Championing the
Changemakers

Hi folks,

We have a really great webinar set up for Thursday, Oct 25 at 2pm eastern. This one is based on the 5-minute presentation from Heather DeGrella at the Summer Summit--our jaws were on the floor when she presented it there, and we were hungry for more.

Sign up here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/... Read more

This webinar occurred Thursday, December 15.

Attendance confirmation closed Friday, December 30.

Whether it’s the flooding in Pakistan, the devastation caused by Hurricane Ian in Florida, or the record-breaking wildfire season in Europe, climate change is in the news daily. Just as there’s an urgent need to reduce... Read more

Hello SCL peeps, 

Thank you to all the people who filled out our 2021 event survey. Your feedback did help us narrow down the options, but it was still inconclusive about whether there’s enough interest in doing an SCL-only Summit. 

To stay on schedule with our planning (and to make sure the event will pencil out financially), we... Read more

Hello Peer Network members,

I have some bittersweet news: I’ve accepted another job and will be leaving BuildingGreen. I’m excited to be the new Community Outreach Manager at Brattleboro VT’s Retreat Farm and to support their mission of connecting people to the land and to each other. I’ve learned so much from being part of this... Read more

We are working on a large healthcare project in Minnesota.  We're setting sustainability goals a bit late - no certification, but targets with accountability.  I'm working to determine recycled steel content (for structural steel and rebar), and I've gotten a bit of push-back on recycled content based on being in the region of the Iron Range... Read more

Sustainability leadership has requested that you take this quiz to help assess sustainability literacy across the firm. Your own results will be presented to you at the end of the quiz but will not be shared with anyone else. Only aggregated, anonymized results will be available to others.

Please don’t do research to inform your... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Biobased Materials: Not Always Greener.

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


1. Explain why "biobased" is too general a term.
2. List the primary concerns associated with biobased building materials, finishes and furnishings, and wet-... Read more

Hi- Happy Monday!  

Does anyone know if there is an open-source list of manufacturers that have take-back programs? Looking for a summary/spreadsheet with details (costs, qty, etc). I have a small list but I'm guessing there is already one out there...

Also, Doesn't stage D in LCA account for take-back programs? Could this be... Read more

He just posted the following on the Building Performance Knowledge Community forum:

Does anyone have a recommendation for software that is easy to use and relatively inexpensive for doing energy performance analysis at the schematic design (or before) phase?  We are looking for a tool that gives good quantitative comparisons for... Read more

All,

Our firm has been struggling to find carbon reduction strategies for concrete that move us beyond a fly ash only approach. Frankly, the knowledge just isn't there internally or with our consultants. We've known that there are a few folks out there that have a deep bag of tricks, but we haven't had the chance to work with them... Read more

Well done and rivhly deserved, brother.  That makes you a Fellow Squared.

Our building scientist has been using Insight 360 to model daylight and document it for LEED certifications.  However, it appears that Autodesk is no longer fully supporting the tool and may eventually stop all together.  (we have not been able to run simulations for weeks due to a change to how "cloud credits" work on their end that they... Read more

I've been hearing recommendations for bipolar ionization, as a way to filter airborne virus particles in HVAC systems while avoiding the energy penalty of increased ventilation. However, I've also heard that ionizing equipment is dangerous because it produces ozone.

Does anyone have any insight into the effectiveness and/or cautions... Read more

Dear Gurus,

At Greenbuild this year I'll be discussing how statistics can lie (in the context of green building claims).  I'm collecting examples of this to prepare.  If any of you know of examples, please send them to me! 

Here are a few of the fun ways statistics might lie that I would be looking for: biased or too-small sample... Read more

Hi all,

I wanted to reach out to fellow MEP energy modeling teams to assess everyone's experience with the new PCI calculation methodology in 2016. It was a substantial change in how we show savings on projects. Big changes can often come with un-intended consequences. I'm all for pushing to higher efficiency - just want to make sure we... Read more