Championing the
Changemakers

Caseworks can be made from unsustainable wood and other materials, and with adhesives and finishes that offgas formaldehyde and other hazardous compounds.

BuildingGreen-Approved Casework

Approved caseworks are:

Welcome to the quiz portion of Sustainable Sites: Primers from Environmental Building News.

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


1) Describe how invasive plants can harm an ecosystem, and why native plants are generally less work and less expensive.
2) Explain the... Read more

Hi, folks! 

I was recently asked if BuildingGreen could connect prospective speakers to an event organizer in Chicago. Beyond the leaders in the BuildingGreen networks relayed, I wanted to share that the exercise led me to the Women and Climate speaker database: https://www.womenandclimate.co/speaker-database 

When filtering by... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Improving Resilience!

IMPORTANT: This quiz covers five related articles within this topic. 

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


Hi folks, 

AIA COTE National is looking for Techincal Reviewers for the 2025 awards. Interested, or know someone who might be?  Sign up here: https://form.jotform.com/231175886103153

Thanks!

Concrete and other cementitious materials have both environmental advantages and disadvantages. As builders and designers, should we be looking for alternatives or embracing concrete over competing materials?

This special report takes a look at how these materials are made, presents the key environmental considerations relating to their... Read more

Hi Everyone, 

Has anyone had success in finding organizations or programs that will recycle the hard hats? We are looking into options for recycling our expired hard hats that can no longer be used. Ideally, we would want to use a company with facilities across the country but we are open to any suggestions or ideas you all may have.... Read more

Pipe that delivers domestic water in North America is typically made from copper, chlorinated polyvinyl chloride (CPVC), cross-linked polyethylene (PEX), all of which present environmental challenges. Bimodal polyethylene  (PE-RT) and polypropylene (PP) are potential alternatives with lower climate and health impacts.
... Read more

Hi SDLers! I hope early fall is finding you well.

There is a current opportunity to make a difference in the campaign to reduce use of toxic flame retardants.

Arlene Blum and the Green Science Policy Institute, whom many of you know, are currently organizing a campaign of support for the CA State Fire Marshal's proposal to allow... Read more

Here's the Core Purpose for this group that came out of the Inaugural Summit.

We're off and running!

If anyone else has gotten confused going between parts-per-million and percentages (parts per hundred!) for material reporting here's a little infographic that might help. Feel free to use or improve! 

Hello Everyone,

On September 9th a regional cross-network group gathered for the first in-person Peer Networks event since the beginning of the pandemic. All Peer Networks were represented at this Boston Region Mini-Summit! With this first one in the books, BuildingGreen is hopeful for paving the way to future regional events across the... Read more

Hi there SD Leaders,

We're running an LCA on one of our projects that's about to start construction that has had serious embodied carbon goals and I got a result that really surprised me. I haven't been able to find any obvious/glaring issues with the work, but these results are strange enough that I'm not feeling confident. I'm hoping... Read more

Meet the winners:

2024
2023
2022
2021

Asking for a colleague:

"Have you ever had a large number of fire retardant tarps used to temporarily enclose a building during construction? Do you know of any solutions for recycling/reusing them or another product that doesn't use toxic fire-retardants that meets the performance criteria?"

I think we've all seen poly or fabric... Read more

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7tCYQiWxxyA?si=lzTgKz9JaQ50_8HT" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Hi Carbon Working Group,

It’s been a while since our last online meeting on 3/31 –- admittedly, a bit too long -- so I wanted to share some updates.  You might have seen Candice Pearson’s 5/13 post about the structure of the Contractor’s Commitment and how it’s evolving into a set of guidelines available not only to our SCL Group but to... Read more