Championing the
Changemakers

Hello Everyone,

Happy Monday, here is the link to the 2019 SDL Summer Summit Report!

Enjoy,

RoseAnn

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

Hello Everyone!

Please mark your calendars and stay tuned for more information regarding an All Peer Networks 2020 Summit Season Closing August 10th, 3-5pm ET (Noon-2pm PT).

Register HERE to get it on your calendar! The staff at BuildingGreen are looking forward to planning a fun and engaging cross-network event focused on this... Read more

If you use the mindfulMATERIALS library to easily access material transparency documentation (if not, check it out!), please take 5-10 mins of your time to fill out this quick survey and help guide the future of the library.

The mindfulMATRIALS Collaborative is an industry-led initiative, visit www.mindfulmaterials.com to learn more. ... Read more

Will any SDL folks be at AASHE in Pittsburgh next week? Would love to grab a coffee and catch up. 

Hello Folks,
What is your experience with successes and failures in the design process? As a starting point I have listed my Top 5 for success, and my Top 5 for failure. We'd love to see your reactions and look forward to the discussion when we all meet next week at our monthly check-in.

Top 5 reasons for when integrative design... Read more

Friends of EPIC –

Hey, everyone. As some of you might have heard, we’ve been working for a while with Autodesk to get c.scale (the data model behind EPIC) built into Forma – Autodesk’s AI-powered planning tool. Forma is packaged within Autodesk’s AEC collection and most firms using Revit should already have access. This integration is... Read more

As promised at the SDL Summer Summet: Hennepin County Energy & Environment's new Project Manager’s Guide to Material Reuse in Commercial Buildings, with specification language, guidance for procurement, and case studies of successful reuse projects around the country. This resource is meant to help owners, architects, and contractors... Read more

Dear SD Leaders: The comment period closes January 31st on  NCA Volume II Climate Change Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States.

It's important to have the design communities perspective on these critical issues. I hope you can take a look and submit your comments before the deadline.

Details here: https://www.... Read more

We have an MEP engineer that is calculating peak loads at about 6 times passive house levels on a large commercial building that is at or near passive house levels of insulation and air infiltration. We suspect one reason is that he is figuring a 50% efficiency level for the ERV. We are showing him ERV systems with 80-90% efficiency, but they... Read more

Hello all,

This month's SCDL call was full of great discussion! We decided this month that we are feeling good about where we are for the Task Force Agreement on defining social sustainabiltiy in our work. The aim is to work with this agreement for a while and see if it holds up as a process framework. There was also interest to invite... Read more

Hello all!

I'm new to the group, and so excited to be here. Two part question here (as we think about processes and new year goals).

I am at a smallish firm (20 people) in Boston helping to reform our processes to enable even those that are not steeped in sustainability at a daily level to be comfortable looking for opporutunities... Read more

THIS WEBINAR PURCHASE AND REGISTRATION IS CLOSED.

Should housing be affordable? Or should it be sustainably designed, built, and operated?

When you put it like that, the question sounds absurd.

But the idea—usually unspoken—that sustainability wastes precious time and resources is painfully common in the... Read more

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! 

We are having trouble sourcing a LEED compliant wallcovering adhesive. We specified Roman Pro-880 which is low VOC but doesn't have sufficient back up for TVOCs. Have you had success with other products?