Forum topic
Hi everyone - in doing a carbon footprint for our firm, does anyone know if buildings that we design as Architects considered scope 3 emissions, or are they beyond the boundary of emissions? LMN's buildings, despite best efforts, are cumulatively multiple orders of magnitude above our scope 1 and 2 emissions. We have never included these... Read more
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A couple Minnesota cities are considering adding electrification to their sustainable building policy (required for new construction receiving City financial assistance). Concerned that the market isn't ready for a full-on mandate, they are considering a more moderate approach of requiring developers/design teams to conduct an electrification... Read more
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On behalf of the LFRT IRA working group, I am writing to see if anyone has applied for IRA funding (48E, 45L, 179D) for their project, and is willing to share their experiences and basic project info with us. We can keep the project name confidential if needed.
Thank you!
Quiz
Sustainability leadership has requested that you take this quiz to help assess sustainability literacy across the firm. Your own results will be presented to you at the end of the quiz but will not be shared with anyone else. Only aggregated, anonymized results will be available to others.
Please don’t do research to inform your answers... Read more
Product Guide
Gypsum is calcium sulfate dehydrate, which is mined or produced as a byproduct of flue gas desulphurization (FGD) from coal-fired power plants. FGD gypsum may contain trace contaminants from coal processing, but not enough to represent a hazard to users. Years ago, some imported products created indoor air quality problems that required... Read more
Quiz
Welcome to the quiz portion of 20 Ways to Advance Sustainability in the Next Four Years!
Learning Objectives
Upon completing this course, participants will be able to:
Identify the challenges to green building during a time of environmental urgency and political unrest, and find opportunity in these challenges.
... Read more
Reports, Courses, Study Guides, Live Webinars
THIS WEBINAR PURCHASE AND REGISTRATION IS CLOSED.
Buildings aren’t garbage. But you wouldn’t know it by examining the way the AEC industry works.
We typically design buildings for a single, limited purpose. We build them partly out of plastics that can’t be readily recycled. We choose diverse materials... Read more
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We're thrilled to announce that, for the first time, the 2025 Summits for each Peer Network will be hosted within one week and in a single location. You’ll get the deep peer-to-peer time you love from a Summit AND some glorious cross-disciplinary time to experience the power of the Green Commons. It’s all happening at the Kimpton Cottonwood, a... Read more
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We have a client who is asking us to design a roughly 10 ksf Wellness Center for PHIUS 2021 certification. The program includes several high density assembly type spaces - roughly 300 person peak occupant load for the building. The Criteria Calculator that the architect showed us puts the building peak cooling load at 4 BTUH/sf (3000 sf/ton... Read more
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Dear SD Leaders: I'm writing to make sure that you've seen a letter that has been circulating protesting the ‘pro-asbestos’ rule change the EPA is considering. The letter is soliciting firm signatures/owners (as opposed to individuals). I encourage you to sign and/or get your firm to sign ASAP.
Please forward as well to any firm from... Read more
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Under a high carbon scenario, most of North America will be 2 degrees C hotter by 2050. Meantime, we're designing buildings that will still be around in 2050, to codes that don't yet factor in chronic risks associated with climate change. I want to explain these risks to my colleagues; I'm hoping some of our green gurus can help answer the... Read more
Basic page
The Sustainable MEP Leaders peer network brings together the most committed sustainability directors from leading MEP design firms throughout the U.S. and Canada. We invite you to apply for membership.
We look for the... Read more
Forum topic
We broke up into 5 discussion groups by market sector:
Commercial office Education Healthcare & Labs Multifamily Civic/institutional/sportsHere are the proposed "guiding questions":
How do other firms define 'design thinking'? Do they have a standard process used across projects and, if so, how they have made that take hold... Read moreAuthor
Nancy Eve Cohen is the managing editor at BuildingGreen. She brings the highest standards to her work, with the goal of providing trusted and accurate information and analysis for BuildingGreen’s readers.
Previously she worked in public radio as a reporter and editor for more than two decades, where she specialized in environmental... Read more
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Hi All,
How are folks funding training for your employees? Would it help to have free training opportunities besides lunch and learns or ones you do yourself?
For those of you outside of Massachusetts you may have employees or friends in MA that this could be relevant to. I'm hoping my friends in MA have already heard this.
... Read moreForum topic
Hey group,
I'm part of the contractor team on a large commercial project pursuing LBC v3.1 Petal Certification, with one of those petals being materials. This requires the team to meet Imperative 10 Red List.
The ownership group has taken the responsibility of red list vetting as a task of their own. The construction team is to... Read more
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Hi friends,
We recently tracked our water consumption on site during the structural demolition of some existing reinforced concrete buildings. The new OSHA silica regulations required us to keep dust to virtually zero, so we had a bunch of mist cannons and water hoses pumping water around the clock. We consumed ~855,000 gallons in a... Read more