Championing the
Changemakers

Hey all,

Thanks to everyone who joined today's peer network webinar - it was great to share what our working group has been developing in the last year. This group gathered to work through a series of decision-making trees to publish some kind of relatively repeatable guidance for how to advance this conversation with a variety of owners... Read more

Hello Green Gurus,

Here is the information for our second Peer Networks Webinar this month, coming up next week: Better Products = Better Buildings (Low Carbon Specs). We hope you can join us!

Register HERE.

Better Products = Better Buildings (Low Carbon Specs)
Thursday, May 19, 2022
1 - 2pm ET (10 - 11am PT)... Read more

We are excited to share the REPORT from the 2019 Small Firm SDL Summit held in Las Vegas on June 5th. Take a look and use this forum to post questions and comments that will allow us to engage our new members as we continue the valuable conversations begun at the Summit. As you will read in the introduction, we know that collectively small... Read more

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!

Does anyone have a "healthy material" exterior bleacher benchtop (beyond natural wood or metal) recommendation for a public high school track and field? 

How do we discern between fiberglass, recycled plastic or HPDE?  Is there a rule of thumb on how to advocate for specifying a "not as bad" material? 

The project is in a coastal... Read more

Glazing connects occupants to the outdoors, but with so many opportunities for air leakage, poor insulation, and thermal bridging, glazing is the primary weak link in building energy performance.

BuildingGreen approves glazing that offers strong energy performance properties for a variety of... Read more

Hello everyone!

My role at Sundt Construction is both a Preconstruction Project Manager, and Chairman of the company's sustainability committee. I've been involved in green building since 2001 and have been in leadership roles in both the Arizona and Minnesota USGBC Chapters. I look forward to being an active member of this group.... Read more

We are looking for colleagues from other firms to join a conference session proposal on "Dirt cheap Net Zero" for the ASHRAE / IBPSA conference (August 12-14, 2020, Chicago). 

We just had the grand opening of our first project designed to achieve net zero, a 50-unit affordable housing project, where we upgraded from the minimums required... Read more

First, there was Energy Use reductions

Then there was embodied carbon

Soon it will be refrigerant use/leakage calculations

…and much more

As coordinators and leaders of project teams, what does this look like for the practicing architect and our collaborators?

I have no idea. BUT I’m guessing someone is... 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

Join Brent & Alex to learn what's new and what's been updated in our BuildingGreen Guide to Thermal Insulation, Fourth Edition, including what you should know about:

So much has changed so quickly!

Our 30-minute roundtable... Read more

Hi Gurus,

It seems odd to think about leases now, during a time when most business are giving up leases or reducing their footprints, but there are still leases going on! Please share this link to any clients of yours who might be interested and sign up yourself if you want to advocate to your clients to consider these leases!

... Read more

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.

Hi all,

Thanks again to those who presented at the AIA Show & Tell! Here are the slides for some of the fascinating presentations we saw. Please do not share the slides outside of the networks unless they are marked “PUBLIC.”

There may be more to come; if you presented but did not yet provide permission for your slides to be... Read more

Jill is a licensed architect with WELL and Living Future accreditation. Through her experience leading sustainable achievement and verification on projects in the workplace, K-12, civic, and retail/mixed use typologies, Jill brings her passion for sustainable materials across vetting categories, AEC disciplines, bid scenarios, and market... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Know Thy Client: 9 Un-Green Strategies for Delivering Better Buildings

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


1. Focus on a client’s values to drive sustainability solutions.
2. Define the quality of the work being delivered to underscore... 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