Championing the
Changemakers

Hospital lighting can cause stress. It can also reduce it. Home location can encourage inactivity and poor diet, or it can provide exercise opportunities and access to fresh veggies. A newly renovated office can contribute to asthma or supply better air than we breathe outdoors. From phthalates to fresh air to fitness rooms, we have... Read more

It looks modest enough: a handy app that facility managers download onto an iPad. Starting at the street, they perform a walkthrough of the building and report on how their building promotes wellness and productivity. The app spits out a score and an automated gap analysis suggesting what the project could do to score higher and have a larger... Read more

Too niche, too difficult, too bureaucratic, too pricey: complaints about building certifications seem to get louder by the second. In this market, it would be crazy to introduce a new rating system that’s less broadly applicable than LEED, harder to achieve, certified by the same third party, and more expensive.

But that’s exactly what... Read more

Many in the architecture and interior design community are excited about the WELL Building Standard, the first whole-building design guidance to focus solely on human health and wellness.

Developed by New York-based real estate consultant Delos Living, LLC, and administered by the International Well Building... Read more

Too niche, too difficult, too bureaucratic, too pricey: complaints about building certifications seem to get louder by the second. In this market, it would be crazy to introduce a new rating system that’s less broadly applicable than LEED, harder to achieve, certified by the same third party, and more expensive.

But that’s exactly what... Read more

Admirers of the human brain have taken to calling it “the most complex structure in the universe,” and they have a good point: it holds 100 billion neurons, and each neuron is connected to 10,000 other neurons. There are major discoveries still being made about some of the brain’s basic functions.

Perhaps the most intriguing trend for... Read more

A toxic flame retardant used in polystyrene insulation may finally be banned in the U.S.

Hexabromocyclododecane, or HBCD—a persistent, bioaccumulative toxic chemical already banned by the E.U.—is one of ten chemicals currently being reviewed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the... Read more

By Alanna Malone

Since the early 1950s, the Bavarian town of Inzell, located about 60 miles southeast of Munich, has hosted hundreds of speed skating competitions—first on the ice that formed over Lake Frillensee, then on an outdoor rink constructed in 1965. More than 80 world records have been broken here, so Inzell was an obvious... Read more

Water is the story at the Watsonville Water Resources Center. Water conservation and watershed education were at the core of nearly every design decision for this new interpretive center, water quality laboratory, and administrative office that, for the first time, brings the city’s water management officials together under one roof.

... Read more

Author’s Note: I can’t even start this blog before thanking Lew Harriman of Mason-Grant Consulting. Lew very patiently and gently hammered me into a much better understanding of humidity in air and its measurement. While any errors or lack of clarity regarding humidity and its measurement are mine, much of the insight and many of the resources... Read more

Winding through curvaceous hills just north of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, the narrow road leads to a grassy field bordered by colonial revival buildings: the old Fort Baker parade ground, officers’ quarters, and barracks. The manicured but rustic exterior does little to hint at the five-star service within, where the meticulously... Read more

Many building owners want to use a clean energy source and qualify for various state and federal tax credits and incentives. Often, though, they are unable to do so because they can’t support enough onsite generation to power the building. Other times, they have space for onsite generation but can’t afford the first costs. Community energy... Read more

Active chilled beams (ACB) are energy efficient, provide fresh air, and are compact enough that they work well in retrofits or buildings with lower ceiling heights—potentially lowering construction costs (see Active Chilled Beams: Saving Energy and Space). These ceiling-mounted hydronic HVAC systems, while common in Europe and not new in the U.... Read more

Stop copying the West.

That was the message of a 2016 workshop in Kenya organized by UN-Habitat, where Musau Kimeu called on African developers and architects to design buildings suited to their climate. “We must pursue sustainable building design strategies to construct buildings that have exemplary humane qualities and that resonate... Read more

The Living Product Challenge (LPC) from the International Living Future Institute (ILFI) looks damned near impossible.

Across 20 specific requirements (or “Imperatives”) categorized by seven “Petals,” the LPC requires a product to be, among other things:

I was surprised recently to find out about an appliance manufacturer that I had never heard of—and to discover that its top-performing compact washer-and-dryer pair, along with identical products from another company new to the U.S., are the most energy efficient on the market.

Blomberg, as I found out... Read more

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is attempting to take LEED to a whole new scale as it launches two new certification programs: LEED for Cities and LEED for Communities. Built on the newly released Arc platform (see New Tech Startup, Arc Skoru, to Support USGBC, GBCI with Data), the new programs will not replace LEED for Neighborhood... Read more

As of January 2017, we’ve changed the name of our flagship publication to match the name of our company. Environmental Building News is now The BuildingGreen Report. With the change, we’re staying focused on the reporting you depend on and giving you one less brand to keep track of.

In 1985, Alex Wilson saw the need for a company that... Read more

Round, unmilled timber might seem obsolete, but by using high-tech scanning and modeling, one company is bringing this form back into designers’ repertoires at a cost that can compete with steel. And we’re not just talking for a rustic log cabin aesthetic either: the company’s fast-growing portfolio of projects includes contemporary designs at... Read more

A net-zero requirement for new construction has helped quadruple the popularity of Passive House—even though the law isn’t even in full effect yet. Those are among the findings of a recent report on market uptake of high performance building practices from the not-for-profit think tank Pembina Institute.

“The number of Passive House... Read more