Championing the
Changemakers

Hello, Sustainability Leaders! 

I’m excited to be sharing a virtual hello to this network more formally (waving, big yellow energy, sparkle emoji - all of the above). If we’ve yet to meet, I’m so looking forward to chatting down the road. I’m Jill Maltby-Abbott, BuildingGreen’s newest team member. I'm working most closely with Brent,... Read more

Greetings all, and welcome to all those who already introduced themselves!  My name is Steven Burke and I am a Sustainability Manager at Consigli Construction in Massachusetts.  We are East Coast only, but we have a few offices from DC up to Maine.  I’ve been helping Jenn and Nadav get this group up and running, and I’m relatively new to the... Read more

THIS WEBINAR PURCHASE AND REGISTRATION IS CLOSED.

Katrina Amaral
Timberdoodle Farm

Jacob Dunn
ZGF

Steve Rigdon
Yakama Forest Products

Jennifer Shakun
New England Forestry... Read more

Hi Sages,

Thanks to those who filled out the survey and helped set our agenda for Monday's meeting. We know that this time doesn't work for everyone (no time could, of course), so we'll be alternating times each month. The April meeting will be Thursday, 4/11 at 3:00 eastern.

The agenda is here. It also has the Zoom link (in case... Read more

Dear SD Leaders,

As some of you may have heard, EHDD has been working for the last year in developing a data model to support early phase goal setting for holistic low carbon design. This data model is at the heart of our Early Phase Integrated Carbon (EPIC) assessment tool. EPIC is a data-driven goal-setting tool for use in the earliest... Read more

Great career opportunity to make an impact on existing buildings and emissions reductions. City of Seattle will be hiring a full time Building Emissions Reduction Technical Advisor. Closing date to apply is August 6. Please share if you know someone who may be a candidate.

Description from city of Seattle:
Want to influence large... Read more

Hi all -- 

We have a national restaurant client who is looking to source furniture (both indoor and outdoor) made with a minimum of 40% salvaged/recycled material, and they're very interested in finding a vendor that's woman- and/or minority-owned or that would qualify as a "disadvantaged organization" (their terminology).  They would... Read more

We are looking into organics collection service in our corporate office in NYC. Is anyone else in this group composting at their corporate offices? I'm hoping to build a business case, so I'd like to highlight other firms in this group who are actively managing this process.

I'm teaching a LEED GA study group and was rambling on the differences between CIR and precident-setting LEED Interpretation (that gets posted in the addenda library and all). Then I went onto LEED Online and was showing how those are submitted... but can't actually figure out how a LEED Interpretation would be submitted. Has anyone done this... Read more

Hello Green Gurus,

Back at the retreat in March 2021 (does anyone remember back that far?), we formed an Air Quality Working Group with members from SDL, SMEPL, and SCL. Drawing on our collective experience, standards, research, and other resources, we began navigating the murkiness of indoor air quality considerations. We came up with a... Read more

tate 

A draft of AIA’s Top Ten Toolkit was just published!

http://bit.ly/COTEtoolkit

Hopefully useful for everyone toward making more very high performance buildings. More updates to come, including interactive tools like a superspreadsheet. 

All the best,

Tate

How much will it cost to achieve LEED v4 certification?

“We’d love a green building, but can we afford it?”

“We’re required to be LEED Silver, but we’re not sure how to get there under the new rating system.”

“Sure, we’re interested in LEED, as long as it doesn’t cost extra.”

LEED v4 and cost uncertainty

With... Read more

Exterior shade or screening devices are generally much more effective at reducing solar heat gain than their interior counterparts.

BuildingGreen-Approved Shading

BuildingGreen approves exterior window and glazing attachments that reduce solar heat gain and glare or redirect daylight, providing important energy benefits while... Read more

Hello, folks! We recently had contact with Northeastern University about sand. I know it sounds ... dry. But sand shortages are a serious issue globally and are leading to criminal activity everywhere and even "sand mafias" in poorer nations without resources to enforce mining laws.

The ask from Northeastern is that BuildingGreen amplify... Read more

Hi all - Reflecting on the COTE Top Ten Awards and Lloyd Alter's recent article  https://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/keep-aiacotes-its-time-scrap-aia-awards.html, I am curious how many local/state AIA awards programs have incorporated sustainability reporting metrics as a requirement for all awards submissions, not just for categories... Read more