Welcome to the quiz portion of Driving to Green Buildings: The Transportation Energy Intensity of Buildings​​!

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


Define “transportation energy intensity” as it relates to buildings and understand its impacts on the environment, human health, and... Read more

The Sustainable Design Leaders group has had awesome, inspiring Summits for ten years now—and there is so much more we can do can to make it a thriving, essential year-round community. To do that we have to extend the trusted “safe space” of the Summits into our online conversations.

And other groups are just getting started on a... Read more

Hi MEP Leaders,

I would not normally post a job on this forum, but Placetailor is seeking to hire a mechanical engineer.  They are one of only two truly sustainable developers that I've ever heard of.  They are an integrated developer / builder / design firm that builds everything they touch to Passive House and carbon neutral standards... Read more

Hi, all! We've got amazing editorial plans for our December and January coverage, including Brent's rollout of the Top 10 Green Buiding Products for 2024 and a much-needed update to Wood: What's Good? 

Here's the trouble: we have waaaay too many good ideas about what else to cover. And I super suck at mind reading. So Nadav thought maybe... Read more

Hello All, I've a quick question. I am looking for a few potential subject expert speakers on the topic of the Circular Economy. Any suggestions out there? 

All thoughts are appreciated.

Rand Ekman

Dear All!

I recently met a passionate new hire at an architecture firm in NYC.  Her firm is reluctant to taking meaningful steps towards increasing sustainable impacts of their projects.  (Their work is in market rate of all types.)  This new hire is frustrated with the lack of sustainable adoption and understanding.

What would... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Measuring Energy Use in Buildings: Do Our Metrics Really Add Up?.

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


1. Explain the differences between site energy, source energy, and energy cost.
2. Summarize three ways in which source energy can... Read more

General FAQs

Orders, Memberships and Billing

Technical... Read more

Hi SD Leaders: As you may know, The National Architectural Accreditation Board (NAAB) is currently drafting their proposed 2020 Conditions for Architectural Accreditation.  AIA COTE has prepared a response and believe it is critical that the NAAB accreditation process address the role of the architect in climate action and the projected impacts... Read more

Hi all, 

The San Francisco Department of the Environment is hoping to gather info from designers and specifiers about construction surplus materials. Their survey is 8 questions total and not limited to those in the SF area. 

Pasting info below if you have a chance to participate! 

Calling Designers and Specifiers:

... Read more

Hi! Just saw this White House press release stating that federal suppliers will need to report on scope 1 & 2, and relevant scope 3 emissions and climate-related financial risks as well as set science-based emission reduction targets. The cutoff for disclosure requirements is $50m in federal contracts. Curious whether this affects any... Read more

Has anyone come across any (embodied) carbon emissions calculator for water?  Perhaps per region/state?  

Thanks in advance!

My firm didn't have representation at the winter summit, but I've just read the report (thank you, RoseAnn!), and was really glad to see there was conversation around mass timber. I'd love to talk with anyone who was involved in that roundtable to get a deeper download about the discussion. We've been doing a lot of mass timber buildings and... Read more

Preservative treatments extend the service life of wood, but many such treatments are highly toxic, especially to aquatic life.

BuildingGreen-Approved Preserved Wood

Products approved by BuildingGreen use chemicals (commonly borates) that are relatively low in toxicity and have low VOC emissions.

Health and Environmental... Read more

Opal Mao Mannella-Durante

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