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Going the Extra 3,000 Miles for Passive House Windows and Doors

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When it comes to green building, you can't always get what you what. So how do you get what you need?

Whole-window R-value of 6.7. Not too shabby!

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Fire Risks Not Limited to Spray-Foam Insulation

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Spray foam is only one of a number of building products and methods which increase the risk of catastrophic fire loss (and potential loss of life).

[Editor's note: After asking him to pen his series of 10 Riversong's Random Reflections on our blog earlier this year, we asked Vermont builder Robert Riversong back to discuss fire safety issues in residential construction. Riversong is a volunteer firefighter. Enjoy! – Tristan Roberts]

Fire Risks Not Limited to Spray-Foam Insulation

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Spray foam is only one of a number of building products and methods which increase the risk of catastrophic fire loss (and potential loss of life).

[Editor's note: After asking him to pen his series of 10 Riversong's Random Reflections on our blog earlier this year, we asked Vermont builder Robert Riversong back to discuss fire safety issues in residential construction. Riversong is a volunteer firefighter. Enjoy! – Tristan Roberts]

DIY Passive House? Nothing "Passive" about That

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Building to the Passive House standard is hard enough for the pros. We get a peek into what happens when you try to go it alone.

Zip-taped and on piers. We were lucky enough to visit while seams and interior I beams were still visible.

The last BuildingGreen field trip we wrote about was at the Syracuse Center of Excellence.

Top Products from the Greenbuild Expo Floor: Part 2

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Mem's NaturHemp insulation offers comparable R-values to other batt insulations and is made from rapidly renewable hemp. It is made in Canada, where industrial hemp can be grown legally.

More new products from Greenbuild! This week we introduce you to some water-saving fixtures, recycled content products, a residential rainscreen system, and hemp insulation.

A couple weeks after Greenbuild, and we are still looking at products from a productive show.

Saving Energy and Water: Now, a College Sport

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By leveraging social media, a national campus competition helps students turn small commitments into large-scale change.

Combining social media with intercollegiate competition provides two forms of motivation: it shows participants that even small individual commitments can be part of a larger whole and also gives them the extra incentive of trying to do well in a contest with peers.

Back when I was in college, I learned lots of fascinating but impractical things. The difference between phrenology and phenomenology. The anatomy of a flatworm.

International Projects - alternative compliance path

A guideline for alternative compliance paths

by Susann Geithner

According to the USGBC about 40% of the newly registered projects are now non-US projects. So finally the USGBC provides new guidelines for international projects.

A guideline for alternative compliance paths for the following credits:

LEED NC 2009

SS c1, SS c3, SS c4.1, SS c4.4, SS c6.1, SS c8

WE c1

MR c5

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A Heating Fuel Cost Comparison "App"

With home heating fuel prices bouncing up and down as much as they have over the last few years, it's easy to think that there must be a better solution out there, with a different fuel. But is there?

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I recently caught up with where the rest of the world was in 2005 by watching the hit documentary "March of the Penguins." It's been on my list for a while but when evening arrives I'm much more prone to watching films about people--people like James Bond, for example. But my wife and I had a baby two weeks ago, and suddenly movies narrated by Morgan Freeman seem like more appropriate family fare.

Choosing Insulation: What Are Your Deal-Breakers?

Insulation is a critical component of any building--especially one designed and built to minimize environmental impacts.

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Part 2 in our series, "What Type of Insulation Should You Use?"

Even our savvy readers had some trouble with BuildingGreen's insulation quiz. Does it really have to be this hard to choose the best insulation for your project?

While paying yet another $3000 heating oil bill this fall, a friend of mine decided it was time to bite the bullet and insulate her 97-year-old home.

Top Products from the Greenbuild Expo Floor: Windows

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Renovate, from Berkowitz, LLC. is a retrofit glazing that fits on the interior of single-pane commercial windows, improving the center of glass U-factor from 1.03 to 0.16.

Finding the top Greenbuild products among 900 exhibitors is no easy task.

Occupy Green Building: The Economy As a Design Problem

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What do over a thousand protests around the world last weekend in support of Occupy Wall Street have to do with Green Building?

What Type of Insulation Should You Use?

Choosing the best insulation to maximize performance and minimize environmental impacts is one of the most complex decisions you can make for a building project.

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Part 1: The Basics

Click to Read Part 2: Identifying Your Priorities

Choosing the best insulation to maximize performance and minimize environmental impacts is one of the most complex decisions you can make for a building project.

Insulation is a critical component of any building--especially one designed and built to minimize environmental impacts.

Asking the Right Questions About Sustainable Materials

Are there any sustainable materials? What does that even mean?

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Are there any sustainable materials? What does that even mean?

Near the end of another exciting and exhausting Greenbuild, I had the pleasure of sharing the stage with three other women deeply invested in sustainable material management: Lindsay James, InterfaceFlor; Gail Vittori, Center for Maximum Building Potential Building Systems, and Sarah Brooks, Natural Step Canada.

Fire-Rated No-Formaldehyde Substrates Can Discolor Exotic Veneers

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The increased use of no-added-urea-formaldehyde (NAUF) wood products is great, but can occasionally cause unsightly "bleaching" of gorgeous veneers. What to do?

Exotic veneers like this deliciously buttery English sycamore can be devastatingly discolored by some types of non-urea-formaldehyde boards. Woodworking experts have found some solutions to the problem: it's all in how you put it together.

Medium-density fiberboard (MDF) and particleboard are the materials providing the backbone for much of what we see in finished interiors.

The Future of LEED: Conflict Comes Before Happy Endings

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It's easy to get bogged down in the details of one credit or another, but Greenbuild offered a refreshing look at the bigger picture.

Scot Horst opened the LEED master session series with a dramatic production of the first scene of The Tempest. Here, Prospero and Miranda watch the storm and subsequent shipwreck. The play provided the narrative arc for the whole series. Notably, Prospero chose to use his power to heal past relationships instead of exacting revenge.

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When it comes to green building, you can't always get what you what. So how do you get what you need?

by

Spray foam is only one of a number of building products and methods which increase the risk of catastrophic fire loss (and potential loss of life).

by

Spray foam is only one of a number of building products and methods which increase the risk of catastrophic fire loss (and potential loss of life).

by

Building to the Passive House standard is hard enough for the pros. We get a peek into what happens when you try to go it alone.

by

More new products from Greenbuild! This week we introduce you to some water-saving fixtures, recycled content products, a residential rainscreen system, and hemp insulation.

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By leveraging social media, a national campus competition helps students turn small commitments into large-scale change.

by Susann Geithner

You rely on LEEDuser. Can we rely on you?

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Part 2 in our series, "What Type of Insulation Should You Use?"

Even our savvy readers had some trouble with BuildingGreen's insulation quiz. Does it really have to be this hard to choose the best insulation for your project?

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Finding the top Greenbuild products among 900 exhibitors is no easy task.

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Part 1: The Basics

Choosing the best insulation to maximize performance and minimize environmental impacts is one of the most complex decisions you can make for a building project.

by

Are there any sustainable materials? What does that even mean?

by

The increased use of no-added-urea-formaldehyde (NAUF) wood products is great, but can occasionally cause unsightly "bleaching" of gorgeous veneers. What to do?

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It's easy to get bogged down in the details of one credit or another, but Greenbuild offered a refreshing look at the bigger picture.