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News Brief
News Analysis
Programs like the Forest... Read more
News Brief
Switching from a furnace fan with a permanent split capacitor (PSC) motor to one with a constant-torque brushless permanent magnet (BPM) motor would improve efficiency to the level of the standard, according to the Appliance... Read more
Product Review
What if you could take a concrete deck and replace a lot of its material with air—getting not only a stronger, lighter, thinner deck, but also one that can be delivered to the jobsite for quick assembly? You’d have BubbleDeck—a matrix of plastic spheres, steel reinforcement, and concrete. It’s not only capable of replacing a significant... Read more
News Brief
A new campaign called Resilient Communities for America (RC4A) is drawing on the power of mayors and other local officials to make communities across the nation more resilient. Quickly gathering... Read more
News Brief
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News Brief
Once the ordinance is finalized, new... Read more
News Brief
News Brief
News Brief
The American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) recently announced the winners of its “Designing Recovery” contest, a design competition that judged resilient house plans for New York City, New Orleans, and Joplin, Missouri.
An elevated bungalow by the Canadian architecture firm Sustainable. TO Architecture + Building took first... Read more
Explainer
Portland cement takes a lot of heat for concrete’s carbon emissions, but water quality, land use, and transportation count too, especially because of aggregate.
Concrete is the most common building material on earth, and it is infamously estimated to contribute at least 5% of global CO2 emissions. Portland cement typically takes the heat for this impact, but as the binder, it makes up only 10%–15% of the mix. Production of virgin aggregate, which makes up 60%–75%, can have major impacts as... Read more
News Analysis
The agency finds no perfect solution to replace HBCD in polystyrene insulation, but one alternative appears far safer.
Polystyrene insulation contains one of the most toxic flame retardants still in common use: hexabromocyclododecane, or HBCD. HBCD is a persistent, bioaccumulative toxic chemical and a human developmental toxicant (one of the reasons that EBN asked in 2009 whether this type of foam belongs in a green building at all); it will be phased out in... Read more
News Analysis
It will stick with LEED, but the government's second-largest building owner, the GSA, is recommending either LEED or Green Globes for federal agencies.
The decision to put Green Globes on equal footing with LEED is in keeping with a February 2013 request for comments (see “Federal Government May Abandon LEED Endorsement”), in... Read more
Feature
As storms reveal weaknesses in our built environment, some project teams have adopted more robust, durable principles.
Updated May 30, 2025; Updates by Elene Drosos
Whether it’s 24 five-hundred-year floods since 2010, a 50% increase in the number of tropical storms in the North Atlantic, or severe droughts and wildfires in some regions, the context of building is changing. And with those changes, a new design parameter is emerging: resilience... Read more
Blog Post
Urea formaldehyde foam insulation (UFFI) has been out of the spotlight, but going into a lot of buildings—often being referred to as Amino Foam.
In working on major updates and expansions to The BuildingGreen Guide to Insulation, we’ve had an opportunity to dig into some of the insulation products out there that you don't hear so much about. Some of what we’re found has been surprising.
Anyone remember urea formaldehyde foam insulation (UFFI)? Back in the late... Read more
Blog Post
Thirty-five years ago, when I first got involved with energy efficiency and renewable energy, the mere suggestion that one might heat with electricity... Read more
Blog Post
LEDs provide some of the most efficacious lighting available today, with some... Read more
Blog Post
We’re moving along with some of the wrap-up work on our house in Dummerston. One of those projects is installing the porch... Read more
Webcast
Your healthiest insulation choices…and how to detail them in high-performance assemblies.
Determining what type of insulation to install (and how much) can be complex from many angles—environmental issues, human health, performance, and building science.
No other product category offers such a diverse range of materials and... Read more
Blog Post
The United Nations Human Settlements Programme, or UN-Habitat, is a UN agency focused on human settlements. It was launched in 1978... Read more
