Championing the
Changemakers

Hi All - I have a 3 bdroom close walking distance to Greenbuild venue - but I don't need it.

Last call before I cancel it - if anyone wants it - I can transfer!

Just shoot me an email directly to bb@sustainable-performance.org

Thanks and see you there!

We have a client for whom we are designing a very high performance manufacturing facility, and they want to communicate their building's performance both dynamically and in real-time within their lobby for guests and staff.

We would like to mine the wisdom of this group to see what recommendations we can muster regarding high quality... Read more

Is there a way for southface staff or guest experts to "pin" or "tag" the "right" answer in a forum question? It might be useful to designate the right answer and pin it to the top of a forum thread. I don't want the answer selected via crowd source but by staff or volunteers. Thanks.

If you haven't seen it yet, today's U.N. report "Making Peace With Nature" tackles climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution jointly within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals. 

The analysis is anchored in current economic, social and ecological reality and framed by economics and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Getting Flame Retardants Out of Foam Insulation.

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


 

1. Summarize why and how flame retardants are used in foam insulation.
2. Elucidate the case for taking the chemicals out of foam insulation.
3.... Read more

Does adding solar panels reduce a building's EUI?

Existing operational use of a building is 80 kBtu/sf/year. When we add solar, it will change the source of energy but does not change the usage.

My understanding is that the EUI does not change, but it would be good to hear from others.

It's energy consumption at the point... Read more

Huge shout out to Patty Lloyd, Luke Leung, Janet Olsen, and Sarah Gudeman for their webinar on the Power of Peer Networks. They share lots of insights into the value of participating in BG Peer Networks and many others. Ten bucks to Illinois Green gets you access to the recording--I loved it. What would you have said that they didn't?

Good daylighting intentions can end up increasing glare and solar heat gain.

BuidlingGreen-Approved Lightshelves

We look for lightshelves designed to reflect direct sunlight onto the ceiling, turning what could potentially be glare into diffuse, ambient daylight that penetrates deep into the interior of a building.

Energy... Read more

Hi folks,

We will be having a call for the Sustainable MEP Leaders group on Monday, April 8 at 3pm Eastern time. Hope you can join us! We'll be talking about our first in-person Summit, as well as diving into discussion about some top-of-mind topics related to being a sustainability point person within an MEP commercial practice. Here’s... Read more

We have several projects that are small enough that we don't hire consultants to run energy models. I just received permission to do some training so that I can run these models myself. I am looking at doing this training on eQuest:

https://www.udemy.com/course/equest-energy-modelling-detailedtraining/?c...

I am thinking it would... Read more

This month on our Sustainable MEP Leaders call we were asked what resources would be suggested for advancing integrative design.

Two books immediately came to mind for me:

How Building Learn, by Stewart Brand

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Buildings_Learn

It was many years ago but reading Stewart Brand’s How... Read more

This is specifically to Chris but also to anybody who is interested in the topic - which Chris raised on our SAL call today, regarding how to influence change:

From this article, which i thought was good but had a great paragraph pulled below.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/12/business/Steve-Mollenkopf-Qualcomm-corner-office.html... Read more

The Center for the Built Environment (CBE) at the University of California, Berkeley is conducting a survey to understand current practices and outlooks among design practitioners: architects, engineers, energy modelers, and related professionals. Our goal with this work is to improve climate change adaptation guidelines that support building... Read more

In our quest to create a low carbon future the lectrification/Decarbonization working group is planning spend the next 10 months creating tools to advocate for electrification:

How to create a grid that works for our electric future. How to electrify buildings, both existing and new. How to advocate for policies and legislation that... Read more

Quiz body not needed for this auto-confirmation

Hi all,

I'm sure many (most? all?) of us have heard the changes to LEEDv4's energy standard are coming. If this is news to you, info on the balloted measures that have passed is available online here: https://www.usgbc.org/articles/leed-v4-energy-update-approved-member-ballot.

My question to MEP friends in the Green Commons: In... Read more