Championing the
Changemakers

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

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

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

Hello Sustainable Construction Leaders,

It's come to our attention that although we shared the slides from last fall's all-network Show & Tell in Atlanta, we neglected to include the presentations from the SCL Summit itself. Since we believe in "better late than never," here they are!

As a reminder: we have permission from... 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

Looking for an example or case study for a building utilizing a radiant heating/cooling in climate zone 4a. General use type is office with some public assembly spaces, total of 85,000 sf.

As usual, everyone, especially mechanical engineer, is terrified by the thought of "condensation." So far, I read a DGWW case study, "Energy... Read more

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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

Hello Green Gurus,

A close colleague of ours, Frances Yang of Arup, is distributing a survey developed in partnership with the Healthy Building Network (HBN).

The survey asks for which product categories you need more health information. Answers will help inform which product categories HBN next incorporates into its HomeFree and... Read more

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

With the increasing need to support design with techncial expertise, I am curious to hear how others are meeting this challenge.  Do you build energy models in-house?  Do you have a team of experts whose sole responsibility is to support design teams with tasks such as energy modeling and LCA, or is that expertise distributed throughout the... Read more

Greetings Gurus, following the AIA COTE Design for Economy concept, does anyone have a resource for a list of building efficiency ratio "targets" by space type? I've always struggled with this initiative. 

Hi Green Gurus (esp. Sustainable MEP leaders...)

I'm looking for suggestions of contacts for MEP consultants, especially in the Chicagoland region, ideally with sustainability highly integrated into the work, specialization in geothermal systems, and indoor agriculture. (doesn't necessarily have to be all-in-one)

For context, we... Read more

With an urgent climate justice mission, AIA has the call open for volunteers to help shape our industry's action. COTE, the Codes + Standard Committee (one of the most important committees anywhere!), Board Committees (including the Committee on CLimate Action and Design Excellence - CCADE)  and the Strategic Council have openings. Consider how... Read more