Hello Folks,
What is your experience with successes and failures in the design process? As a starting point I have listed my Top 5 for success, and my Top 5 for failure. We'd love to see your reactions and look forward to the discussion when we all meet next week at our monthly check-in.

Top 5 reasons for when integrative design... Read more

Hi Everyone.  Hope you and your families are all healthy and safe.

We are starting to figure out how we are going to implement the Contractors Commitment at my company, and we're using the opportunity to simultaneously set corporate wide and jobsite metrics and goals for sustainability tracking.

Each year we issue a sustainability... Read more

Hi there colleagues!

Out of curiosity, do you plan on attending Greenbuild in person in San Diego in September? My staff asked me if we were going and my answer is partially contingent on the extent to which attending would mean getting to see some of our favorite people (read: all of you). Looking forward to taking the temperature of... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Protect Your Spec: 14 Strategies. 

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


Identify ways to ensure continuity between the environmentally preferable materials in a project specification, and the less-than-ideal materials that end up used in the final... 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

Board insulation has good thermal performance ranging from about R-4 to R-8 and is used as an integral part of a building envelope’s continuous insulation system.

Because board insulation is used on the building exterior, it is not always subject to the same material health and emissions requirements as batt insulation used inside the... Read more

Hi folks, 

AIA COTE National is looking for Techincal Reviewers for the 2025 awards. Interested, or know someone who might be?  Sign up here: https://form.jotform.com/231175886103153

Thanks!

Hello, All!  I'm hoping for your help to keep a green roof on a project of ours.  We have a large healthcare project in the Midwest that is coming in over budget.  To avoid losing our extensive green roof, I'm looking for alternate sources of funding - grants, private sources, etc.  Has anyone gone down this path before and have shareable... Read more

Have any of you relied on Green Badger for LEED documentation on projects?

I am familiar with the tool and know Tommy from my time in Atlanta, but have not used it on a construction project.

Have you found value? Thoughts?

Either way, they publish a pretty nifty "LEED v4 Construction Tool Kit" that may be useful for your... 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

Hi there SD Leaders,

We're running an LCA on one of our projects that's about to start construction that has had serious embodied carbon goals and I got a result that really surprised me. I haven't been able to find any obvious/glaring issues with the work, but these results are strange enough that I'm not feeling confident. I'm hoping... Read more

Hello - 

I am looking for the recording and the PDF/ slides that were shared 3/6 for the project process share-out/ 5 min presentations. It was super inspiring and I would like to refresh my memory of some of what was shared. Thank you!

–
Alison Nash 
AIA, LEED AP ID+C, CPHC, WELL AP
Associate | Sustainability... Read more

All,

Can anyone suggest a product for the following situation.  We are looking to insulate existing aluminum eterior column covers that have a three inch air gap.  The issue is there is no way to remove the covers without destroying them.  we would like to cut small holes, pump in the insulation  and then cap the holes.  Can anyone... Read more

Practitioners interested in reducing the embodied carbon of buildings are likely now used to considering the impact of different materials, like mass timber or low-carbon concrete. Low-carbon construction, however, may be less familiar. 

Contractors are just... Read more

All,

The current version of the program manual includes ID numbers for the best practices, as shown below. I know we want to keep a quick reference number or ID, but though it would be worth asking if we want to use the below, reorder them in some way, or use a different kind of ID. Opinions?

Thanks,
Jenny

--------... Read more

All,

I recently met Sahil Tadwalkar who is a Stanford MS Candidate in Civil Engineering. He and his group are interviewing design and construction industry professionals to understand issues and challenges around specifying and using low carbon solutions on projects. Interesting stuff! I encourage you to contribute by setting up an... Read more