Firms that have signed onto the American Institute of Architects (AIA) 2030 Commitment credit the program with increasing staff awareness of energy-saving targets, expanding the use of energy modeling, and improving the energy efficiency of their designs. However, these committed firms represent just a small fraction of those... Read more

Hygro refers to water, and thermal refers to heat. In buildings, you really can’t manage heat without also managing moisture. For example, if you increase how much insulation is in a wall, you may also be increasing the risk of moisture and mold problems.

There are four ways that buildings can get wet:

A recent life-cycle comparison between white, vegetated, and solar roofs found white roofs have a negative impact on the environment—at least in cold Canadian climates—while solar roofs provide the greatest environmental benefit.

Taking into account impacts from manufacturing, transporting, and... Read more

Besides discouraging able-bodied people from climbing flights of stairs, elevator shafts are running up major energy expenditures. That’s the conclusion of a report released by Urban Green Council, which estimates building owners around New York City could collectively save more than $11 million a year with relatively simple... Read more

As architects and other design professionals from around the nation gather in Atlanta this week, they will find that the gap between design and sustainable design is narrower than ever. But if you are looking for the greenest talks of them all, look... Read more

ON-DEMAND WEBCAST

Key benefit of attending:

In just one hour, learn how to vet products and materials (without having to earn chemistry and toxicology degrees!). Includes special access to a forum offering post-webcast product vetting support.

Who should attend:

designers, architects and contractors trying to... Read more

The promise of Integrated Project Delivery (IPD)—where key project members contractually agree to collaborate and resolve problems together—sometimes sounds like the stuff of legends. Some of the early projects heralded as successes include the Camino Medical Group medical center, where DPR Construction reported $9 million in... Read more

One square foot of 3" thick polyisocyanurate (polyiso) insulation requires 15.22 MJ of energy to create, the equivalent of burning a little over a pound of coal. The same piece of rigid boardstock depletes 1.26 kg of non-renewable resources and uses 50 liters of water—adding up to a significant embodied footprint when spread... Read more

Ceiling fans have come a long way since the days of wicker fan blades and massive, inefficient motors.

High-volume, low-speed fans (some with diameters of 24 feet!) are now common in large commercial and industrial spaces. And smaller, super-efficient—and good looking—fans such as the Haiku from Big Ass... Read more

In this all-too-common scenario, do the customers know what’s going on behind the scenes? Increasingly, yes, and they are moving to source their metals responsibly.

A “conflict resource” is any natural resource extracted in a conflict zone and sold to finance the fighting. The 2006 thriller “Blood... Read more

When was the last time you had to test out several design options to find out which one worked? Maybe just this morning. What would it be like if the federal government paid you for that?

Most design and construction professionals develop unique, innovative solutions for almost every building project.... Read more

It’s no secret that sun-drenched California has solar potential. Large-scale developers have looked at installing photovoltaics (PV) and concentrating solar power (CSP) in deserts. This adds transmission costs in getting power to cities and also puts native and protected habitats at risk. Stanford-affiliated researchers have an... Read more

Update: The article now acknowledges the architecture firms involved with the Collaborative Life Sciences Building.

The American Institute of Architects COTE Top Ten projects for 2015 include laboratories, townhouses, and a warehouse adapted as an office building. What do they... Read more

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has announced that projects certified under the Living Building Challenge (LBC) can automatically earn most of the points available under its LEED rating system for energy and water efficiency.

The alignment could have practical implications for project teams, but... Read more

ON-DEMAND WEBCAST

FSC-certified wood is ingrained in green building rating systems like LEED and the Living Building Challenge, but rival SFI has a revised standard. Can it prove it’s just as good on the issues that matter most?

Does SFI merely provide cover for business as usual? Or, is it a standard designers can rely on for the... Read more

Financial payback is a big deciding factor in choosing retrofit strategies, but the choices suggested by those calculations are not always the best in terms of reducing life-cycle carbon emissions, say researchers.

In a paper presented at avniR, a French conference focused on life-cycle assessment (LCA... Read more

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and industry partners say they are on track to create a foam board insulation that achieves R-12 per inch and is cost effective. If they pull it off, it would more than double the R-value of the best rigid foam insulation today.

To mitigate the effects of thermal bridging through structural elements that penetrate the building envelope, designers have few good options. Retaining those balconies, canopies, lightshelves, and other features—if it’s even possible to do so without severe energy penalties—may mean completely redesigning conventional... Read more

Upholstered furniture is a firefighter’s nightmare. Typically made with a wood frame and flammable, petroleum-based foam cushioning, when ignited this seating quickly becomes a raging inferno that gives off toxic fumes and is difficult to extinguish.

Because of this fire danger, strict flammability... Read more

Ecological “footprints” refer to the impact that we have on the planet through consumption and other activities. If the International Living Future Institute (ILFI) is successful in its latest program, we may think a lot more about our “handprints”—the benefit and value we add to the world.

That’s... Read more