Championing the
Changemakers

Hi all - has anyone worked on a project with thermal energy storage tank design in the scope?  I'm wondering if anyone has recommendations for specialists or engineers who have experience.  Thanks!

Hi folks,

We often hear from you with a suggestion of someone who would be great for the network, and a question about how to refer them. We've now made that easy, with three steps laid out in an Outreach Toolkit that's posted in the left margin of the Member Directory.

So, if you're thinking of someone to invite or come across... Read more

Is there a way for southface staff or guest experts to "pin" or "tag" the "right" answer in a forum question? It might be useful to designate the right answer and pin it to the top of a forum thread. I don't want the answer selected via crowd source but by staff or volunteers. Thanks.

This might be going down a rabbit hole, but in moving to California this year I noticed that "zero net energy" (ZNE) is the standard term, whereas "net zero energy" (NZE) was more common back east. The DOE's 2015 definition (below) uses "zero energy building" (ZEB), which to me implies a building uses no energy at all.

Regional... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of VOCs: Still Here, Still Making Us Sick!

Important: This quiz covers all related articles within this topic. Scroll to the bottom of the article page to find links to all the articles covered by this quiz.

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


1.... Read more

I am looking for case studies/trying to identify buildings using concrete mixes with upwards of 30% replacement of cement by SCMs.  I've been in conversations with some structural engineers who are interested in lowering embodied carbon in upcoming projects, but would like to see examples of where this level of replacement has been successfully... Read more

Board insulation has good thermal performance ranging from about R-4 to R-8 and is used as an integral part of a building envelope’s continuous insulation system.

Because board insulation is used on the building exterior, it is not always subject to the same material health and emissions requirements as batt insulation used inside the... Read more

Does anyone here have a draft spec for low embodied carbon concrete they could share? I see the GSA has a standards sheet with MGWP limits, but we are hoping to actually specify the mix for upcoming projects.

I'm looking to compare using an electric tower crane vs a diesel generated tower crane.  I've got the average gallons/hour for the size of crane I'm looking at, but when I reached out to the crane manufacturers, they can only tell me what size electric supply I need to provide, not the kWh usage for the cranes.  I know that it varies depending... Read more

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Hello Gurus,

I am working with an owner who is making zero-carbon commitments and wants to explore setting carbon budgets in their capital plan (and subsequently their individual projects). We will be starting exploratory discussions next week and I was hoping some of you might have been working with other owners who have already... Read more

Question for you all: there is this wonderful graph showing how we can shift mechanical and electrical dollars into envelope investments to make deep energy savings cost-neutral. Have you experienced this on a project?

1-minute or less survey! (two questions, more detail if you want)

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/... Read more

Hi folks! Our AIA Seattle Committee on the Environment is hosting a series of decarbonization talks that might be of interest to this group. The next one is coming up next Thursday with the University of Washington. 

Details and free registration here: https://aiaseattle.org/event/cote-university-of-washingtons-pathway-to-d...

Hi all, curious if anyone is involved with development / advocacy for the new MA stretch code? https://www.mass.gov/info-details/stretch-energy-code-development-2022 

My firm recently added a Boston location & I'm slowly getting to know the green building world there - would love to know if anyone is organizing public comments on the... Read more

Hi folks,

We will be having a call for the Sustainable MEP Leaders group on Monday, April 8 at 3pm Eastern time. Hope you can join us! We'll be talking about our first in-person Summit, as well as diving into discussion about some top-of-mind topics related to being a sustainability point person within an MEP commercial practice. Here’s... Read more

Hello Everyone,

We wanted to share the highlights and take-aways from the large firm Sustainable Design Leaders (SDL) 2020 Winter Summit at The Lodge at Gulf State Park, AL. Additionally, this was the first year we had a pre-summit workshop for the winter summit. Our amazing workshop facilitator, Julie Huffaker from Deeper Funner Change... Read more

Colleagues,

As we all know, ventilation rates must be kept the same between the LEED Baseline and proposed energy models. However, we're aware of projects that have been able to claim energy savings associated to reducing ventilation using systems like Aircuity. 

Have any of you successfully claimed credit for reduced airflow due... Read more

Thanks to everyone who joined us for the Show and Tell at Greenbuild! Here are slides from the presentations: