Championing the
Changemakers

Products recommended by BuildingGreen avoid potentially hazardous additives and binders and have high recycled content or offer superior energy performance.

Recommended cellulose insulations are derived from agricultural waste, offer superior moisture or air leakage performance, or impart lower indoor air quality concerns than other... Read more

A colleague just pointed out an article about M-Fire. Its a factory applied fire inhibitor for wood construction. It's GreenGuard Gold but I can't find any real information. Have any of you heard of this or have any idea what it actually is? https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/construction-development/this-new-tech-will-stop-fires-before-they... Read more

Hi Small Firm Sustainable Design Leaders!

Our call today at 1pm Eastern will focus on the ways in which your firm is impacted differently than larger firms on the variety of topics and issues that are reflected in the 2020 SD Leaders Winter Summit REPORT. Take a look at this report and especially at slides 14-33. Bring your observations... Read more

Here is a fundamental question regarding measuring operational carbon emissions that I'm sure many of you can clarify for me:  Let's say you are considering design options and you want to know the relative contribution of GWP of adding an additional inch of continuous insulation to the building envelope.  The GWP from embodied carbon will... Read more

Does anyone know where one can locate weather files (EPW) that has predicted future data for climate change?

Thanks in advance.

Greetings, Green Gurus:

As unbelievable as it sounds, the Environmental PROTECTION Agency has launched a PR blitz in support of their "new use rule" on asbestos. So the BuildingGreen community needs to push back harder. I'm reposting the links to the letter of opposition that Mary Ann Lazarus put up last week. We definitely need more... Read more

Hello all, 

Wondering if anyone has experience with lead limits in electrical cable and wiring? 

LEED for Healthcare allows a limit of 300 ppm of lead in electrical wire and cabling - my search for compliant products has been all dead ends. (MRc PBT Source Reduction - lead, cadmium, and copper)

Acceptable regulations for... Read more

Hi there SCLers,

Hope everyone is safe and healthy. I am posting on behalf of the Steeering Committee to let you know that the Committee has now adopted a Core Purpose Statement for the SCL Group. Please give it a quick read; we will likely sit with this and spend some time internalizing what it means at the upcoming Summit. 

The... Read more

Hi all,

I'm curious if anyone has insight as to the "New Federal Building Performance Standards" that were announced in May of 2021 and then referenced again when E.O. 14057 came out. The memorandum for heads of agencies that was sent out with E.O. 14057 said that the CEQ would issue these standards, but I can't find a commitment to when... Read more

The Sustainable Construction Leaders peer network brings together the most committed sustainability directors from leading construction companies throughout the U.S. and Canada. We invite you to apply for membership.

Ace Brockwell

Hello! 

We have several projects that are either pending ILFI Zero Carbon certification or the owner is planning to purchase offsets to cover construction emissions. Thus far, I have not considered this in our corporate footprint reporting. However, we are including A5 emissions whenever feasible and multiplying that performance over the... Read more

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

I'm writing an article surveying and comparing various embodied carbon tools, including whole-building LCA tools. I'm looking for interviewees who have used at least TWO of the three major LCA tools currently in use in North America (Tally, Athena IE, and One Click LCA). If you've tried all three, all the better! If you or someone in your firm... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Verifying Performance with Building Enclosure Commissioning.

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


1. Reason why the enclosure is fundamental to a sustainable building.
2. Explain why energy goals are less likely to be achieved without... Read more

HI Green Gurus. Great news for those who signed the petition to WHO last summer, and even those who didn't. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) released on March 1, 2021 a Roadmap to improve and ensure good indoor ventilation in the context of COVID-19. This document provides practical advice on how to mitigate COVID-19 through airborne... Read more