Dear all,

For a specific existing building application, we are looking for a half inch insulating glazing unit, preferably with low-e coating. Based on my research, 5/8" seems to be doable (1/8" glass + 3/8" air gap + 1/8" glass) but I'm yet to find a viable 1/2" solution. Have you come across any on your projects? Thanks for your... Read more

Products & Materials Specialist Brent Ehrlich excels at deep, unbiased, and nuanced technical research on the health and environmental impacts of green building products and materials. Some areas of focus include:

product and material constituents, including their risks

product certifications

third-party product... Read more

We apologize, but the heating fuel cost calculator is no longer on the BuildingGreen website.

Take a look at Efficiency Maine's heating fuel cost calculator instead.

Does anyone know where one can locate weather files (EPW) that has predicted future data for climate change?

Thanks in advance.

Greetings Green Gurus!

You've probably been hearing about the infrastructure package on the news... apparently things are heating up on this topic in Washington DC as they try to get the package sorted out before the August congressional recess. Because of this, both the USGBC and the AIA are mounting advocacy campaigns in this regard,... Read more

Exterior doors often have poor insulation and seals that allow air through.

BuildingGreen-Approved Exterior Doors

BuildingGreen has different criteria for commercial and residential exterior doors.

Commercial swing (hinged) doors must be NFRC-rated, certified, and labeled for U-factor. They have a maximum air leakage of 0.... Read more

Hi all, we're looking for a West Coast Regional Sustainability Specialist if you know of anyone who might be interested! They would be part of our amazing firmwide Sustainability team, and could potentially be based out of LA, Costa Mesa, San Francisco, Oakland, or Seattle. Please reach out if you know of anyone who might be a good fit, I'm... Read more

In the Passive House session at the Winter Summit, I spoke about a Massachusetts DOER report that found that meeting the new energy code in MA (passive house or better in most cases) is cheaper for some building types than traditional construction. Some of you asked to see the report. It was a power point show. On page 34 of this slide deck... Read more

For those who haven't heard yet, we've reached a critical milestone with the Contractor Commitment. 51% of the SCL network voted to approve the language of the current draft. That's the mark we needed to hit, so we can move forward with planning the launch! Thank you to all those who have worked tirelessly over the last two years developing... Read more

Hello All,

Through a regional School of Architecture, our firm has been connected with a very intriguing startup that has been engineering a new rooftop wind energy technology. They are developing a system to economically capture the increased wind flows at the edges of commercial building rooftops. They have engineered this system,... Read more

Hi Gurus!

This query just came from GSA via the Large Firm Roundtable. It seems that one way we can help is simply to route this to the best concrete and asphalt suppliers we know of, so they can respond.  

Can you pass on some information to the large firms sustainability roundtable? GSA, and the White House, just announced new... Read more

We should probably agree on the correct spelling for what we at BuildingGreen are calling "BITuser." I noticed that on the Salesforce portfolio screenshot provided by Dennis, it's spelled "BIT User."

BITuser has the advantage of more closely resembling LEEDuser, but it has the disadvantage of looking a little weird in all-caps, as in... Read more

The results from the "CogFx" study are compelling, showing that people in environments with low VOCs and low ambient CO2 levels score higher on tests of cognitive function.  Specifically, they show that providing 40cfm of outdoor air per (actual live) occupant results in significantly higher scores than even the "Enhanced Ventilation" scheme... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Deep Material Vetting (That Won't Chew Through Your Design Budget).

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


1. Align product vetting with goals that aim to mitigate occupant exposure and environmental toxicity.
2. Foster partnerships with... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Downscaled Climate Data: Where to Get It and How to Use It.

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


1.  Define “downscaled climate data” and understand where to find it and how to apply it in modeling to achieve greater environmental sustainability and... Read more

Hello Green Gurus!

Here is a [LINK] to an updated version of the letter, including all the signatories we had as of last Friday - thank you all!

This message is really geared for your firm's social media/communications team, so if you aren’t that person, please share this message with them! With that said, all of you (whether your... Read more

Hi folks,

We've arranged a room where we can gather for an hour and check in during the Thursday afternoon reception time at Living Future. If you'll be there, come join us!

Thursday, May 2 at 5:30, Skykomish Room (#604, 6th floor)

The group will be mostly Sustainable Design Leaders, as that's by far our largest group, but... Read more

Hi everyone,

I am writing to let you know about a change we are making here at BuildingGreen. We will be changing the name of this all-Peer Networks forum “Green Gurus” to “Green Commons.” 

We’ve made this decision after learning that using the term “guru” outside of its cultural context is appropriative. In an effort to center... Read more