Championing the
Changemakers

Hi: Please check out the fantastic editorial from Ned Cramer at Architect on "The Future of Architecture Education is the Future of Civilization". The deadline to comment on the latest draft of the NAAB accreditation criteria is November 22 and, as in the past draft, it falls far short of prioritizing climate action and sustainability. VERY... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Building Electrification: A Vital Solution to Climate Change.

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


1.  Understand the relationship between building electrification and decarbonization to improve the efficiency and sustainability of buildings.

2... Read more

Following up on the Decarbonizing Existing Building: Envelope + MEP Solutions Integrative Design Jam, a cohort of us determined a "Decision Making Tree Toolkit" that begins to classify decisions into and "if/then" framework using region, market, climate, scale of intervention, and other factors would be useful in helping us collectively move... Read more

I have a client that is very interested in automated shades for a mid-rise multi-family housing project. Do you have any examples of projects that have attempted this? I assume it would involve occupancy sensors and/or an over-rideable default setting dependant on sun position and temperature. I also have an MEP Engineer team that is having a... Read more

What’s the net present value of that extra insulation? Join us on Tuesday, June 25th at 2:00 pm Eastern for a Peer Networks webinar on “Balancing Embodied and Operating Carbon.” Bill Smarzewski and Jason Fierko of Ewing Cole have developed a method for combining energy modeling with embodied carbon data to determine the carbon “payback” of... Read more

Many wood panels are unsustainably sourced, and some have high formaldehyde emissions.

BuildingGreen-Approved Panels

Laminate panels approved by BuildingGreen:

Are you getting questions, advice, and dubious sales pitches from all comers about how to design and run an HVAC system to combat infectious disease? You’re not alone. Engineers, facility managers, architects, and other building professionals are all... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Climate Change: Building Industry, You’ve Got This!

Important: This quiz covers all related articles within this topic. Scroll to the bottom of the article page to find links to all the articles covered by this quiz.

Learning Objectives
Upon completing this course,... Read more

Hi SDL: Check out this great interview with Paul Hawken and  COTE members Gunnar Hubbard and Kira Gould. Lots of inspirational ideas about the importance of the built environment in carbon drawdown: 

Here's that link---

https://www.architectmagazine.com/technology/aia-cote-in-conversation-with-paul-hawken_o

thanks.

... Read more

All,

Some of my colleagues and I have been working to promote interest in mass timber construction for K-12 builidngs.  As part of that effort we redesigned a large high school using mass timber in lieu steel, and conducted a whole building life cycel assessment to measure the reduction in embodied carbon.  We also conducted a program-... Read more

Hello SCL,

Our diligent Contractor's Commitment working group (led by the great Amanda Atkinson) have reviewed a massive amount of feedback and will soon be releasing an updated version of the program (CC 2.0). We will need a majority of the SCL membership to vote YES to adopt the updated version for 2023. 

In advance of the vote... Read more

Just had a contractor call who said they had a university client interested in using natural-gas-fed fuel cells as an alternative to grid power in some applications.  They were interested in an intermediate scale: 300kW.

Anyone with any experience with these devices? 

Hi everyone,

Just a reminder that the first-ever Sages monthly call is happening tomorrow, February 13th, at 12pm ET! We'll be introducing ourselves to each other and discussing our visions for the network. 

Here is the agenda for the meeting, and below is the Zoom info: 

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/... Read more

Boyd is part of the marketing team at BuildingGreen, where he supports analytics and social media engagement.

Boyd’s experience before joining BuildingGreen includes a decade in the paddlesports industry guiding whitewater trips as well as 5 years working in beer and wine manufacturing with a focus on customer interaction as well as... Read more

We are coordinating an effort to produce a "Building Reuse Practice Guide for Climate Action" for the AIA.  This is intended as a resource for architects working on major renovations and adaptive reuse, with a focus on reducing energy use, lower embodied carbon, electrification, and adapting to a changing climate. We are looking for around 5... Read more

Green Gurus,

Taking advantage of the good stuff that this pandemic is leaving us with, the Boston COTE has gone virtual for its meetings. That means that all of you around the country can join our great program.

Coming up next Wednesday at 2pm EDT (11am PDT, 1pm CDT) we'll have the always inspiring Andrea Love present along with... Read more