High-performance buildings integrate site-responsive orientation, climate-responsive form, hefty R-values, efficient mechanical systems, healthy... Read more

Can furniture be hazardous? You bet it can…

From flame retardants in foam cushions to unnecessary stain and dirt repellents on upholstery materials, everyday... Read more

Happy Earth Day! I'm sharing the results of our office Earth Day Mind Map, a collaborative event lead by our Green Team with office-wide participation. https://mm.tt/1471242441?t=4c76rJLKXz 

We are celebrating with a virtual happy hour later today and will use the Mind Map to generate conversation and sharing.

I would love to hear... Read more

Hello,

This is not my area of expertise but our contactor has suggested central heat pump hot water (CHPHW) is $1m more expensive than gas fired domestic hot water for a 150 unit multi-family residential building in Massachusetts. The Building Decarbonization Practice Guide is extremely helpful but, from their comments, it is all coming... Read more

Green Gurus –

Clark Brockman brought to our attention an important and impactful opportunity to advance building decarbonization through the US Department of Energy’s proposed rulemaking around water heater efficiency, advancing adoption of heat pumps, while still providing exceptions (and efficiency targets) for electric or natural gas... Read more

Dear SD Leaders: I'm writing to make sure that you've seen a letter that has been circulating protesting the ‘pro-asbestos’ rule change the EPA is considering.  The letter is soliciting firm signatures/owners (as opposed to individuals).  I encourage you to sign and/or get your firm to sign ASAP. 

Please forward as well to any firm from... 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

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

Welcome to the quiz portion of Are Cool Roofs Green? The Answer's Not Black and White

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


1. Explain why roofing choices are complicated by heating tradeoffs, climate effects, and condensation and how cool roofs are intended to reduce... Read more

Join us for the Peer Networks-exclusive version of this Greenbuild presentation!

Register HERE.

A New Standard in Facade Design
November 30th, 2020
1pm - 2pm ET (10am - 11am PT)

Description and Presenters: Current façade design focuses more on operating carbon (or energy), even when embodied carbon is accounted... Read more

At Living Future last week a woman from Google asked about cost comparisons and I shared that the City of Santa Monica conducted a study analyzing the costs of a prototypical mixed-use project for a Living Building vs. LEED v4 Platinum vs. code compliant (Title 24, part 6). I thought this group might be interested as well so here is the link... Read more

Big news! It’s being announced today that the amazing Lindsay Baker will be ILFI’s new CEO—she’s starting the job next week.

Lindsay is talking about bringing a new focus on advocacy work to ILFI—she had been working on setting up a new organization for that purpose when ILFI recruited her. And she’ll have her hands full figuring out... Read more

Fluid-applied roofing materials can be added to an existing roof to extend its life and provide reflective characteristics.

BuildingGreen-Approved Roofing

Products listed by BuildingGreen have VOC levels below 50 g/l and reflective surfaces to reduce heat gain.

Energy Star requires initial reflectance of 0.65 for low slopes... Read more

Hello everyone,

We are far too often asked to include parking in our buildings (because why shouldn't the average family have 2.1 kids, .8 pets, and 3 cars) and it always grates on me that we are putting so many resources (natural and monetary) into something that is almost certainly single use and will need to be demolished in 30 years... Read more

For those at Islandwood for the Summer Summit this week, we have this post-Summit meeting opportunity with James Connelly and Kathleen Smith from ILFI. This is one in a series of "Living Building Leaders" meetings, at which architects who support LBC get to collaborate with ILFI on how scale up LBC adoption.

Here's the agenda for this... Read more

The construction sector’s take-make-waste approach to materials needs an overhaul. Materials and construction account for an estimated 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions annually. At the other end of the life cycle, demolition in the United States annually generates 90% of some 600 million tons of construction-sector debris. Getting trashed... Read more

As Building Green’s Finance Manager, Ashleigh is responsible for the development and analysis of financial strategic plans, operational budgets, and the development and analysis of associated performance indicators.  Additionally, in her day-to-day she oversees all areas of finance including: payroll, accounts payable and receivables, project... Read more