I'd love to hear thoughts from the design, consulting, and contracting firms in this group about ways to make our specs more inclusive, or at least less exclusive to minority and women owned contractors and subcontractors and others that have not had the benefit of what a recent "Equity in Specs" presenter termed the "Fathers / Brothers / In-... Read more

Hello Everyone,

We wanted to share the highlights and take-aways from the large firm Sustainable Design Leaders (SDL) 2020 Winter Summit at The Lodge at Gulf State Park, AL. Additionally, this was the first year we had a pre-summit workshop for the winter summit. Our amazing workshop facilitator, Julie Huffaker from Deeper Funner Change... Read more

Hello SDL-ers - 

The SDL Climate-Smart Wood Group hosts a monthly online forum for builders all over North America who care about wood - and if that sounds like you, you're invited! As builders, we want to advocate for the conscientious use of wood as part of a holistic commitment to climate justice and resilience. We have been meeting... Read more

Hi, we need 3-4 folks to volunteer to join us to work out a draft Materials section for the Contractors Commitment.  Meeting set for 6/16 @ 2 PM CST.

Please message me at pslloyd@leopardo.com if interested in participating.  I will forward out the meeting invite. If the time doesn't work, but you want to participate, I will share info in... Read more

Hi All,

I will be catching up on learning units over Thanksgiving weekend and I am wondering if anyone else is experiencing the challenge of credential maintenance of their CPHD? Ideally we would have a client go for Passive House accreditation on a project, but lacking that, how are folks maintaining their 20 credits per year? For... Read more

I am getting started on a research project to evaluate the feasibility, costs, and benefits of using phase change material (PCM) to passively regulate temperature in Minnesota buildings. If anyone has experience designing with PCM, installing PCM, or occupying buildings with PCM, can you share any lessons learned that would be relevant as... Read more

Hi All,

I'm working on a LEED for Schools project under 2009, and received some amorphous comments back about our Mold Prevention Plan. We used the LEEDuser template as a guide, while also referencing the EPA document the credit is based around, but the reviewers feel we haven't provided proper metrics. The EPA plan is something like... Read more

Axel Slowin

Does anyone share the same feeling of stagnation? We are supposed to hit 80% pEUI reduction now and working towards 90% mark, but I don’t see it happening for majority of our projects, even the “right” ones that we implemented integrative design process & iterative energy modeling. I am wondering whether anyone would be willing to share... Read more

Greetings friends.  Our leadership has decided to create a partner-position to my role but in the engineering group of our firm.  This person would be a key ally in my work improving the high performance and sustainability of our projects with a focus on high-performance mechanical systems, net-zero, electrification, etc...  If you are... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Energy Modeling for Early Design Decisions (recorded webcast)

Learning Objectives
Upon completing this course, participants will be able to:


1. Explain how energy codes and standards are pushing commercial projects beyond what they can do without modeling.
2. Describe the key... Read more

What sorts of boilerplate and legalese will we need on the BIT User site? For example:

I'm not saying you need any or all of those, but I'm just giving a heads-up in case you need to check with your legal advisor.

I can link to those documents from the site footer.

CEUs are available for reading all the building-envelope product guides and primer. Click here to learn more and take the quiz.

Noise disrupts work, learning, and healing and can create stress and discomfort.

BuildingGreen-Approved Acoustic Insulation

We look for products with:

Hi Brilliant People: 

I'm hoping you can help me with a quick research question. A local colleague is trying to make the case to replace an existing old slate roof with slate vs. "slate look" asphalt shingles on a local public historic building. The bids are 6X higher for slate over the alternative 25-30 year solutions. They understand... Read more

Hi everyone,

As you may know the ICC has changed the way the IECC will be written in the future and most of us think that will reduce the stringency of the future energy codes that are the biggest lever in the fight against climate change within the buildings sector.

So one of the best pathways forward is via ASHRAE, which has a... Read more

Hi All -

With the holidays coming up and budgeting for 2023 - do we have any information on when and where a mini summit will be?  I heard rumors of Arizona?  Hoping to come but need the info as soon as I can.

Curious if folks know of any resources on hempcrete, specific to durability.  We have a one-story carbon-neutral operational energy project where the design team and client have bought into the aesthetics and carbon-sequestering potential of hempcrete, and amazingly it is looking to be no more expensive than a more typical concrete wall... Read more

Greetings Sustainable Construction Leaders,

As we begin closing out 2021, we wanted to give you a quick update that the next SCL Salary Survey will be coming to you in early January! The BuildingGreen team and SCL Steering Group have been busy this past month polishing up the questions for this anonymous survey.

A reminder of the... Read more