Championing the
Changemakers

Friends, 

Might anyone be aware of research studies on the beneficial mental health effects of green buildings that you could point me to?

Thanks in advance. 

Hi all and Happy New Year: I'm writing  to make sure that you're aware of the USGBC's call for members for a new LEED Resilience Working Group.  See below.  The deadline is coming right up -  Please pass this along to others you may think of in the topic areas they identify below.

Thanks

Mary Ann

I wanted to let you know... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of The PVC Debate: A Fresh Look.

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


1. Examine the actual cost-effectiveness of PVC in terms of quality.
2. Explain what makes PVC a health hazard.
3. Recognize market effects of PVC's durability and... Read more

Greetings,

I posted this a while back on the MEP SDL forum but also wanted to appeal to the broader community.  We need help gathering existing plug/process load data.  We know it is out there!  Two golden stars to Becky Alexander from LHB who reached out to us after this month's meet-up with some useful material.  We need more!  Please... Read more

Have any of you heard of anyone ever using phase change material (PCM) "movable partitions" as a resiliency strategy to mitigate indoor overheating during a heat wave in passive buildings? You'd keep them stored in a basement or cool room, and deploy them into habitable spaces during the heat wave to keep the space cooler than the exterior... Read more

Hi folks,

Oregon’s ZERO Coalition is looking for responses to the question below on local policy for electrification, and I thought tapping this group would be helpful.

Are you aware of any local governments outside of Oregon that are promoting or enforcing electrification?

Hi,

Has anyone been asked by a client to track welding rods on any projects? We were recently asked to do this. I was asked why the client would ask us to do this. I don't know if it has to do w/ "real property" and is a property tax-related reason, or if it is an environmental/sustainable reason. There is piping associated with the... Read more

Does anyone have a good recommendation for getting started with energy modeling with future weather files? We use a combination of Sefaira and Climate Studio, but open to suggestions. Even just links on how to approach this for making good recommendations to clients. Thanks in advance.

Hi everyone - 

The State of Oregon just posted this Policy Analyst Job Posting. The position is specifically looking for someone to assist in embodied carbon and other sustainable code items. I have heard directly from Oregon's Building Code Division that even though the position is looking for public policy, an architect or engineer (or... Read more

Peeps, in case you haven't gotten the email blasts--the AIA wants YOU! Now is the time to throw your hat into the ring for volunteering on the following committees/groups: 

Kristen Fritsch, in the thread about ipe wood, asked about resources comparing the carbon footprint of transporting building materials vs the transport mode.  There are people who spend their lives on this topic that I won't presume to speak for, but I'll share a few observations:

Even though freight transport is something like 7% of... Read more

Do you have the authority to start using only EVs in your renderings?  Let’s normalize and accelerate this change!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_production_battery_electric_vehicles

Why are we showing gas cars in renderings of our green buildings?

We are working on a tenant improvement and want to determine the embodied carbon on bookshelves, product display cases, and desks. Initially finding that Tally is not reading furniture, casework, or fixture families. Are there any tips and tricks you have found to be successful for modeling or defining FFE items in Revit and quantifying... Read more

HGA is collaborating with the University of Minnesota Climate Adaptation Partnership (MCAP) to research how the AE industry is currently using climate projection data, and what they need in order to grow their use of data. MCAP is currently producing a set of dynamical downscaled climate projections for the state of Minnesota and unlike other... Read more