Blog

By Ravi Srinivasan, CEM, LEED AP

Heat transfer through the building envelope is due to the temperature difference and may occur through one, two or all of the three heat transfer modes – conduction, convection and radiation. While conduction is based on the thermal property (thermal conductivity) of the envelope material and the temperature difference between the outside and the inside surfaces, convection occurs at the junction where the fluid (in motion) is in contact with the envelope surface. On the other hand, radiation arises when envelope bodies emit photons or radiant energy.

By Barbra Batshalom, LEED AP, The Green Roundtable / NEXUS

Being the founder and Executive Director of a green building non-profit, most people tag me as an “environmentalist” and assume my motivations for leaving mainstream architecture were to save the planet, protect natural resources and improve public health. While these things are factors, they alone didn’t set my path.

My motivations were rooted in business – business planning and strategy of design and construction – and systems thinking – the dysfunctions I observed in the building decision-making process.

Given the challenges inherent in people working together  (the human condition), I still found it maddening that the basic concept and design approach to a project could be formulated without fully conceiving of its functional, operational and performance requirements.

By Barbra Batshalom, The Green Roundtable / NEXUS

I remember the first time the concept of “green” edged its way into my consciousness.  It was about 18 years ago, when as an architectural designer,tasked to organize our product library and create a database. Digging through product information,

I came upon an article by BuildingGreen about the environmental impacts of rigid foam insulation and I thought…. “What?!”