Hi Everyone!  About ten days ago, Megan Zack posted a note announcing her new role as Chief Sustainability Officer at Wight & Company. (Yay!)  I'm so delighted that she will be stepping into this leadership role at Wight to shepard the firm in the next chapter of their journey in sustainability. 

I wanted to take a moment to say... Read more

Faucets with high flow rates waste water—not to mention the energy used to treat and deliver it to our buildings—and the additional water stresses our wastewater treatment systems.

Dear Colleagues:

If you are short on time, here is the executive summary:

Time to make healthy trouble and sign a petition today to the WHO to urge them to recommend the implementation of best practice healthy air guidelines in light of the recent studies showing a direct link between the spread of COVID-19 through aerosol... Read more

We are in the process of working with our ops people to figure out billability targets for my team. Something that may be useful is the firm survey that BG conducts before each retreat (See attached image). These are great, but it varies depending on which firms attend the retreat. Its also hard to tell (in some cases) which green dot is... Read more

Hi SDL Group -

Moody Nolan is actively seeking a new hire to help support our sustainability needs!

If you know of any interested parties, please have them visit the Moody Nolan webpage and select 'Careers' at the bottom of the homepage. Our available position is listed as the 'Sustainable Design Facilitator' role.  http://... Read more

Hi everyone - we have a new higher ed client who is committed to sustainability but not very knowledgeable about current topics such as carbon (both embodied and operational) or the electrification of buildings.  I need to educate them and would like to start with some easily-digestible background reading.  But as we all know, we're a bit dorky... Read more

I was shocked to see this new research. Bad news is that acrylic paints are causing 58% of the microplastics pollution in our ocean. Yes, they are plastic. A recent study by Environmental Action, a Swiss-based scientific research firm, shows us that acrylic paint's role in plastic pollution is much greater than most of us realize. The good news... Read more

If you use the mindfulMATERIALS library to easily access material transparency documentation (if not, check it out!), please take 5-10 mins of your time to fill out this quick survey and help guide the future of the library.

The mindfulMATRIALS Collaborative is an industry-led initiative, visit www.mindfulmaterials.com to learn more. ... Read more

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

Our firm has had some clients that object to the term "Master Plan." We have removed "Master Planning" from our letterhead, where we list our capabilities and have replaced it with "Planning." Although we still find ourselves using it, old habits die hard, especially when we receive an RFP from a client asking for "Master Planning." Once we get... Read more

Hello Green Gurus,

I wanted to take a moment and introduce myself as I am new to the group. My name is Tim Pranaitis and I am the co-chair of the newly-reformed sustainability committee at Steffian Bradley Architects in Boston, MA. As a newer member of my firm, I have been tasked to re-start and grow our sustainability committee which... Read more

Hello lovely Green Gurus!

Just wanted to take a quick second to let you all know how much I've appreciated this amazing network over the last few years. I have taken a position at Amazon Worldwide Sustainability in their Sustainable Buildings group, and while I will be leveraging all of my skills and experience doing much the same thing... Read more

Hi All, this is primarily directed at our Sustainable MEP folks, but please anyone with insight feel free to weigh in.

I am increasingly seeing designs and specifications asking for Passive House levels of airtightness as verified by blower door testing, but with traditional ventilation system designs. 

To me, Passive House US has... Read more

Hi SDLers! I hope early fall is finding you well.

There is a current opportunity to make a difference in the campaign to reduce use of toxic flame retardants.

Arlene Blum and the Green Science Policy Institute, whom many of you know, are currently organizing a campaign of support for the CA State Fire Marshal's proposal to allow... Read more