Championing the
Changemakers

Built Environment Plus (was USGBC MA- aka Meredith Elbaum's band) has organized this awesome sustainability scavenger hunt.

It's fun. It's easy. Anyone can participate from anywhere - it's all app based, and it's a great way to get energized for Earth Day or week! And it's for a good cause, a fundraiser for supportive organization. Have... Read more

Hello all, 

Many of you have been asking about the CC reporting template for 2023 projects. It is still in-progress, but we can promise a huge upgrade from the past couple of years. In particular, the new template is designed for ongoing project tracking over the course of the year (rather than purely documentaion after the fact).  ... Read more

Wondering if anyone has a slide presentation on the Framework for Design Excellence that they would be willing to share (to present to students). Rather than defining my request as lazy I'd like to offer up the qualification of efficiency.  

Hi all,

Just like many of you, our firm is dedicated to increasing representation in the professions and through its relationship to the AIA Large Firm Round Table was able to access a National Organization of Minority Architects Fellow this summer. We’re loving our work with Himesh thus far, but it’s unclear whether we have the workload... Read more

Hi everyone, 

The winning date for our Waste Management call is 3/24/2020 from 12pm-1pm PST.

Here is a link to the Google hangouts meet as well as a call in number for those without gmail accounts:

meet.google.com/cae-gdxd-qpp

(‪US‬)‪+1 240-224-0800‬

PIN: ‪996 308#‬

I am working on putting together an... Read more

Hi all,

All members of the WA Building Code Council received an email from Tim Attebery of the Washington State AGC and I'm trying to make sense of the role of the AGC and whether it is representing the consensus option of general contractors in Washington or not. The letter is very much against the energy code advancement, which... Read more

test

Welcome to the quiz portion of "The Potential of Prefab: How Modular Construction Can Be Green"!

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


Hello everyone. I am seeking some guidance on crafting an arguement for why my firm should support a change to the Washington State Energy Code which would mandate electric heat pumps for commercial builidngs.  AIA WA is working on the state commercial energy code update under consideration this spring.  We have been invited to sign on to an... Read more

Greetings AEC Sustainability Leaders -

This is an update on where we stand with the BBB letter. In addition to posting this to the AEC SDL (Green Gurus) Forum, we are sending the same message to all current signatories by email to make sure everyone is notified. Apologies for putting two items in your inboxes!

First, please read... Read more

My colleague, Kira Gould, from the AIA National COTE communications committee, has a great question I am reposting here...

AIA National COTE: In the early 00s, COTE supported an initiative through which we created a Guide to the Green RFP and collected sample RFP language. That now dated guide is no longer findable in our resources and... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of The BuildingGreen Guide to Insulation!

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


Allison Mears at Parsons asked me to share this.  Several folks on this list participated in these recordings.  The courses are comprehensive.

Parsons Healthy Materials Lab has created a series of online learning courses specifically designed for professionals like you, dedicated to making the built environment the best (and healthiest... Read more

Hi SDL'ers, as promised I am sending information about how to support getting flame retardants out of foam insulation. I am attaching a draft letter to Foam Manufacturers, an intro to that letter giving some background and a list of From manufacturers.   Thanks, please contact if you have any questions.   Larry Strain, Siegel & Strain... Read more

I can hear Kjell saying "All models are wrong, but some are useful." Having said that we are having trouble getting usuable predictive energy use information from our electrical design engineer. They are telling us that their energy models are not for accurate pEUIs but just to compare various scenarios. Are they being lazy? Should we push for... Read more