Product Review
The company's promotional material is the epitome of environmentally friendly packaging—like a Ben & Jerry's annual report. The article reprints sent were even bound in a jacket made from corrugated cardboard. So we were quite intrigued by the product. Syndecrete™ is a lightweight, pre-cast,... Read more
News Analysis
A study published in the June 5, 1992, issue of
Science by researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the University of Arizona suggests that smoke emitted into the atmosphere from human activities may be having a significant effect in counteracting... Read more
Explainer
Feature
Ozone depletion and global warming are two of our most serious environmental problems—and foam insulation materials containing CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) contribute significantly to both of these problems. The environmentally concerned builder or designer should make it a highest priority to avoid them. Even many of the non-CFC alternatives... Read more
Op-Ed
Introducing the first issue of our newsletter.
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
Feature
Susan Maxman is the first AIA president to make sustainable design a priority.
Q.Where would you say architects as a group stand on environmental issues?
A.Architects tend to be reactive rather than proactive. It is important that we take the lead on these environmental issues. The architecture schools in particular tend to be conservative. They just aren’t... Read more
Feature
Carefully stake the building site and driveway, remove trees that are within the excavation area or too close, then erect a fence to keep heavy equipment off fragile soils and away from nearby trees.
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
News Brief
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
Forum topic
It's time for our next Peer Networks webinar! Ariane wowed us with her five minutes on future climate data at the Show-and-Tell at HKS in Chicago last November. Now we'll get the deep dive.
Wednesday, May 29, 2:00 pm EDT
Register here: https://www.buildinggreen.com/peer-networks/webinars
Remember--this live webinar is for... Read more
Basic page
For questions, please email Jerelyn Wilson directly
Forum topic
Hello SDL Leaders,
Over the past month, I have been working with ILFI to navigate the question of residuals in LBC compliant products vs. products reporting for a Declare label.
Through our conversations, it came to light that ILFI considers the LBC Red List threshold to be 10,000 ppm, rather than the 100 ppm written into the... Read more
Forum topic
Curious on stories when IAQ testing for LEED or WELL didn't come back with "all clear, everything's good" results we all hope for.
I have a project right now where we are tracking down suspicious sources and look forward to telling the full story when it's done being written.
Thought maybe this would be a good safe space to talk... Read more
Quiz
Welcome to the quiz portion of Sustainability Literacy: A Foundation For Transformed Practice!
Learning Objectives
Upon completing this course, participants will be able to:
Quiz
Sustainability leadership has requested that you take this quiz to help assess sustainability literacy across the firm. Your own results will be presented to you at the end of the quiz but will not be shared with anyone else. Only aggregated, anonymized results will be available to others.
Please don’t do research to inform your answers... Read more
Forum topic
The Project StaSIO competition is in full swing, and its time to rate the submissions that made it to the public voting round! Fancy yourself a connoisseur of simulation graphics and have a spare 5-10 minutes this Friday? Take a browse through the gallery and rate the 10 graphics and 4 case studies that made it to the final round! Winners... Read more
Forum topic
Hi all,
Are you looking for a senior level sustainable design position in Canada? We’re hiring a sustainable design leader and senior sustainable design consultant with location options in Vancouver, Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary or remote (Canada only). https://dialogdesign.ca/careers/current-openings/
I joined DIALOG 10 months ago... Read more
Forum topic
Hi All, wanted to share this webinar below :
The AIA 2030 Commitment and the Design Data Exchange (DDx) have transformed the way architecture firms collect project data on energy and carbon metrics, but it has never been a good place to visually understand these metrics. Architects tend to be visual people and have an intuitive... Read more
Forum topic
Hi Everyone,
Who has worked on a SITES certification and can share the approximate hours involved for administering and completing documentation? A relative sense of the effort compared to LEED would also be helpful, similar to the thread about WELL on this same subject.
Appreciate any insight. Thanks! -Hilary

