Championing the
Changemakers

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

Dear all,

On a major renovation where the wall R-value/U-value needs to be brought up to energy code, specifically a mass wall situation, does anyone have insights on how the situation is best dealt with? On the project in question for me, the continuous insulation might have to be added to the inside surface of the mass wall and there... Read more

Lake|Flato is growing our design performance team!  If you know any great applicants for our new design technologist position, please send them our way:

Design Technologist in San Antonio.pdf (lakeflato.com)

There has been a lot of discussion re antimicrobials in this group, so here is a pre-release of this month's article on the topic. It's not an extensive feature, but I hope you find it informative.

Brent

Some of you saw my 5-minute presentation about the Rich Earth Institute in Brattleboro, Vermont and how it is inventing new ways to keep excess nutrients from urine out of surface waters and use them instead as fertilizer. Now you can also hear about it on Planet Money: https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/01/26/581156723/episode-820-p-is... Read more

For those that missed Z's subtle mention of this a few weeks ago, Bora finally decided sustainability is important enough to have someone dedicated full-time to it, and then went out and got one of the best:

https://bora.co/bora-hires-sustainability-director-corey-squire/?tax=all-posts

I've been sharing Corey's thoughts on... Read more

Hi Sages,

We had a great conversation in yesterday's Sages meeting. We took the long list of ideas that we brainstormed last month and in our March poll when thinking about what we could/should focus on as a group and we did some refining and prioritizing using dot-voting in Miro (once we got the voting technology figured out!). Notes... Read more

Medium-density fiberboard (MDF), particleboard, and interior-grade plywood can emit formaldehyde, a known human carcinogen. Some materials  come from non-sustainable sources.

BuildingGreen-Approved Panels

Products meet California Air Resources Board (CARB) ultra-low emitting formaldehyde (ULEF) or no-added-... Read more

Hi All, 

Not sure if this is the right location for this (as I'm a new member) but we're Planning the upcoming Water Conservation Showcase in Northern CA. Some details below

The Water Conservation Showcase brings together water, energy, and green building professionals to amplify and discuss innovative water management solutions... Read more

I am forwarding this request from Kate Simonen from the Carbon Leadership Forum to support a grant application for this research. I don't know if the link will work in this format but if you have questions or want to sign you can contact me or Kate and I can send you the mail with the link my email is:  lstrain@siegelstrain.com     Thanks... Read more

I think they look great - thanks to BuildingGreen for setting this up!  A few comments/questions:

What is your favorite, tangible example of an EUI?

I find it easy for individuals to undervalue the power of a single EUI and curious what useful parallel the creative folks in this forum have used to illiterate its compounding value?

Cheers!
DiAnn

Welcome to the quiz portion of Choosing Insulation: High-Performance Wall Assemblies – Unit 3.

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


1. Describe key environmental and performance factors for insulation materials.
2. Recount bottom-line insulation material... Read more

SDLers,

Great to see many of you at Greenbuild! It was nice to have the opportunity to remind everyone how our collective energy continues to make a real difference with the HPD, born at a summit 13 years ago after being nurtured through a BuildingGreen-HBN collaboration (see my HPD is a Teenager presentation).

To be able to... Read more

We are trying to figure out how we are going to meet the LEED Credit for Building Life Cycle Impact Reduction for the first time.

One approach we're trying out: We're taking the results of our Tally model and looking at potential reductions from low-carbon concrete. However, the problem I am encountering is that when I take some of our... Read more

Hi: SD Leaders.  It was so nice to see so many of you at Greenbuild in Chicago. By now I'm sure all have seen the announcement of the release of the Fourth National Climate Assessment Report vol 2. (https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/) It's well worth a deep read - so much important and extremely informative material. I want to draw your... Read more