Championing the
Changemakers

A couple questions for this group. I know we're having a Green Commons meeting on this next week. But can anyone comment on the following questions?

-Have you or your firm split the benefit of the 179D with a client? Is this typical?

-Is prevailing wage a requirement for all 179D benefit, or does it follow the same lines as... Read more

Testing web-to-lead to existing contact in Salesforce.

Welcome to the quiz portion of Energy Modeling for Early Design Decisions (recorded webcast)

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


1. Explain how energy codes and standards are pushing commercial projects beyond what they can do without modeling.
2. Describe the key... Read more

Evaporative coolers use far less electricity than conventional refrigerant-cycle air conditioners and they operate without the use of refrigerants, both features that make them attractive for green buildings. However, their suitability is limited to drier climates, and most products use significant quantities of water.

BuildingGreen... Read more

Practitioners interested in reducing the embodied carbon of buildings are likely now used to considering the impact of different materials, like mass timber or low-carbon concrete. Low-carbon construction, however, may be less familiar. 

Contractors are just... Read more

Hello SDLs!

Many of you have internal research groups or internal grants to foster thought leadership in your firms.  We have run an annual research-innovation grant program for about the last 5-6 years.  Anyone in our firm is allowed to apply, submit their idea, the time/budget they need, define a deliverable and then a small group... Read more

Hi all,

Just like many of you, our firm is dedicated to increasing representation in the professions and through its relationship to the AIA Large Firm Round Table was able to access a National Organization of Minority Architects Fellow this summer. We’re loving our work with Himesh thus far, but it’s unclear whether we have the workload... Read more

As I mentioned in my five-minute presentation this morning and then discussed a little more in the break-out on RELi that followed, the full RELi Rating System, in its current form, has now been posted online: http://anyflip.com/zyqc/mdir/

Unfortunately, this is only posted as a flipbook, currently (viewable online only), and isn't... Read more

Hi Fellow SDLers: Just wanted to make sure everyone saw the terrific initiatives that the White House announced last week:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/ceq/news-updates/2021/05/17/fact-sheet-biden-administration-accelerates-efforts-to-create-jobs-making-american-buildings-more-affordable-cleaner-and-resilient/

Maybe some impact from... Read more

Sustainability leadership has requested that you take this quiz to help assess sustainability literacy across the firm. Your own results will be presented to you at the end of the quiz but will not be shared with anyone else. Only aggregated, anonymized results will be available to others.

Please don’t do research to inform your answers... Read more

I am wanting to take the pulse of this group on behalf of a manufacturer who has asked us a similar question.

The company in question makes wood products and has had FSC CoC for over a decade. Recently, they are encountering issues with sourcing FSC for about 50% of the wood species they offer. There just aren't FSC sources available.... Read more

Was anyone else surprised to see ASHRAE 228-2023 using eGRID Subregions for both the Regional Electricity Source Energy Conversion Factor and Regional Electricity Greenhouse Gas Emission Factors? In the past I have used eGRID sub-regions but also State and local utility conversion factors depending on what energy or operational carbon story I... Read more

Is everyone else having trouble with a dysfunctionally slow LEED-Online today (i.e., worse than the usual incredibly slow performance)?

Hello SD Leaders!

Two weeks ago a group of us gathered for the Winter 2020 Sustainable Design Leaders Summit. Those of us from BuildingGreen that were on site, greatly appreciated everyone's time and energy. It's always a pleasure to work along side you all!

Here is the summit report!

Reminder: We are giving a priority look... Read more

Hi, the SF Dept of Environment is doing some surplus construction materials studies there are surveys for designers and contractors.  They are looking for a wide array of responses, so don't worry if you don't live in that area!

See link for contractor survey if you are interested: 

https://formfacade.com/public/... Read more

Here is your friendly reminder to complete the SCL Salary Survey if you have not yet.

There is a link at the end of the SurveyMonkey Survey to a Google form where you will be able to register that you completed the survey—that way we’ll know who participated without having any identifying info in the actual survey. Results will be shared... Read more

I'm sure we'll learn more soon, but several people have asked on various platforms about how Betsy del Monte is doing (she lives in Asheville, NC, which was hard hit by Hurricane Helene). 

I had a brief text exchange with her on Saturday 28 September, and I feel sure that she would be OK with my sharing it with you all: 

We’re... Read more

Hi all,

We're doing some tool-related soul searching at WRNS and some folks here have raised Cove.Tool as a potentially interesting addition to our library. I'm looking for any insight you all can provide. Cove has come up various times, but curious if there's been any change for the better/worse in the past few years.

Do you use... Read more