Championing the
Changemakers

Asking for a colleague:

"Have you ever had a large number of fire retardant tarps used to temporarily enclose a building during construction? Do you know of any solutions for recycling/reusing them or another product that doesn't use toxic fire-retardants that meets the performance criteria?"

I think we've all seen poly or fabric... Read more

The High Performance Buildings Database (HPB) provides case studies of projects ranging from homes and commercial interiors to large buildings and even whole campuses and neighborhoods. These may be certified green projects, or simply projects that have one or more notable environmental features. We review each published case study to focus on... Read more

Hello Everyone,

I'm looking for projects in Chicago that are exemplary in at least one of the following topics: Biophilia, Sustainability, Resilience, or Well-being. I know there is overlap in these topics but we're doing an internal design exercise and are looking at how these different ideas relate and are articulated in buildings. We'... Read more

We have another great class of COTE Top Ten winners—congratulations to all of you with recognized projects. Join us on May 10 at 2:00 pm Eastern time for an inside peak at many of this year’s winners, along with insights from jurors. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER.

To keep things open and honest we won’t be recording this session. This “safe... Read more

Hi folks,

I hope you've seen the plug to sign onto the letter that's generated a flurry of messages on Green Gurus--I also emailed it out directly to everyone. We've got lots of architects on board, and a handful of engineers, but I think we just have one contractor so far (Thanks Theresa!)--it would be really awesome to have more.

Welcome to the quiz portion of Certified Wood: How SFI Compares to FSC.

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


1. Describe how forestry standards engage with pesticide use, protection of old growth forests and forest biota, and prevention of deforestation.
2. Discuss... Read more

To piggyback off Nathan's introduction where he mentions construction waste management, who is doing anything innovative or different in managing construction waste?  Construction waste has not historically been a passion of mine, but now working in sustainability and construction, I feel like it has to be by default.  

We have a... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of "Spec This, Not That: Avoiding Toxic Chemicals in Commercial Building Projects"!

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


I was shocked to see this new research. Bad news is that acrylic paints are causing 58% of the microplastics pollution in our ocean. Yes, they are plastic. A recent study by Environmental Action, a Swiss-based scientific research firm, shows us that acrylic paint's role in plastic pollution is much greater than most of us realize. The good news... Read more

Water and electrical metering and submetering equipment provide valuable diagnostic information and verification of building energy and water usage.

Measuring Water Use

The Alliance for Water Efficiency recommends metering all new connections, retrofitting meters onto existing unmetered connections, and submetering all new... Read more

Has anyone here been involved (taken or taught sessions) in the Healthy Materials Lab Online Certificate program for Healthier Materials? 

https://healthymaterialslab.org/learning-hub/e-learning-online-certifica...

I'm thinking about having some of our staff take this course, especially those that don't have a background in... Read more

Hi folks,

For those in the SD Leaders network, here's a reminder about the webinar this Friday at 2:00 eastern time. I hope you can join us!

For other Green Gurus, you're welcome to join in, get a preview of the report, and learn about what happened at the SDL Summit at Gulf State Park, in Alabama (fortunately, NOT near where the... Read more

I really appreciated our day on Tuesday--seems that we had a great inaugural Summit, and covered a lot of important ground. 

Here are the raw notes (flip-chart pages) from the day. Some of us came away with Action Items--see the list on the last page. 

Five-minute presentation decks and a more polished report to follow shortly. We... Read more

Sasaki seeks a Sustainability Coordinator for Planning & Urban Design Sustainability Coordinator with experience in planning or urban design for our Boston office, to work on a variety of college and university campuses, urban mixed-use districts, corporate campuses and resilience planning. You'll work me and with Alison Nash, our... Read more

THIS WEBINAR PURCHASE AND REGISTRATION IS CLOSED.

Whole-building life-cycle assessment (WBLCA) can help project teams reduce embodied carbon as well as many other environmental impacts of building materials. And it’s incentivized in LEED and... Read more