Championing the
Changemakers

A simple exterior window shade in Florida that doesn't interfere with window operation. Click on image to enlarge.Photo Credit: Alex Wilson

Welcome to summer. Burlington, Vermont hit a record 97°F the other day, and my place in West Dummerston... Read more

Emergency housing for survivors of domestic violence presents an unusually difficult design problem.

It needs to provide physical security while also functioning at times like a home, a preschool, a study hall, a lounge, a library, a career center, and a healthcare facility to people of widely varying ages who have only one... Read more

We already have plenty to think about when it... Read more

I’ve never liked mowing the lawn. And it’s not just because of the gasoline used in the process.

Lawns carry huge environmental... Read more

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has published a review of data predicting dramatic increases in heat-related deaths in the largest U.S. cities by the end of the century, indicating that efforts at resilience could save thousands of lives. “Killer Summer Heat: Projected Death Toll from Rising Temperatures in America Due to Climate... Read more

The new Brattleboro Food Co-op... Read more

This is part of an ongoing series. Read all the Sticky Business posts here.

Photo: DAP

When selecting a sealant, these properties are typically the most important:

A developing focus on chemicals of concern in the... Read more

The... Read more

In a surprise move, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced today that it is postponing plans to ballot the next version of LEED until as late as June 2013. With this announcement, USGBC promises to keep... Read more

There will be two paths to accreditation, both requiring ILFI membership, a subscription to the organization’s free electronic quarterly, some assigned reading, and a certain number of hours of approved education from a list to be published soon. Current LEED Accredited Professionals must have completed at least 45 hours of approved education... Read more

“Workplace Safety and Health: Multiple Challenges Lengthen OSHA’s Standard... Read more

Designing, specifying, and constructing high-performance commercial building assemblies is a tall order. Lining up and integrating all of the components for continuous air and water barriers can be maddening. And whose job is this? It’s actually a chain of responsibility: architect, specifier, general contractor—and, finally, all the trades.... Read more

When you choose windows for a project, you need to find the right balance among seven key decision drivers, including cost, durability, energy and comfort performance, aesthetics, and more. BuildingGreen’s special report—Better Window Decisions: Mastering the Performance and Cost Options—dives deep into these topics, giving you the framework... Read more

Increasing demand for renewable energy creates pressure to develop previously open land, but a new initiative points out an abundant source of land ripe for transformation: the nation’s nearly half-million vacant, contaminated sites.

Through “RE-Powering America’s Land,” the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of... Read more

NSF International (NSF) has announced the first certification to evaluate the life-cycle sustainability of single-ply roofing membranes for commercial buildings. NSF/ANSI 347, Sustainability Assessment for Single Ply Roofing Membranes, is one of eight NSF sustainability standards for building products and the first to address the building... Read more

Rainwater capture seems more important every year as one region or another struggles with drought or other reasons for water shortage—which can even be caused by flooding (see “Resilient Design: Smarter Building for a Turbulent Future”). For this product survey, we sifted through numerous articles and our product database as well as through... Read more

Nanoparticles are ubiquitous and can be either naturally occurring or manufactured, but researchers are just starting to study them closely, and safety questions remain unanswered. Properties vary greatly from material to material and even within the same element: some carbon nanotubes do not affect human health, for example, while others, like... Read more