method for combining energy modeling with embodied carbon data to determine the carbon “payback” of... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Stone, The Original Green Building Material.

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


1. Explain how stone is natural and durable, emits no VOCs, requires almost no maintenance, and provides a connection to the earth and our history.
2.... Read more

Hi everyone!
I've seen a lot of claims over the years of living walls or planted buffers that can mitigate *outdoor* air pollution and have always assumed there's no real scientific basis for that idea, unless we're talking an actual forest that's 10s of feet thick. Am I wrong? Are there examples of living walls that actually have been... Read more

Dear Colleagues,

The EPA has released a very impressive proposal for ENERGY STAR specs for residential water heaters that will strongly encourage electrification and decarbonization of these appliances. 

ENERGY STAR is a voluntary program for high performance appliances and this is a huge opportunity to begin the decarb transition... Read more

They say that Louisianans are often late to the party but enjoy catching up.  The state, which had been stuck on ASHRAE 90.1-2007 (commercial) and IECC 2009 (residential) and has just adopted legislation jumping to IECC 2021 / IRC 2021, and commits to automatic upgrades with each 3-year code cycle.  This means we join CA, OR, WA, MA, and VT--... Read more

I have a client that is very interested in automated shades for a mid-rise multi-family housing project. Do you have any examples of projects that have attempted this? I assume it would involve occupancy sensors and/or an over-rideable default setting dependant on sun position and temperature. I also have an MEP Engineer team that is having a... Read more

Hi Everyone!

I'm Emily, GCI General Contractor's Sustainability Manager in San Francisco. Nice to meet you all.

I started with the company in 2013 and since then we've doubled in employees. I have been handling sustainability solo, until about 8 months ago, when we hired Alejandra Arce Gomez full-time to help manage the... Read more

Conventional overhead air distribution systems rely on energy-intensive air mixing, but underfloor systems take advantage of natural convection and stratification.

BuildingGreen-Approved Access Flooring Products

We list access flooring products that are specially designed to facilitate effective, energy-efficient underfloor air... Read more

I’m writing to see who would be interested in collaborating during the month of December on a position paper that would be given to the incoming Biden administration, outlining things that firms in our industries (i.e. architecture, engineering and construction) would be excited to see advanced as part of Biden’s Build-Back-Better (BBB) program... Read more

Hi all!

I've heard several people talk about developing tools for assessing/codifying a client's values for a project as part of an integrated design process (ie. a set of questions, survey, etc.). Would anyone be willing to share?

(Z, are you listening? I specifically recall you mentioning a tool like this...)

Thanks!... Read more

Hi everyone,

As part of our monthly SDLS call yesterday, we looked through the 2020 SD Leaders Winter Summit Report. To help paint an even fuller picture of what was covered at that summit, here are slides from many of the 5-minute presentations.

As a note: we have permission from these presenters to share their slides within the... Read more

The COTE Toolkit just launched on AIA.org's site, please go and check it out and share with your networks. The project spanned over the last year+ with over 40 authors, subject matter experts, and reviewers contributing to the process, (including many Green Gurus!)

With the goal of closing the information gap to designing high... Read more