Championing the
Changemakers

Since starting at LPA last fall, the number one question I get from people outside the firm is how we are hitting (2018-2019) or getting so close to hitting the 2030 Commitment goals. 

Here is a chance to see for yourself! LPA is seeking a Sustainable Design Specialist to join our RED team (Research Education Design) - location open to... Read more

Hi all, 

Thank you again to those of you who attended the Spring 2024 SCL Summit! We had an amazing day of learning from one another, including from our presenters.

The slides for the 5-minute presentations are below, as well as the BuildingGreen slides from the Summit. Please be aware that we have permission from all of the... Read more

We recently received an email from two high school students in Indianapolis with some great questions about construction waste management. If you're interested in helping these budding SCLers with their research, let me know and I'll send you Gabriela's email address:

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... Read more

Hi folks,

A press release about this just showed up--most of what they're including in their "Clean Construction Declaration" involves reducing embodied carbon in materials, but they're also calling out construction equipment:

"Procure and, when possible, use only zero emission construction machinery from 2025 and require zero... Read more

We have started a folder on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in this forum. When you upload a file to share (which you can ONLY do in the web browser, not directly through email), you get an option to choose a folder. If you have an EDI-related document to share, choose "Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion" as your folder. I'm saving the first... Read more

Hi all - we have several projects where money from the IRA may be able to get projects farther. I've seen the AIA/USGBC webinar and done some other research as well. Does anyone know if there's a Higher Ed group that is chasing down how and when the money is available and for what exact purposes? Are you planning on using consultants to help... Read more

Hello friends. On a current school project, an abuse resistant wall covering has been proposed as an alternative to our typical MDF wainscot. The proposed product has been used successfully in healthcare, and switching to it will save the project almost $1million, which is no small amount when the project is over budget and 7-figure cost... Read more

I am now embarking on the home page design, but before I get started I need input on what you'd like to have there. The style tiles/tidbits provided by Southface includes a home page mockup that's very similar to LEEDuser, which is fine with me, but I don't want to implement it and then find out you want something radically different.

I... Read more

Hi folks,

We're kicking off a new way for us to collaborate as a network: monthly web-based conference calls. The first one will be on Friday, Nov 15 at 1:00 eastern time. The topic will be "Sustainability and the Small Firm: Practices in Transition" -- which is the name of the proposal James has submitted (and gotten first-round... Read more

Hi folks,

It came up on the Regional Leaders call this week that many people aren't aware that we added a link to the BuildingGreen Communities in footer of BuildingGreen.com. So if you want an easy way to get to the forum page, other than clicking on a link in an email, there it is! (Thank you, Stephen Endy!)

The footer has a... Read more

Hello Colleagues,

You all know our industry’s progress over the past decade related to the impact of materials. We have come a long way. Today we have over 110 firms that have signed onto the A&D Materials Pledge, pledging to a holistic approach to materials considering: Human Health, Climate Health, Ecosystem Health, Social Health... Read more

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

Be aware of key dates in the history of the LEED rating system.

Have a clear understanding of the new impact areas present in the updated rating system.

Ascertain which types of new credits belong to which impact areas in the LEED v5 rating system.

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

Food waste is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions from landfills due to methane released during anaerobic decomposition.

BuildingGreen-Approved Composters

BuildingGreen approves in-vessel commercial composters, which require the smallest footprint and are most likely to be suitable for a densely populated area.

Why... Read more

The 2018 ENR Green Building Survey is due March 16th.  I'm sure you all know the metric they use to evaluate your ranking is solely the revenue from projects pursuing a green building certification in the previous calendar year.  Personally, I think this totally bogus.  How "green" a contractor is may correlate with how much revenue they have... Read more