There's already been a lot of excellent debate around the new LEED Pilot Credit 43. I find myself agreeing with both sides! Here's where I stand in what may be the eye of the storm.

Steel beams are a prime pathway for transferring heat and cold in and out of buildings. This thermal bridging not only wastes energy, but can also cause condensation, corrosion, mold, and other indoor air quality problems.

In the last 200 years, humankind has chosen to live off the "principal" of Earth's core natural resources, not the "interest"--solar income. Here's how we can move forward with home designs that get us on a sustainable path.

[Editor's note: Robert Riversong, a Vermont builder, continues his 10-part series of articles taking design and construction to what he sees as radical or "root" concerns. Enjoy--and please share your thoughts. – Tristan Roberts] 

Most of the greenwashing we see falls into one of these nine types. Here are tips on how to spot them.

I am going to go out on a limb here, but I would bet that sometime in the last 24 hours you have received a marketing message centered around how "green," how "environmentally friendly," or (if it's really serious), how "sustainable" something is.

Designers and builders often consider bodily comfort when creating living spaces and mechanical systems, but we should not neglect psychological comfort--our perceptions have a measurable effect on our sense of physical comfort.

[Editor's note: Robert Riversong, a Vermont builder, continues his 10-part series of articles taking design and construction to what he sees as radical or "root" concerns. Enjoy--and please share your thoughts. – Tristan Roberts]

News on this has been trickling out for a little while now, but I wanted to put up an official information announcement here on LEEDuser: parking garages are specifically excluded from eligibility for LEED certification, as of a LEED Interpretation issued on May 9, 2011. That means that any parking garages registered before that date are fine to proceed, but anyone trying to register after that date are out of luck.

How to use the GreenSpec product guide--even if it doesn't list the product you need.

I hate shopping. I'll do the grocery shopping, but when it comes to new appliances, home improvement, clothes--really anything else--I tell the shopper in the household what it is we need and he then spends the hours wading through specs, Consumer Reports, and price comparisons to make the final purchase. Thankfully, he likes that kind of thing.

If you're looking to renovate a bathroom and save some water and energy in the process, check out some of these standout products from our GreenSpec Directory.

What do you do when a green product doesn't live up to expectations? Here at BuildingGreen, we really want to see green building products succeed in the marketplace, and make it easy for professionals to find the best of the best.

But when we see something substandard, we feel it's important to point it out. To win the mainstream over to sustainability, we have to deliver on promises of reduced environmental burdens along with superior performance.

Our clothing is our second "skin" and our home's envelope is our third "skin." Each must be semi-permeable and able to breathe. This puts my philosophy of building at odds with much of the so-called "green" building movement, which relies heavily on non-breathing, non-natural and ecologically harmful plastic.

[Editor's note: Robert Riversong, a Vermont builder, continues his 10-part series of articles taking design and construction to what he sees as radical or "root" concerns. Enjoy--and please share your thoughts. – Tristan Roberts]

As I've said before, windows are a silent but very high-tech part of our buildings. The advances in glazing in the last 30 years have been phenomenal. Will windows keep getting better and better with no end in sight?

Recycling, and recycled content are good, right? Yes, but with some products you must look beyond that to decide if a product is truly green.

In a recent webcast on green building product certifications, I gave a counterintuitive example of greenwashing: a "recycled steel cabinet." Based on the number of questions I got about this, I realized this needed some more explaining.

We design a house from the inside out and engineer a house from the top down, but we build a house from the ground up. What are the most environmentally sensitive, durable materials?

[Editor's note: Robert Riversong, a Vermont builder, continues his 10-part series of articles taking design and construction to what he sees as radical or "root" concerns. Enjoy--and please share your thoughts. – Tristan Roberts]

Have you ever found yourself picking a sticker off a building product or material from the store, and wondering, why did they put the sticker here? I have often had this thought with everything from stovepipe to plumbing fittings, but the classic example in the building world is probably windows.