BuildingGreen Report
Op-Ed
A leading champion of sustainable design leaves behind a rich legacy of accomplishment.
Lance Hosey, FAIA, LEED Fellow, died unexpectedly at his home on Friday, August 28, 2021 in San Diego, California. As shock gives way to reflection at BuildingGreen and the larger sustainable design community, Lance’s career as an architect, a widely published author, a committed mentor for dozens of emerging architects, and a champion of... Read more
Spotlight Report
It may take hundreds or thousands of years to return to pre-industrial-age levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, but the loss of animal and plant species that is occurring today is, practically speaking, irreversible. It will take millions of years for evolution to fill the ecological niches being vacated by extinctions and restore healthy... Read more
News Brief
International Living Future Institute (ILFI) taps industry veteran Lindsay Baker as new CEO to lead its next chapter.
The International Living Future Institute (ILFI) has announced that Lindsay Baker will be taking the reins of the organization starting on August 9, 2021. She succeeds interim CEO K C Gauldine, who took over in April 2020 after the departure of Amanda Sturgeon. Baker was selected because she brings “the power, vision, and experience to ignite... Read more
News Brief
Forest management practices have a big impact on the carbon benefits of using wood products. SCS has laid out how to do the calculations.
If a tree falls in the woods, and there’s no one around to describe how the forest has been managed, is the tree carbon neutral?
This riff on the classic philosophical thought experiment is a practical question that SCS Global Services is seeking to answer for the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).... Read more
News Analysis
Product-level embodied carbon information will be available within BIM software in 2023.
The nonprofit Building Transparency—holder of the EC3 tool that allows comparison of building products’ carbon footprints—recently added the popular life-cycle assessment (LCA) app Tally to its portfolio. And now, armed with a big grant, Tally and EC3’s environmental product declaration (EPD) database will be integrated into a... Read more
News Brief
AIA has released talking points for architects to help clients and others understand what an investment in green building can accomplish.
Have you ever felt stuck when clients say high performance sounds nice but just isn’t in the budget? The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has your back.
The group has released a series of talking points that specifically address return on investment for green building features. For example,... Read more
Feature Article
Removal of invasive plants and support of native plantings are critically important for maintaining healthy ecosystems.
As I’ve stepped back from BuildingGreen in recent years, I’ve shifted more of my time and energy to restoring ecological balance to the Dummerston, Vermont, property where my wife, Jerelyn, and I live. This has meant doing battle with a wide variety of invasive plants—especially oriental bittersweet, Japanese barberry, bush honeysuckle, glossy... Read more
News Analysis
Cities, counties, and states are adopting regulations that require energy-performance disclosure. But a newer type of standard may be more effective.
In 2008, it was a new and brilliant idea. Since building owners weren’t voluntarily making large-scale progress against climate change, jurisdictions would require them to find out how well their buildings performed, and then disclose that performance level to the public. These “benchmarking and transparency” laws first took hold in Washington... Read more
Product Review
Mitsubishi’s Heat2O commercial heat-pump water heater uses CO2 as a refrigerant and is now available in the U.S.
Heat pumps have become ubiquitous in our buildings because they are energy efficient and run on electricity rather than fossil fuels, an increasingly important consideration in areas where natural gas use is being restricted due to carbon emissions. The challenge is that the R-410a refrigerant typically used in heat pumps has... Read more
News Analysis
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently announced initiatives that will finally regulate the use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in consumer and building products.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are used as dirt and stain repellants and are found in carpet and textile treatments, coatings, sealants, and other building and consumer products. They are persistent in the environment, and some are known persistent, bioaccumulative toxicants (PBTs), yet the extent of their use is not fully... Read more
News Brief
More than a database, mindful Materials is taking on an advocacy and convener role focused on healthy and sustainable materials.
Disclaimer: BuildingGreen is a technical advisory partner to mindful Materials.
When you think of mindful Materials (mM), you may think of stickers. That’s how the whole thing got started: HKS developed binder labels meant to help its designers quickly identify products in their product library that had transparency labels like health... Read more
News Analysis
Occupants want access to IAQ data. But it’s a battle between simplicity and accuracy.
We’re not far from the day when we will be able to walk into a building and test indoor air quality in real time from our phones, most experts say. The demand for this air-quality information continues to grow, especially in the wake of COVID-19 and the realization that good IAQ is linked with lower transmission risk. In the... Read more
Op-Ed
BuidingGreen’s recent report critiquing net-zero energy may be fighting the wrong battle.
By Brad Liljequist
Reading BuildingGreen’s provocative “Net-Zero Energy Isn’t the Real Goal: 8 Reasons Why” sparked a lot of emotions and thoughts—ranging from strong agreement to a fair amount of “Yes, but….”
Zero energy by itself has never been the full, holistic goal—which instead perhaps is best stated as: “to reconstruct... Read more
News Brief
Extensive guidelines published by NAACP help put community residents in the driver’s seat.
With racial equity coming into greater mainstream focus as a sustainability imperative, one question keeps coming up for building professionals, policymakers, and residents of communities affected by development: how do we move forward?
NAACP is offering answers. The group’s first publication in a series called Guidelines for Equitable... Read more
Feature Article
Net-zero-energy buildings don’t always reduce carbon emissions. These are the tweaks we need to ensure they do.
Karina Hershberg’s transition from focusing on energy to focusing on carbon began six years ago. An electrical engineer at PAE Consulting, Hershberg was working on a project with deep sustainability goals. Net-zero energy (NZE) was a given. The team was considering taking the project entirely off grid and was thinking about a 300-year time... Read more
News Brief
The east and the west each have their own CLT producers, but now there’s one in between.
Even as the popularity of mass timber increases, sourcing Forest Stewardship Council-certified (FSC) wood is becoming more difficult, especially in certain regions of North America. It’s hardly good for the material’s carbon footprint to ship cross-laminated timber (CLT) and other members all the way across the U.S. or Canada... Read more
Spotlight Report
Net zero-energy (NZE) projects are a big step in the right direction, but we must start designing and operating them differently to accelerate the transition away from carbon emissions in the building sector.
In this report we list eight ways that NZE projects miss the mark on climate goals, including how they affect the electricity... Read more
Product Review
Jets vacuum toilet systems use significantly less water than standard systems, reduce wastewater, provide design flexibility, and can be used in combination with graywater and composting systems.
With drought conditions continuing in much of the U.S., reducing water consumption is an ongoing priority and has made low-flow appliances a necessity. Commercial toilets in particular use a lot of water, requiring a gravity assist to move waste along pipes. Though there are some extremely low-flow toilets available, there is... Read more
News Analysis
By applying the principles of “trauma-informed care,” building professionals can prevent re-traumatization while reducing stress for everyone.
“You can probably feel each other’s breath on you.” Renee Weeks is a social worker providing services for people experiencing homelessness at Upper Valley Haven in White River Junction, Vermont. Her empathy for guests comes through while she tries to imagine what it’s like to share cramped sleeping quarters with a stranger. “I... Read more
News Brief
The Green Science Policy Institute details how common PFAS compounds are in our building products.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are persistent, bioaccumulative, and linked to a number of negative health and environmental impacts. Some forms are toxic and possible carcinogens. These “forever” chemicals are now found on every continent and in the most remote places on the world. They are also common in the... Read more