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.

Tesoro Corporation headquarters in San Antonio, TX, a LEED-certified building. P

Sep 3, 2014

New designation launched to streamline LEED review process

The LEED Proven Provider designation is designed to minimize the need for additional work during the project review process.

Sep 2, 2014

Judson University’s Harm A. Weber Academic Center resembles copper, but its sustainability efforts are pure gold

The building’s custom-fabricated wall panels look like copper, but are actually flat metal sheets coated with Valspar’s signature Fluropon Copper Penny coating.

Bill O'Keeffe | Aug 25, 2014

Glazing plays key role in reinventing stairway design

Within the architectural community, a movement called "active design" seeks to convert barren and unappealing stairwells originally conceived as emergency contingencies into well-designed architectural focal points. SPONSORED CONTENT

The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology Campus in Saudi Arabia is

Aug 1, 2014

GBCI joins up with Bureau Veritas to support LEED certification process in global hubs

Partnership intended to improve LEED certification process for projects in countries around the globe.

Energy-efficiency retrofits are on pace to grow more than 7% a year through 2023

Jul 28, 2014

Commercial energy-efficiency retrofits will represent nearly $960 billion investment in next decade

Payback periods remain a critical factor for decisionmakers on retrofit projects, report finds.

Whole Foods is among the grocery companies recently using Green Globes certifica

Jul 25, 2014

Grocery stores choosing Green Globes for building sustainability certification

The Green Building Initiative (GBI) has announced a wave of Green Globes certifications for new grocery stores, including New Seasons Markets, Whole Foods, Price Chopper, Aldi’s, Harris Teeter, Wegmans, and Publix.

Jul 21, 2014

Green building experts form regional partnership in Pennsylvania

Milton, PA – July 19, 2014 –Seven individuals from central Pennsylvania have formed Design…

Jul 21, 2014

Schindler Elevator Corp.'s new manufacturing facility receives LEED Green Excellence Award

Pennsylvania plant is the first LEED Gold certified elevator manufacturing facility in North America.

Jul 17, 2014

A harmful trade-off many U.S. green buildings make

The Urban Green Council addresses a concern that many "green" buildings in the U.S. have: poor insulation.

The complex is envisioned with public garden space. Renderings courtesy of April

Jul 16, 2014

Check out this tree-like skyscraper concept for vertical farming

Aprilli Design Studio has stepped forward with a new idea for a vertical farm, which is intended to resemble a giant tree. It uses lightweight decks as outdoor growing space, adding up to about 25 acres of space.