I have a colleague (lawyer) who is trying to assemble a list of precedent projects that used penalties or incentives for achieving energy targets. The topic she is addressing is how contracts may be changed to address growing climate change concerns.

At the moment, the only concrete example she has is a project in Washington by the US... Read more

Has anyone seen a comparison between IECC 2021 and previous versions of the energy code, including ASHRAE 2010? I'm curious how far ahead code buildings are relative to LEED v4.0, and how much the latest IECC raises the bar relative to the previous. I did a quick search for the LBNL and other studies that look at this, but didn't see anything... Read more

Hi everyone, 

We’re so excited to announce that registration for the 2025 SMEPL Summit is now live! Register here and save your seat to join BuildingGreen, your SMEPL peers, and members of all three other networks for a first-of-its-kind summit this year.

In addition to the SMEPL Summit, you’ll have the option of joining us for... Read more

Medium-density fiberboard (MDF), particleboard, and interior-grade plywood can emit formaldehyde, a known human carcinogen. Some materials  come from non-sustainable sources.

BuildingGreen-Approved Panels

Products meet California Air Resources Board (CARB) ultra-low emitting formaldehyde (ULEF) or no-added-... Read more

All,

I am on the Board of an Environmental organization in the Catskills (The Catskill Center for Conservation and Development https://catskillcenter.org/).  We are trying to develop a policy on siting of clean energy projects.  For example, we know of one town that bans PV's that can be seen from the road, another is a proposal to... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Energy Modeling for Early Design Decisions (recorded webcast)

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


1. Explain how energy codes and standards are pushing commercial projects beyond what they can do without modeling.
2. Describe the key... Read more

The sheer number of building product certifications and labels is overwhelming, and even those experienced with green labels can get exhausted trying to figure out which are relevant and which aren’t.

The confusion in the market over green labels can complicate efforts of both manufacturers and design professionals... Read more

Hi everyone,

Thanks so much to all who filled out the Doodle poll for the Sages monthly call meeting time, and to those who have introduced themselves on the forum.

We’ll be going with Monday, March 11th at 4 pm ET for this next meeting, and I’ll be sending out a calendar invitation shortly. It’s been a tough call to make — we... Read more

Hi SDL'ers, as promised I am sending information about how to support getting flame retardants out of foam insulation. I am attaching a draft letter to Foam Manufacturers, an intro to that letter giving some background and a list of From manufacturers.   Thanks, please contact if you have any questions.   Larry Strain, Siegel & Strain... Read more

As many of you may already be aware, Greenbuild 2020 is scheduled for the week of the Presidential Election, Nov. 3rd, 2020. 

The partners organizing Greenbuild 2020 are USGSBC and Informa Exhibitions. If you have concerns regarding Greenbuild happening during that week, you may want to consider reaching out to whoever you have contact... Read more

Green Gurus,

First of all, it was great to see so many of you joining our last month BSA COTE webinar! I hope you enjoyed it.

Coming up next Wednesday at 2pm EDT (11am PDT, 12pm MDT, 1pm CDT), we'll have the inspiring Ashley Rao from Leers Weinzapfel leading the presentation titled INTEGRATED SUSTAINABILITY AT THE JOHN W. OLVER... Read more

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

Congratulations to Jill Kurtz for her Building Design + Construction 40 Under 40 award! A much deserved recognition.

Meet the 40 Under 40 class of 2021 | Building Design + Construction (bdcnetwork.com)

Hello Green Gurus,

We have an exciting cross-network opportunity coming up next week! Members of the SDL (Design Leaders) and SCL (Construction Leaders) networks will share about their experience at the recent SDL/SCL Summits. We will also preview the Reports for each Summit, and share some news about other events coming up this year.... Read more

I am putting together my conference/training budgets for 2023 and I am hoping to add a BuidlingGreen SDL in-person summit to my list. Are there any plans for in-person summits in 2023? I seem to remember Nadav speculating about Puerto Rico as a location for a Winter summit. Wishful thinking?

Hello everyone,

I wanted to let you all know that I'm no longer at Bergmeyer and have moved on to a new position at Sustainable Brands as of this week.  As a non-architect/non-designer, it's always meant so much to me how readily I was accepted into this group and how much of your knowledge and expertise you willingly shared.  As is the... Read more

Jill is a mission-driven leader who loves working with people, solving problems, and strengthening the infrastructure of values-driven organizations that are committed to having a positive impact in the world. 

She brings decades of experience analyzing and understanding the value of operational efficiency across a variety of... Read more

This question of what equity looks like in project design is one I have been musing on for a while now, and I was excited that several of us were able to talk about it at the SDL Summer Summit earlier this month.  That conversation has prompted me to post here, asking what all of you think equity looks like in project design... with a few... Read more