Championing the
Changemakers

Posting for Kira Gould: 

Since his death on August 27, 2021, Lance Hosey has been missed by our community. We miss his voice and his vision -- as well as his collegiality and humor. Now, Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation announced the Lance Hosey Scholarship Fund to Make Things Better. We are pleased... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of A Guide to Selecting Sustainable Textiles.

Learning Objectives

Upon completing this course, participants will be able to:


Welcome to the quiz portion of the Wood, Forests, and Embodied Carbon Webinar!

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

1. Explain the complex relationship between forests and carbon, with an emphasis on how carbon releases from forestry affect the sustainability of buildings that... Read more

Dear Colleagues,

I proposed CarbonCure for a project and the structural engineer in the meeting was opposed to it. He later sent me detailed reasoning by email. I have not used this technology and would like to hear other more experienced opinions on the technology. The project we are working on is well integrated with climate, 99% sDA,... Read more

Our Green Team is holding a Biophilic Design workshop on Earth Day with our own staff for biophilic interventions within our office space. We are referencing the Biophilic Design Guidebook from LBC but it will be a shorter time frame, about 1.5 hours total. Last summer we introduced biophilia to the office through the exercise where each person... Read more

Reaching out to the collective knowledge here.  With interest in circular economy and building reuse growing, is anyone leading the charge for the concept of building reuse as a tool for maintaining community identity?  Has anyone seen successful projects with this concept in mind?  I was just in a discussion with a bunch of SDLers, and while... Read more

I'm happy to announce the Call for Presenters for this year's Gulf Coast Green, taking place in Houston May 17th.  Our theme is Crossroads: Inclusive Exchange.  We are especially seeking presentations that focus on how design can engage the community and foster social bonds and social justice.  I’m sure many of you have work that is relevant,... Read more

Hello All! 

We are using TallyCat to extract quantities from our REVIT Model, and bring them over to EC3 to get a model GWP (focusing on material categories required to evaluate ILFI Zero Carbon certification).  There are a number of questions that are popping up!!

I am sure there are others trying the same thing, yes... maybe?! ... Read more

For those of you working in jurisdictions with both prescriptive and performance-based commercial energy code pathways, roughly what percentage of your projects are using the performance pathway? How do your project teams decide which pathway to follow?

In Minnesota we are seeing very few projects pursuing the performance pathway,... Read more

I'm looking to draft some one-page briefs for my consulting engineers to outline what we would like to see in their specs regarding certain materials and systems. For example, letting the plumbing and civil engineers know that we prefer to eliminate PVC pipe and want them to specify alternatives like Polypropylene, cast iron, ABS, etc. The idea... Read more

CEUs are available for reading all the building-envelope product guides and primer. Click here to learn more and take the quiz.

Conventional excavation practices can harm ecosystems, while improper foundation and slab drainage can allow water to build up and compromise the structure and integrity of the building.

BuildingGreen-... Read more

Hello All,

A group of us (three architects and a builder- sounds like there should be a joke here) were debating this and we  are stumped.

Application: Residential exterior trim.

50 year warrantied composite product of agricultural byproduct with PVC (EPD not published yet) vs 100 year (if primed on all sides and painted or... Read more

Hello,

We're trying to budget Fitwel Certification consulting fees for a non-profit client for whom we're designing an early childcare center in Louisville, KY. It would be for a single tenant new building Fitwel certification and include a Fitwel introduction workshop, working with design team, and coordinating/submitting documentation... Read more

Columbia already offers access to free EV charging for our field employees. Of the few projects that have have opted in so far, we've had to custom design and intall EV charging setups. It's good that we're doing this, but it won't scale quickly enough and cost effectively.  I think a practical next step is working with trailer companies so... Read more

I wanted to alert you to this opportunity to help develop a new ASHRAE Standard. They are especially looking for people who have not served with ASHRAE previously (aka the usual suspects)

ASHRAE Standard 242P, Standard Method for Calculation of Building Operational Greenhouse Gas Emissions

1 Purpose: This standard provides a... Read more