Championing the
Changemakers

Andrea first became familiar with BuildingGreen in 2010 when she and her husband moved to Vermont and built their own passive house from the ground up. BuildingGreen’s president Nadav Malin heard about the project and asked if the staff could take a tour, and the rest is history. She joined the BuildingGreen team part-time in 2011 to work on... Read more

Hi everyone,
The city of Portland recently expanded acceptable certifications for affordable housing projects they provide funding for to include Enterprise Green Communities Certification. Other options are LEED (flavor depends on project size) and Earth Advantage Multifamily, which is a regionally owned and operated certification. This... Read more

This just in from Berkeley Earth. The definitive report on 2023 global temperatures. Lots of incredible graphs to peruse but the news is pretty incredible. Actual temperatures far surpassed predictions. "At the start of 2023, we foresaw only a 14% chance that 2023 would become a record warm year, and only a ~1% chance that 2023 would reach 1.5... Read more

Does anyone up here do or have familiarity with anyone who regularly does NEPA EIS? If you need a definition for the acronym, please see here: https://www.epa.gov/nepa/national-environmental-policy-act-review-process#EIS. I've been asked if I know anything about it, to which the answer is no, but I'd like to get smarter about it and I'm hoping... Read more

Hi SD Leaders,

As you may be aware, this past April a group of manufacturers calling themselves the Living Product 50 responded to the letters that many of us sent about five years ago advocating for transparency in their product ingredients.  A copy of that letter can be reviewed about midway through the page at this link:  https://... Read more

Hi folks,

On today's call James Peterson will be introducing a conversation about how COVID might have changed our ways of working.

If there's time afterwards, we can take a look at this draft article from the USGBC research team. They're interested in our input on how we might want to analyze the info on electrification rates in... Read more

Following the summer SDL summit - we formed a spinoff user group called "Carbon Sync" to discuss Life Cycle and Carbon Assessment tools like Tally and Athena.  We've had three successful calls with folks sharing a couple 5-minute presentations about various studies and explorations.  We have a mix of experience levels - but are collaborating... Read more

Join your peers and BuildingGreen February 22–26, 2021 for an all you can eat buffet week of networking, problem solving, and connecting with sustainability leaders within your industry and across the Peer Networks! During this week we will create a space for you to offer and receive support, exchange ideas and resources, and become stronger,... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Know Thy Client: 9 Un-Green Strategies for Delivering Better Buildings

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


1. Focus on a client’s values to drive sustainability solutions.
2. Define the quality of the work being delivered to underscore... Read more

I have reached out to the AIA staff members that I work with on the Energy Leadership Group (AIA ELG) to see about getting into the cycle of updating these standard documents.  Another member of the ELG, architect Kjell Anderson of LMN in Seattle, is interested in working with us on this effort, as he has started including Standard 209 language... Read more

Hi all,

HOK has ~75 WELL APs whose credentials will expire in 6-12 months, so we're starting to look into a more robust CMP program.  Do you have great sources of health + wellbeing education, particularly WELL-specific CEUs, that you would recommend (emphasis on free or very low cost)?  We are currently using GBES, BuildingGreen, and... Read more

Congrats, Kjell, on your elevation into the AIA College of Fellows! Much deserved!

Hey All,

I just received this from AIA MA. How fantastic would it to have a bunch of Green Gurus on the ICC Development Team! Is anyone on here already on it?

From AIA MA:
The International Code Council (ICC) is now accepting applications to serve on the Code Development Committees to develop the 2024 editions of the... Read more

Hi everyone,

I’d like to invite you to join this Friday’s webinar hosted by the Embodied Carbon Network: Using Whole Building LCA to Reduce Embodied Carbon within LEED and Beyond, and to follow up with a tool that I presented at this summer’s Architecture SDL summit, which ZGF has now upgraded and made free to the industry at large.... Read more

Fluid-applied roofing materials can be added to an existing roof to extend its life and provide reflective characteristics.

BuildingGreen-Approved Roofing

Products listed by BuildingGreen have VOC levels below 50 g/l and reflective surfaces to reduce heat gain.

Energy Star requires initial reflectance of 0.65 for low slopes... Read more

We’ve reached the maximum capacity of our venue for the Show-and-Tell next Tuesday at Greenbuild in DC. We also have a full slate of great presentations lined up. Thank you, Perkins Eastman, for hosting!

RSVP is now closed—we're looking forward to a packed house and we won't be able to let folks in who are not on the list.

We can'... Read more