Championing the
Changemakers

A study funded by New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) indicates that the Passivhaus standard—notable for reducing heating- and cooling-related energy use by 70%–90%—could successfully be applied on tall residential buildings in dense urban environments like New York City at a viable cost. The detailed methodology... Read more

A new client called me, saying that his insulation contractor urged him to contact me about some moisture problems in the home before they actually embarked on a major energy upgrade. (That was gratifying.) Many years ago the home had been moved off of a failing rubble foundation to a new concrete masonry unit (CMU) foundation on a different... Read more

Ethnography is defined as “the scientific description of the customs of individual peoples and cultures.” It is a method social scientists use to study and understand different communities and the places in which these communities are situated.

By using ethnography to enhance engagement with project stakeholders and their rich cultural... Read more

The AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE) recently published “The Habits of High-Performance Firms,” a report outlining the key traits of “high-performance firms”—firms that have been awarded an AIA COTE Top Ten Award three or more times over the past 20 years. Researchers found that these repeat winners succeed by multiple measures of... Read more

I don’t do blower door work every day, but I do enough of it to appreciate the attention to detail that The Energy Conservatory (TEC) built into its new blower door kit. I have used both TEC and Retrotec blower door kits and found them trustworthy and rugged.

I once asked TEC principal Gary Nelson if there were any reasons we should... Read more

The design disciplines have been very active in communicating both concerns and priorities to the new administration.  Architects Advocate, a recently formed, nonpartisan network of designers, published an open letter to President Trump and Congress urging meaningful action on climate change. AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE) sent an open... Read more

The AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE) Top Ten Awards recognize projects that achieve high levels of sustainable performance while providing for excellent architectural function, use, and experience—in other words, projects that exemplify truly great design. For 2017, in addition to design intent, the application placed increased... Read more

In addition to making your space more pleasant visually, daylighting reduces the need for electric lighting. As long you avoid excessive solar heat gain, reduced electric lighting also reduces cooling loads. Studies suggest that occupant health, student test scores, office productivity, and retail sales all benefit from daylighting.... Read more

The business case for green building keeps getting stronger, and we have many cost-effective technologies and design strategies for high-performance buildings. 

But we’re still stuck. None of it is moving fast enough or far enough to meet the challenges of our time. Over and over again projects aim low because of perceived cost... Read more

Responding to the shift to LEED v4 and the growing popularity of the Living Building Challenge (LBC), insulation manufacturers are now offering a number of products that comply with various elements of these rating systems. BuildingGreen conducted a survey to assess these products as they relate to the material options for teams pursuing... Read more

The consulting engineers at Integral Group are accustomed to working with clients early in an integrated design process. Working with Kevin Bates, president of Sharp Development Company, was different, however. “The first meeting wasn’t a design meeting—it was a financial meeting,” said John Andary of Integral Group, of a recent project with... Read more

We carefully select equipment to improve the temperature, humidity, and quality of the air that flows through our buildings. We install additional systems to direct water that moves in and out of the building. Still other systems manage the distribution of electricity throughout the building.

And yet all of these systems can’t do their... Read more

A recently published working paper by Nils Kok, Maastricht University, and Rogier Holtermans, University of Southern California, demonstrates that the demand in the commercial real estate market for “green” space continues to grow, enabling owners to command higher leasing rates.

The researchers recorded the quarterly rental statistics... Read more

“If you could put one simple message on a billboard, what would it say?” During the recent BuildingEnergy conference in Boston, BuildingGreen set up a camera at our booth and asked sustainable design and building professionals this question.

Our interviewees ranged from a professor of sustainable design, to a sustainability manager at an... Read more

Members of Simply Home Community, a tiny house cohousing community in Portland Oregon, are famous for their environmental stewardship, sense of community, and acceptance of others, but an influx of clowns is challenging these social norms. The new residents’ cultural differences made members wary, at first, but the clowns are now winning over... Read more

Record warm temperatures this past winter have prompted Texas legislators to demand that insulation be installed in the Trump administration’s proposed border wall.

“We can no longer ignore the tidal wave of unwanted Mexican heat surging from our southern border,” said U.S. Representative John S. Swarm (R.-Texas). Rep. Swarm introduced... Read more

Today after a series of cryptic tweets from President Trump and press statements made by top White House officials, Congress passed a bill instituting a carbon tax. Soon after, President Trump, who appeared to be trying not to laugh, signed the bill into law. As the president held up the freshly signed law for the cameras, Senators Schumer and... Read more

By the year 2050, much of the world’s population will live in tropical climates, according to Stefano Schiavon, Assistant Professor at UC–Berkeley—and the temperature setpoint on their air conditioning units will have a big impact on energy usage. Luckily, a study conducted by Schiavon and several other researchers suggests that thermostat... Read more

Both the Living Building Challenge (LBC) and the 2030 Challenge have energized progressive designers and owners with aspirational goals that are famously hard to achieve. (See How to Succeed with the Living Building Challenge: 12 Teams Share Tips and Progress on 2030 Goals, Ten Years Later.) New policies announced on March 8, 2017 are intended... Read more

An open window is arguably the best way to bring fresh air into a building—when the weather is right.

But those conditions are rare in many parts of the world, so commercial buildings use centralized air handling units (AHUs) to bring in air. These systems modify the air temperature and humidity, and distribute it via ductwork to the... Read more