Championing the
Changemakers

Greetings to the Green Commons!

Those of you who attended Greenbuild may remember that during one of the keynotes, Ali Zaidi - White House National Climate Advisor, announced that the White House was developing a definition for "Zero Emissions Buildings" (here’s a [LINK] to a related Washington Post article). The draft language for the... Read more

All--

Metropolis magazine asked me to write a long piece about the current state of post-occupancy studies. I'm wrestling with whether to do it and how to approach it, but it would be helpful to hear your thoughts on the following--

--importance of the topic

--typical and atypical approaches and criteria

--examples... Read more

I'm looking to draft some one-page briefs for my consulting engineers to outline what we would like to see in their specs regarding certain materials and systems. For example, letting the plumbing and civil engineers know that we prefer to eliminate PVC pipe and want them to specify alternatives like Polypropylene, cast iron, ABS, etc. The idea... Read more

BITuser Meeting:  5/23/18

Participants:  Shane, Andrea, Angela

Notes:

Southface to provide "style tiles" before 6/15 
Greg to send to Andrea, couple dozen images for Best Practice pages
Southface will send, in week to 10 days, "full content" for BP03 - Energy Audit 
(BP03 "full content" will address... Read more

Hi All,

The National Architectural Accrediting Board is currently undergoing review and revision of its “Conditions for Accreditation and Procedures for Accreditation.”

I recently attended the 2019 Reynolds Symposium: Education by Design, hosted by the University of Oregon in Portland. At the Symposium, a group of 100... Read more

I opened IE11 (Internet Explorer 11) today, and saw a message indicating IE11 will be retired June 15th, 2022. While I have no personal attachment to IE11, it was the only internet browser I could consistantly get to open LEED Online credit templates on the actual website. 

Has anyone found another way to be able to fill out LEED credit... Read more

The Getting to Zero Forum is happening next week in Minneapolis, Minnesota (my home state!). Anyone else from this group planning to attend in person? I'm especially curious as the Forum comes so quickly on the heals of the Living Future Conference.

As a proud Minnesotan, I have a hard time imagining how anyone could ignore an... Read more

Hello Green Gurus,

We have an exciting new addition to the Peer Networks Hub to share with you. The recordings of this summer’s 5 minute presentations are finally available! You can view the full list on the Resources Page in the Hub. Using the headings at the top, you can sort by presenter name, title, or the date or event at which the... Read more

Water treatment systems often rely on harsh chemicals to treat bacteria, and on high water use from drawdown of water to reduce build-up of concentrates—a process called blowdown.

BuildingGreen-Approved Water Treatment

BuildingGreen approves systems that:

We're looking to add a green wall to our existing offices in NYC. Can anyone please share any good product/vendor recommendations?

We were hoping to use Naava walls, but they seem to have retracted into Europe, as far as I can tell.

Hi Fellow SDLers: I'm sure you're like me and thrilled at the news of the Senate's passage of the historic climate bill yesterday. And also are likely on pins and needles until it's passed the House and signed into law. What a conclusion of a terrible roller-coaster ride that is our Congressional system.

I'm writing to pass along a... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Choosing Insulation: High-Performance Foundation & Basement Assemblies – Unit 2.

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


1. Explain the insulating performance and durability of different insulation materials.
2. Provide examples of... Read more

Hey All!

One of the initiatives from our first meeting in Chicago was to gather and develop resources related to plug and process loads in buildings which will help us all with: energy modeling, equipment sizing and power distribution.  We had our first call this morning and are rolling.  Aspirations are that this could turn into a... Read more

Has anyone here found an alternative to XPS for the void former?

A structural engineering contact was included in recent conversations about embodied carbon in insulation materials and brought to our attention that this is a common use for XPS that has nothing to do with its insulating properties. It is typically used where concrete is... Read more

Hey all,

Question for those of you who do in-house daylight analysis about modeling translucent glazing.

We use ClimateStudio for our modeling. It has plenty of material options for clear glazing but nothing for translucent glazing, and we are trying to understand the impacts of a translucent interlayer at some skylights. We can... Read more