Northglenn, a Denver suburb, opens a net zero, all-electric city hall with a mass timber structure

Northglenn, Colo., a Denver suburb, has opened the new Northglenn City Hall—a net zero, fully electric building with a mass timber structure. The 32,600-sf, $33.7 million building houses 60 city staffers. Designed by Anderson Mason Dale Architects, Northglenn City Hall is set to become the first municipal building in Colorado, and one of the first in the country, to achieve the Core certification: a green building rating system overseen by the International Living Future Institute.

Mass Timber

5 lessons in water mitigation for mass timber projects

Sustainability leaders from Skanska, RDH, and Polygon share five tips for successful water mitigation in mass timber construction.

Office Buildings

Fact sheet outlines benefits, challenges of thermal energy storage for commercial buildings

A U.S. Dept. of Energy document discusses the benefits and challenges of thermal energy storage for commercial buildings. The document explains how the various types of thermal energy storage technologies work, where their installation is most beneficial, and some practical considerations around installations.

Industrial Facilities

UK-based tire company plans to build the first carbon-neutral tire factory in the U.S.

ENSO, a U.K.-based company that makes tires for electric vehicles, has announced plans to build the first carbon-neutral tire factory in the U.S. The $500 million ENSO technology campus will be powered entirely by renewable energy. The first-of-its-kind tire factory aims to be carbon neutral without purchased offsets, using carbon-neutral raw materials and building materials.

Green | Mar 25, 2015

WELL Building Standard introduced in China

The WELL Building Standard is a performance-based system for measuring, certifying and monitoring features that impact human health and wellbeing, through air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort, and mind.

School in Hong Kong will feature bioclimatic façade

Higher Education | Mar 23, 2015

Hong Kong university building will feature bioclimatic façade

The project's twin-tower design opens the campus up to the neighboring public green space, while maximizing the use of summer winds for natural ventilation.

Codes and Standards | Mar 12, 2015

Energy Trust of Oregon offers financial incentives for net-zero buildings

The organization is offering technical assistance along with financial benefits.

Codes and Standards | Mar 5, 2015

AEC industry groups look to harmonize green building standards, codes

The USGBC, ASHRAE, ICC, IES, and AIA are collaborating on a single green code.

Green | Paladino | Feb 23, 2015

State of the green union, and the next big shift in sustainability

The history of the green movement offers cues that we are on the precipice of another significant shift in the green union.

Codes and Standards | Feb 18, 2015

USGBC concerned about developers using LEED registration in marketing

LEED administrators are concerned about a small group of developers or project owners who tout their projects as “LEED pre-certified” and then fail to follow through with certification.

Codes and Standards | Feb 12, 2015

ASHRAE, USGBC, IES consider biomass requirements in green building standard

The proposal would add biomass to approved renewables.

Green | Jan 26, 2015

Shopping centers set their sight on solar

As part of its pledge to environmentally sound practices, real estate investment trust Macerich is implementing solar across its portfolio of 85-plus properties in 19 states.

Jan 21, 2015

Tesla Motors starts construction on $5 billion battery plant in Nevada

Tesla Motors’ “gigafactory,” a $5 billion project on 980 acres in Sparks, Nev., could annually produce enough power for 500,000 electric cars.

Dec 29, 2014

Leo A Daly's minimally invasive approach to remote field site design [BD+C's 2014 Great Solutions Report]

For the past six years, Leo A Daly has been designing sites for remote field stations with near-zero ecological disturbance. The firm's environmentally delicate work was named a 2014 Great Solution by the editors of Building Design+Construction.