Hi Everyone -

I just received this note from Don Horn at the GSA (Deputy Director, Office of Federal High-Performance Buildings):

"Here's another installment of our work to reduce emissions through GSA's actions. GSA issued a press release this morning announcing our new standards for low carbon concrete and environmentally... Read more

What general forums do you want (in addition to the Best Practice forums)? On LEEDuser we have "Forum quick links" in the left sidebar that cover general topics:

https://leeduser.buildinggreen.com/forums

For example, you could have:

and any other category that isn't restricted to a... Read more

Has anyone used a commercial heat pump water heater for a large protect?  I have found a few manufacturers for this technology, but want to make sure this is a viable and cost approach to electrical eliminate gas on a path to all electric.

Lisa Richmond

Hello Everyone,

Here is the information and invitation to complete the SCL Demographics Survey! If you have multiple company colleagues on this forum (you can check in the group list here click "Group members" tab), please coordinate to have only one of you submit survey responses.

If you would you like to gather your answers... Read more

The site license permits the purchaser to share the PDF Study-Guide file within their company/organization and... Read more

I'm so excited to share that the call for submissions is now open for 16cubits, a design festival and competition for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, to take place at Berkeley’s Urban Adamah in October 2024.

Please share with anyone you think might be interested! Our hope is to create a forum for builders, designers, and architects to... Read more

Greetings friends.

Many of you have heard about the CARE Tool, (formerly the 2Build or not 2Build Carbon Calculator.) We are now in the final stages of bringing it online as a free, open access tool hosted by Architecture 2030. We are finalizing and aligning data and working with a web developer (the same one that brought us... Read more

Hello all, 

Any Fitwel experts out there? I have a 30,000 sf boutique hotel + spa client who would like to certify under the Fitwel rating system but Fitwel folks are telling me that no scorecard is currently available to hotel clients (can't use mulit-tenant or resi, that a hotel scorecard is under development). Has anyone used Fitwel... Read more

Hi everyone - in doing a carbon footprint for our firm, does anyone know if buildings that we design as Architects considered scope 3 emissions, or are they beyond the boundary of emissions? LMN's buildings, despite best efforts, are cumulatively multiple orders of magnitude above our scope 1 and 2 emissions. We have never included these... Read more

Conventional roofs contribute to heat loss, heat islands, and excessive stormwater runoff.

BuildingGreen-Approved Green Roofs

BuildingGreen approves systems with appropriate planting media that can be created from regional materials and may be blended for specific characteristics, such as:

Good morning SDL,

I have a request for all of the supply chain labor folks out there… I would welcome hearing about your experience/stories/pointers you have based on your project work applying the DfF toolkit or other comparable supply chain labor efforts.

We have a socially minded client that is interested in Design for Freedom... Read more

Building materials emit massive amounts of carbon long before the lights go on.

In this course, BuildingGreen takes an analytical look at the greenhouse gases that are emitted in the process of constructing our buildings in the first place—the embodied carbon. The report focuses on how architects and designers, working with other key... Read more

Not a green design question but a green firm design question... Finalizing the renewal of our Just certification, we're taking a fresh look at all our benefits & policies. We have already reviewed industry-wide survey data (AIA and PSMJ) but are interested in how the firms we admire (i.e., *you*) are approaching benefits in the transformed... Read more

My dear collegues,

As I'm sure is true for many of us, the events of the past weeks (months/years/decades...) have emphatically reinforced to me the need for a radical shift in how we meaningfully address JEDI in what we do. One (admittedly small) step I've been thinking about are the statements of reconciliation that have become more... Read more

Folks, it is with a heavy heart that I write this: Lance Hosey passed away unexpectedly on Friday. 

Many of you know him from the early days of the SDL group, or as an outsized presence at any of the many conferences where we overlap. He's been a list-maker, poll-taker and all around troublemaker in my life for over 20 years; I know I am... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of The PVC Debate: A Fresh Look.

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


1. Examine the actual cost-effectiveness of PVC in terms of quality.
2. Explain what makes PVC a health hazard.
3. Recognize market effects of PVC's durability and... Read more