Blog

A Towering Example of Biophilic Design

The LEED Platinum Comcast Technology Center in Philadelphia includes six “amenity floors” for occupant health and wellness.
by P.J. Melton

Project: Comcast Technology Center

Size: 1,350,000 ft2

Type: Corporate office

Owner: Comcast and Liberty Property Trust

Architects: Kendall Heaton Associates, Foster + Partners, Gensler, Daroff Design

MEP Engineer: BALA Engineers

You rely on LEEDuser. Can we rely on you?

LEEDuser is supported by our premium members, not by advertisers.

Go premium for $15.95  »

Sustainability consultant: WSP

LEED consultant: Atelier Ten

Read more »

This Striking Design Is More Than Just a Façade

Harvard’s new science complex responds to the sun, admitting solar heat in winter, shading in summer, and allowing daylighting all year long.
by P.J. Melton

Project: Harvard University Science and Engineering Complex

Size: 544,000 ft2

Type: Academic building that includes teaching and research labs, classrooms, and a library

Owner: Harvard University (Allston, Massachusetts campus)

Architect: Behnisch Architekten

MEP engineer: Van Zelm Heywood and Shadford Inc.

You rely on LEEDuser. Can we rely on you?

LEEDuser is supported by our premium members, not by advertisers.

Go premium for $15.95  »

Read more »

A Building for the Birds

The Rockwell Integrated Sciences Center at Lafayette College earned LEED v4 Platinum, including achievement of the Bird Collision Deterrence pilot credit.
by P.J. Melton

Size: 103,000 ft2

Type: Academic building with classrooms, offices, greenhouse, and labs

Owner: Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania

Architect: Payette

MEP engineer: Bard Rao + Athanas Consulting Engineers

Contractor: Turner Construction Co.

You rely on LEEDuser. Can we rely on you?

LEEDuser is supported by our premium members, not by advertisers.

Go premium for $15.95  »

Read more »

BEE-eautiful Active Design in Denver

This LEED v4 Gold core & shell project encourages wellness and benefits local flora by hosting beehives.
by P.J. Melton

Size: 8 stories, 245,000 ft2

Type: Commercial office with ground-level retail

Architect: Gensler

MEP engineer: MKK Engineers

Contractor: Mortensen

Developer: Beacon Capital Partners

You rely on LEEDuser. Can we rely on you?

LEEDuser is supported by our premium members, not by advertisers.

Go premium for $15.95  »

Read more »

A Cheat Sheet for BD+C v4.1 Credit Substitutions

From Dave Hubka of Rivion, this cheat sheet lets you know which credits on your v4 project are easier under v4.1.
by P.J. Melton

As you probably know by now, it is possible on a v4 Building Design and Construction (BD+C) project to substitute any v4.1 credit or prerequisite, with no limit on the number of substitutions. If you are having trouble deciding which ones to upgrade, though, here is a handy cheat sheet from Dave Hubka of green building consulting firm Rivion.

Read more »

More Than Just a School—A Social Support System

The King Open and Cambridge Street Upper School and Community Complex offers elementary and middle school education along with social and family service programs.
by P.J. Melton

The King Open and Cambridge Street Upper School and Community Complex is a big enough deal to warrant its big name.

With net-zero-carbon operations and LEED v4 Platinum certification, the 273,000 ft2 project includes multiple schools, a public pool, a public library, lots of open space for the entire community to use, and a variety of social services for families.

Read more »

Big News on v4.1 MR Credits: Our 2021 Q2 Addenda Update

USGBC has lowered thresholds for compliance with Materials & Resources credits, making these even more accessible for project teams.
by Matt Dempsey

USGBC did some spring cleaning last week, and the LEED Materials & Resources category was first on its list. The 2021 Quarter 2 Addenda include some significant updates to requirements for Environmental Product Declarations, Sourcing of Raw Materials, and Materials Ingredients across both BD+C and ID+C v4.1 rating systems—so if you have a project pursuing any of these credits, stop and read this first!

Read more »

Inviting MEP to the Embodied Carbon Party

MEP engineering firms and others are encouraging MEP equipment manufacturers to report on the embodied carbon of their products.
by

MEP systems contribute to both the initial construction and lifetime embodied carbon footprint of an example office building. This MEP footprint begins at construction and grows over time is due to operations, refrigerant leakage, and replacement.

The Sustainable MEP Leaders group, organized by BuildingGreen, is a group of motivated individuals, representing many of the leading engineering firms in North America, including most of the signatories on this letter. Our teams include tens of thousands of MEP engineers practicing in the US market.

Read more »

Celebrating 30 Years of Publication

BuildingGreen’s editors look back on three decades of a movement
by the BuildingGreen editors

It has been quite a wild ride! As The BuildingGreen Report (formerly Environmental Building News) celebrates its 30th year of publication, we decided to track the growth—and explosion—of the green building movement. We start in 1990 with the founding of AIA’s Committee on the Environment.

Our Editors’ Picks

To celebrate Volume 30 of BuildingGreen's publication this blog features a few of our editors’ favorite pieces.  

Read more »

PRESS RELEASE: Architecture, Engineering and Construction Leaders Call on Biden to Take Action on Green Building

Design and construction companies are urging the Biden Administration to build back greener.
by

February 22, 2021 – President Biden has made a commitment to “Build Back Better” in the wake of COVID-19, the economic crisis, social upheaval, and regulatory rollbacks by the former administration. A growing group of architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) firms is calling on Biden to also build back greener. He can do this, they say, by adding sustainable building strategies to his climate agenda and environmental justice plans. And he doesn’t need Congress’s help.

Read more »

Big Changes Hit in v4.1 Addenda for Q4 2020

Version 4.1 is still in beta, and the latest addenda updates are a reminder of that.
by P.J. Melton

If you’re not in the habit of tracking addenda updates, now would be a good time to start.

USGBC surprised a lot of people with its November 9 addenda drop, making profound changes to several credits in the BD+C v4.1 beta. Some of these changes have LEED users breathing a sigh of relief, while others might seem a bit more mysterious. We spoke with USGBC’s Corey Enck, vice president for LEED technical development, about some of the biggest updates.

Read more »

USGBC: You Have Five Years to Go Net Positive

The LEED Positive vision now has a deadline: 2025.
by P.J. Melton

Forget net zero by 2030: it’s not enough, or soon enough, to stop catastrophic climate change.

That’s the message Mahesh Ramanujam, president and CEO of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), had for attendees of Greenbuild 2020. Ramanujam instead set a more ambitious requirement: all new construction will have to achieve net-positive carbon and energy performance by 2025 in order to achieve LEED certification. Existing buildings will have to achieve these same goals by 2050.

Read more »

USGBC and Social Equity: What’s Available and What’s Missing

LEED addresses social equity in several ways, but there’s lots of room for improvement.
by P.J. Melton

Protesters are rising up around the nation in response to our racist legal system. And although the Black Lives Matter movement focuses on police brutality, these protests are helping bring attention to social equity more generally. White people who had never thought about privilege before are soul searching and confronting the ways they themselves are contributing to injustice and violence—and they’re trying to figure out what they can do about it.

Read more »