News Brief
The American Institute of Architects convention in Boston this past June was the setting for a changing of the guard in the American architectural establishment. The Institute’s first woman president took the reins, the Committee on the Environment became its largest and fastest growing committee, and the first installments of the Environmental... Read more
Feature
Carefully stake the building site and driveway, remove trees that are within the excavation area or too close, then erect a fence to keep heavy equipment off fragile soils and away from nearby trees.
Protecting trees and the local ecosystem when building on previously unbuilt land is a vitally important—yet often overlooked—part of environmentally responsible construction. Healthy trees and shrubs can reduce a home’s environmental impact and directly benefit homeowners in a number of ways:
•Enhancing comfort by shielding the house... Read more
Op-Ed
Introducing the first issue of our newsletter.
Buildings have a tremendous impact on the environment. In North America, buildings and the building industry account for about 30% of carbon dioxide emissions, 35-40% of ozone depletion, 20-30% of municipal solid waste, vast quantities of natural resource consumption, and dramatic loss of open space each... Read more
Author
P.J. is an accomplished writer and speaker who brings passion, humor, and discernment to all her work.
Whether it’s a spotlight report on decarbonization, a webinar on ESG, or just a chummy email bulletin, she is ferociously committed to truth, accuracy, and thoroughly... Read more
Forum topic
Hi Everyone - I'm posting this on behalf of Jeff Frost whom many of you know from his days as an SD Leader with SmithGroup and SERA and in his new role as head of Brightworks Sustainability's materials group. I am excited to be working with Jeff on this concept of multi-attribute product scoring. Cheers, Lona
Dear SDL’ers,
We’ve... Read more
Quiz
Welcome to the quiz portion of Programming Buildings for Health: WELL, Fitwel, and Beyond!
Important: This quiz covers all related articles within this topic. Scroll to the bottom of the article page to find links to all the articles covered by this quiz.
Learning Objectives
Upon completing this course, participants will be... Read more
Forum topic
Dear Green Gurus: I'm so sorry to have missed seeing many of you at AIA last week. I heard the BG and COTE events were the highlights of the week! Congrats.
I'm sure by now you've heard of the dreadful Supreme Court decision about the EPA. I thought I'd share a helpful, if not sobering, perspective in an Op-Ed today in the Washington... Read more
Forum topic
Friends of EPIC –
Hey, everyone. As some of you might have heard, we’ve been working for a while with Autodesk to get c.scale (the data model behind EPIC) built into Forma – Autodesk’s AI-powered planning tool. Forma is packaged within Autodesk’s AEC collection and most firms using Revit should already have access. This integration is... Read more
Forum topic
I was wondering if any of you have experience with integrated PVs and/or solar glass. If so, can you could recommend manufactures for each? We are working on a multistory freestanding building in an urban site for a mid-Atlantic city. Because our site and roof area are limited we are looking to maximized the areas where we can generate power.... Read more
Forum topic
I was recently tasked by my CEO to uncover some qualitative (interviews) and quantitative (surveys) data within our organization related to the value remote working has had on our organization. He's specifically interested in questions such as how this experience has enhanced our value as teams, unity or disunity as a firm? Where has it ... Read more
Forum topic
I'm sure if I hop in the way back machine I could look in the forums and find old threads on LEED GA and LEED AP study resources, but I also know that material comes in and out of date. Has anyone found a good, current solution for firmwide LEED study materials?
We used to have some GBES resources, but those are intended to be person-... Read more
Product Guide
Conventional overhead air distribution systems rely on energy-intensive air mixing, but underfloor systems take advantage of natural convection and stratification.
BuildingGreen-Approved Access Flooring Products
We list access flooring products that are specially designed to facilitate effective, energy-efficient underfloor air... Read more
Forum topic
Hi there colleagues!
Out of curiosity, do you plan on attending Greenbuild in person in San Diego in September? My staff asked me if we were going and my answer is partially contingent on the extent to which attending would mean getting to see some of our favorite people (read: all of you). Looking forward to taking the temperature of... Read more
Forum topic
Hi folks,
AIA COTE National is looking for Techincal Reviewers for the 2025 awards. Interested, or know someone who might be? Sign up here: https://form.jotform.com/231175886103153
Thanks!
Forum topic
Hi everyone, on our SDL Regional Leaders call today we touched on how different offices are engaging with the Youth Climate Strike on Sept 20, and I offered to share a few resources that we've developed:
1) Here is our public-facing official statement/endorsement: https://www.vmdo.com/architecture-blog/vmdo-youth-climate-strike/?fbclid... Read more
