Championing the
Changemakers

Seeing Jen's post prompted me to write in support of the Madison Park Technical Vocational High School program (Greenbuild Legacy Project). I spoke to the students earlier in the year and it is a great program. I'll reach out to our HR about interns.

I am the Director of Facilities Management Integration and Sustainability for Shawmut... Read more

Hi Gurus!

I'm desperately seeking any case studies (past/currently on the boards) of labs that have been designed without natural gas infrastructure (the topic I have to debate is about commercial spec labs but any lab case study, wet or dry, is welcomed). This is for a development authority that will be setting guidelines for new... Read more

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting is an increasingly common expectation throughout financial sectors, and the real estate industry is no exception. 

This live webinar with our friend Chris Pyke, Ph.D., a senior vice president... Read more

Hey, team. Would it be possible to get premium access to LEED User while we're developing the best practices resources? (without subscribing to it- I don't LEED consult any longer)  Southface has basic membership, so I can't see what's available, etc. Thanks.

We are cautiously rekindling the age-old debate: how are we balancing modeling software for design /visualization and performance analysis during early phase of design.  

We are heavy SketchUp users for early design, and most of our staff have access to COVE tool for early performance analysis. Problem is, I’d rather use Revit to COVE... Read more

Hello SDLs!

Many of you have internal research groups or internal grants to foster thought leadership in your firms.  We have run an annual research-innovation grant program for about the last 5-6 years.  Anyone in our firm is allowed to apply, submit their idea, the time/budget they need, define a deliverable and then a small group... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Whole-Building LCA Tools for LEED v4 and v4.1.

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


1.  Understand the basic goals of whole-building life-cycle assessment, including how it can improve environmental performance and contribute to credit achievement in... Read more

Hi All,

I wanted to share a program of superstars including many of you.  I look forward to electronically connecting and learning together.

Every Monday from June through August, the Boston Society for Architecture (BSA) and the Carbon Leadership Forum (CLF) Boston Hub will present Embodied Carbon 101, a 12-part program series in... Read more

Hi Green Commons,

It’s been eerily quiet here since Tuesday night. I’ve been quiet mostly because I just didn’t know what to say. The election results are certainly a blow to pretty much everything we’ve been working for. There is so much we don’t know about things might play out, but I’m feeling a range of emotions ranging from... Read more

I'm exploring the use of phase change material for a project. Specifically, looking at the BioPCM/ENRG Blanket product. I see on their website that ZGF used it at University of Washington. I'd love to hear any feedback from folks who have used it, and more specifically how your energy model and MEP engineer accounted for it. Thanks!! https://... Read more

We've gotten some requests recently, so it must be time to update our salary survey. For those didn't participate in the past, we last did one in 2015, and collected some really interesting data about compensation for SDLeaders.

Our first step in getting this started is to recruit a few volunteers who are interested enough in the data we... Read more

Fellow Sages,

I was at an interesting lecture last night. Phil Bernstein (formerly of Autodesk, now at Yale) was speaking (in Lawrence, Kansas, at the U of Kansas) about AI and design/AEC ... you may know that he authored the 2022 book, Machine Learning, about AI and the AEC field. 

Phil has a very interesting posture about AI... Read more

Hi SDLers,

We’re really looking forward to connecting with many of you in a few weeks for the Summer Summit. Those of you who have registered are now actively helping to set the agenda--as always, it will be filled with rich conversations and connections.

For a range of reasons--new patterns due to the pandemic, the economy, your... Read more

Hello SMEPers,

I’m hoping to crowd source some anecdotes for a guest lecture I’ll be giving at Yale’s architecture school. The topic is integrated design (especially between architects and engineers) and how it enables better sustainability outcomes.

John Boecker has this great story about how choosing a paint color with higher... Read more

We are attempting to use Tally on a couple projects and are wondering how others are using the tool in their design process. If any experienced users out there would be willing to have a brief phone conversation I would appreciate it. Thanks

Were we given any warning that LEED Online and USGBC.org would be down for a week?