Championing the
Changemakers

Hello Green Gurus,

Want to make your virtual meetings wildly effective, connective, and fun? This fall we are delighted to partner with Julie Huffaker from Deeper Funner Change to bring you a series of 5 online workshops that will teach you skills to improve all your virtual meetings.

Julie brings more than 25 years of experience... Read more

If you’ll be attending AIA24 (or if you live in the D.C. area), join us for the BuildingGreen Show & Tell on June 5th from 6:00-8:30pm at ZGF! This will be a free joint reception with members of US Architects Declare, and it’s open to all Peer Network members. Light refreshments and beverages will be served.

Here is the link to... Read more

Hello Green Gurus,

Here are all the details about our Peer Network event in NYC on Wednesday, September 28th. If you'll be in town, we hope to see you!

From 1-5pm we'll have the NYC Regional Mini-Summit, open to members of any of the five Peer Networks (Sustainability Consultants, Community Design Leaders, Contractors, Architects... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Retrocommissioning: Big Savings for Big Buildings.

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


1. Define the term retrocommissioning.
2. Explain how whole-systems RCx differs from energy-focused RCx.
3. Describe several examples of how... Read more

Congrats Nadav!!!! https://www.aia.org/showcases/181011-nadav-malin-hon-aia?utm_source=Buil...

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! 

Dear Colleagues,

The EPA has released a very impressive proposal for ENERGY STAR specs for residential water heaters that will strongly encourage electrification and decarbonization of these appliances. 

ENERGY STAR is a voluntary program for high performance appliances and this is a huge opportunity to begin the decarb transition... Read more

CEUs are available for reading our entire plumbing guide. Click here to learn more and take the quiz.

Excess heat generated by air conditioners, refrigerators, boilers, and water flowing through pipes typically goes unused.

BuildingGreen-Approved Water Heat Exchangers

BuildingGreen lists desuperheating technologies and... Read more

Hi Everyone - I'm posting this on behalf of Jeff Frost whom many of you know from his days as an SD Leader with SmithGroup and SERA and in his new role as head of Brightworks Sustainability's materials group.  I am excited to be working with Jeff on this concept of multi-attribute product scoring.  Cheers, Lona

Dear SDL’ers,

We’ve... Read more

My firm recieved an invitation to this event in March. Wondering if anyone has any insight on Metropolis Mag events or if anyone here plans to attend. Looking forward to connecting! 

It is with the greatest pleasure that I announce to this esteemed group the recognition of our very own and much-loved leader Nadav Malin as an Honorary AIA member. AIA COTE had the honor to serve as Nadav's sponsor and we are pleased and delighted with this outcome (but not surprised of course.) For the record, "The AIA recognizes the notable... Read more

I have a client that is very interested in automated shades for a mid-rise multi-family housing project. Do you have any examples of projects that have attempted this? I assume it would involve occupancy sensors and/or an over-rideable default setting dependant on sun position and temperature. I also have an MEP Engineer team that is having a... Read more

Hi Carbon Working Group,

It’s been a while since our last online meeting on 3/31 –- admittedly, a bit too long -- so I wanted to share some updates.  You might have seen Candice Pearson’s 5/13 post about the structure of the Contractor’s Commitment and how it’s evolving into a set of guidelines available not only to our SCL Group but to... Read more

Hello SCL,

Quick reminder to sign up for our SCL Summit in May! True to usual form, we ask what’s important to YOU before we finalize an agenda. In the next couple of weeks, we will be sending out a draft agenda and asking for your feedback. Sign up now so your voice will be heard. Initial ideas so far have included:

High-performance buildings integrate site-responsive orientation, climate-responsive form, hefty R-values, efficient mechanical systems, healthy... Read more

Welcome to the quiz portion of Boost Happiness and Save Energy with Adaptive Thermal Comfort!

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


Define “adaptive thermal comfort” and explain how it can contribute to occupant health and satisfaction.

Compare the adaptive comfort model... Read more

Greetings to all of the AEC SD Leaders (a.k.a. the Green Gurus)!

Over the last two months, the 32-member Build-Back-Better (BBB) letter working group has developed a robust list of first 100-days, built-environment-focused executive actions for the Biden administration to consider. Kara Kempski, the AIA’s Director of Federal Relations,... Read more