Straight Green

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There are some exciting new green building products that have been slowly making their way into the commercial market: an innovative insulating glazing unit, a super insulating aerogel blanket, and a rapid drying, self-curing concrete admixture.

 I recently conducted a webinar about continuous insulation in exterior wall assemblies, a topic that has achieved white-hot status among design professionals of late. 

 The Federal Government’s General Services Administration owns and leases over 350 million square feet of office space—nearly 10,000 buildings, housing more than a million federal employees.  

Ever since I learned that fiber optic cables could be used for lighting, I have been fascinated with the idea that light could be brought anywhere into a building through tiny, plastic strands. 

 “The building envelope shall be designed and constructed with a continuous air barrier to control air leakage into, or out of the conditioned space.”

Several years ago while working on a Colorado shopping mall I was surprised to see the Design Development drawings I was reviewing indicated insulation at the low-sloped roofing assembly as a mere R-11. The climatein this part of Colorado, as with most of Colorado, is cold—really cold.