Product Review
The company's promotional material is the epitome of environmentally friendly packaging—like a Ben & Jerry's annual report. The article reprints sent were even bound in a jacket made from corrugated cardboard. So we were quite intrigued by the product. Syndecrete™ is a lightweight, pre-cast,... Read more
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
Feature
Ozone depletion and global warming are two of our most serious environmental problems—and foam insulation materials containing CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) contribute significantly to both of these problems. The environmentally concerned builder or designer should make it a highest priority to avoid them. Even many of the non-CFC alternatives... Read more
Feature
Susan Maxman is the first AIA president to make sustainable design a priority.
Q.Where would you say architects as a group stand on environmental issues?
A.Architects tend to be reactive rather than proactive. It is important that we take the lead on these environmental issues. The architecture schools in particular tend to be conservative. They just aren’t... Read more
Quiz
Welcome to the quiz portion of How to Make Integrated Project Delivery Work for Your Project.
Learning Objectives
Upon completing this course, participants will be able to:
1. State three problems that Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) promises to solve.
2. Dispel four misconceptions about IPD that have... Read more
Forum topic
This month on our Sustainable MEP Leaders call we were asked what resources would be suggested for advancing integrative design.
Two books immediately came to mind for me:
How Building Learn, by Stewart Brand
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Buildings_Learn
It was many years ago but reading Stewart Brand’s How... Read more
Forum topic
It's time for our next Peer Networks webinar! Ariane wowed us with her five minutes on future climate data at the Show-and-Tell at HKS in Chicago last November. Now we'll get the deep dive.
Wednesday, May 29, 2:00 pm EDT
Register here: https://www.buildinggreen.com/peer-networks/webinars
Remember--this live webinar is for... Read more
Forum topic
Does anyone here have a draft spec for low embodied carbon concrete they could share? I see the GSA has a standards sheet with MGWP limits, but we are hoping to actually specify the mix for upcoming projects.
Product Guide
Early laminate flooring had problems with premature surface wear, moisture damage, and hazardous formaldehyde emissions—and some products may still have these problems.
BuildingGreen-Approved Flooring
Laminate flooring products listed by BuildingGreen have high recycled content (greater than 70%) or FSC-certified content and:... Read more
Forum topic
Hi folks - update here for our FUN saturday night "show"!! What a great way to start the year and celebrate new beginnings!
The Lighter Side of Green will air THIS coming Sat night at 7pm with Anne Hicks Harney MC'ing - check out the link to see the roster of amazing talent and log on for great tunes, humor, camraderie and community! ... Read more
Forum topic
So our last webinar effort flamed out with the overloaded internet, but we've regrouped and have the session scheduled for this Thursday 4/2 at 1:10. We pre-recorded the webinar to make sure everything goes smoothly and I have to say that Mike is delivering some pretty fantastic content. It doesn't engage LCA tools, rather focusing on core... Read more
Forum topic
Hi amazing people!
Most of our projects are now going with some form of gender neutral/all-gender/inclusive toilet rooms or those that can easily be converted to such. With no urinals, we lose 3 LEED points because urinals are very water-efficient. With urinals, it's not as pure a solution. Do you all just take a hit on the LEED points,... Read more
Forum topic
Hello Sustainable Construction Leaders!
Here at BuildingGreen we are excited and looking forward to creating a valuable and engaging online summit with you all for 2020! In addition to going online, this year we have shifted the dates so that the SCL Summit will occur within weeks of all other Peer Network Summits. This allows us to host... Read more

