Baton Rouge is breaking. Since 2003, four different districts of this city in Louisiana have seceded in order to create their own school systems. The latest, St. George, is in transition and simultaneously facing a legal battle challenging the election results that led to its secession. The proposed new city, whose citizens argue that the Baton... Read more

We may be inching toward net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

More than 3,000 businesses and 700 cities had signed onto the United Nations’ Race to Zero commitment ahead of COP26 (the 26th Conference of the Parties), held in November 2021. But is 2050 soon enough? And how does this commitment... Read more

“Blah blah blah,” said many protesters’ signs during COP26 (the 26th Conference of the Parties, where the governments and other parties come together to make international commitments on climate change). The accusation of empty words echoed a September speech delivered by climate activist Greta Thunberg.

Although the news (or lack... Read more

Interior design is inherently people-centered and can have dire impacts on the environment, the national board of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) declares in a new position statement on climate, health, and equity. The organization says it’s time for its industry to commit to these “three tenets of design... Read more

Since 1992, Energy Star has been the standard for choosing energy-efficient appliances. Run by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Energy Star program rates products that perform well above industry average; they are available for dishwashers, clothes dryers, water heaters, and more. The residential products that go above... Read more

Twenty-nine companies—making up one-third of the global mining and metals industry—have now committed to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. All are members of the International Council on Mining and Metals.

Many minerals and metals that are mined are used for decarbonization of other sectors—as is the case for metals used for... Read more

At Greenbuild, Green Seal announced that its current paint standard, GS-11 Version 4.0 for Paints, Coatings, Stains, and Sealers, now meets LEED v4.1 low-emitting materials credit requirements, as well as those for WELL v.1 and Fitwel.

In the early days of LEED, paint only had to comply with South... Read more

We know where we need to go: toward a more equitable and environmentally responsible real estate industry. How to get there—quickly—remains elusive.

If you’re looking for a roadmap, consider the BuildUp 2030 Framework for the Transformation of Real Estate recently released by the Institute for Market Transformation (IMT), a nonprofit... Read more

Window air conditioners are one-trick ponies: they only do cooling. They are also inefficient and noisy, they use problematic refrigerants, and they block the view out the window. But their relatively simple installation and functional, but inefficient, performance have made them ubiquitous, especially in older buildings where... Read more

The building industry is tired of waiting for change.

“We call on all sovereign governments to ramp up their Nationally Determined Contributions, and 2030 emissions reduction targets, to limit planetary warming in line with the remaining global 1.5ºC carbon budget,” reads a communiqué to policymakers... Read more

Looking for a comprehensive resource on eliminating the carbon impact of buildings?

The Building Decarbonization Practice Guide, a project of the William J. Worthen Foundation, promises to be that resource. The first two chapters have now been released, already totaling 75 pages, out of seven chapters planned. Once complete, the... Read more

One of the first actions President Biden took in office was releasing an executive order requiring the largest federal agencies to submit climate adaptation plans; these would identify risks and explain how the agency would address them. Now, more than 20 agencies have released their documents, many of which include elements... Read more

A recent equity toolkit released by the NAACP recommends conducting racial equity impact assessments (REIA, pronounced “REE-uh”) to help guide work on projects and policies. But what is a REIA, and how do they work?

REIAs are an emerging way of analyzing the community impacts of a policy or project.... Read more

“By 2050, the interior design industry will have influence over almost one-tenth of the world’s carbon emissions.” That’s according to Metropolis magazine, which recently released a toolkit for interior designers on avoiding embodied carbon emissions.

We tend to think of embodied carbon—the emissions associated with building materials—... Read more

New Buildings Institute (NBI) wants to help jurisdictions bite off however much electrification they can chew.

Recently released model code language offers provisions for requiring all-electric buildings and alternative provisions for requiring electric-ready buildings. Cities and towns can layer whichever version of this “... Read more

Water is our planet’s lifeblood. We use it for drinking, agriculture, recreation, and even to remove our waste. For generations, our cities have been founded on seas, lakes, rivers, and other areas that take full advantage of water’s seemingly endless bounty. We think fresh water supplies are endless, which encourages modern society to grow... Read more

Update: Lord Aeck Sargent corrected its white paper based on new data on flying. We have revised this article to reflect that.

Did you fly in 2020? Hardly anyone did, and that had a huge impact on the carbon footprints of all kinds of businesses. Architecture firm Lord Aeck Sargent (LAS) tracked six... Read more

For those in the sustainability industry, getting net metering policies adopted has been hard fought—and looking back, generally hard won. Net metering (the practice in which utilities credit customers for the excess electricity generated by their solar panels that’s sent to the grid) is currently in place in 41 states and it... Read more

We think fresh water supplies are endless, but this idealistic vision is clouded by the smoke of countless forest fires in the U.S. West and elsewhere. Instead of endless bounty, climate change is bringing us catastrophic droughts and flooding that now dominate the headlines and threaten entire regions.

This report covers innovative... Read more

Seriously, what are we thinking? Lush golf courses, thirsty almond groves, and huge metropolises in the desert. More sprawling cities built on flood plains. And we wonder why water is dangerously scarce in some places and destructively abundant in others.

We are out of balance with natural water cycles, and we pay for it—billions of... Read more