What do you get when you combine the Portland AIA Design Awards, the Portland AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE), NEEA’s BetterBricks initiative, and the Architecture 2030 Challenge? Why, the 2030 Challenge Design Awards, of course! Presented November 10^th… at the Portland AIA COTE Green

…The BetterBricks Awards return to for the ninth year in Oregon and the seventh year in Washington to recognize local professionals who are taking significant strides in reducing the energy consumption and carbon footprint of Northwest commercial buildings.  Green building professionals are encouraged to submit a nomination no later than

Retrofitting our existing building stock to achieve substantial energy savings is quickly becoming a major theme for city governments across the nation in an effort to cut energy consumption – and save taxpayers money.  In a recent GreenBiz article written by Rocky Mountain Institute’s… Michael Bendwald, the author looks at

…Wouldn’t it be convenient to compare the energy performance of commercial buildings as readily as you can compare the mileage ratings of different vehicles? Local and state governments around the Northwest are implementing programs to facilitate this process. While the proposed programs, so far, will all rely on EPA’s ENERGY

Analytical software? Diagnostic tools? Have you started putting a toolkit together? Do you know where you’d begin?
A team of University of Oregon undergraduate architecture students, members of the UO student ASHRAE… (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers) chapter, will soon be able to provide some advice.

Oregon’s Daily Journal of Commerce recently reported that energy modeling is not just for sustainability geeks anymore!… NEEA’s BetterBricks initiative has held that view for awhile and has partnered extensively with regional and national experts to research energy modeling tools and methods and educate architects and engineers.
NEEA’s BetterBricks asked

Every year, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on the Environment (COTE)… invites submission of projects for selection among the top ten green projects of the year. Sustainability bragging rights are awarded to these select projects, based upon a comprehensive, balanced set of measures and metrics, including a category

If you are not familiar with the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI)… you should be. With a mission “to drive the efficient and restorative use of resources”, the non-profit develops strategies “to map and drive the transition from coal and oil to efficiency and renewables.” For up-to-date resources supporting high performance

Looking for new tools to enhance your ability to daylight commercial building spaces? Want increased certainty that your daylighting strategies will perform as designed? Need to streamline the effort required to integrate daylighting into your projects? If you can get to Seattle for a three-hour workshop… the morning of April

After wowing over 300 guests at the Portland BetterBricks Awards, Kevin Kampschroer, Director of the Office of Federal High Performance Green Buildings for the U.S. General Service Administration (GSA), was invited by SERA Architects… and NEEA’s BetterBricks initiative to tour the extensive energy efficient renovation of GSA’s Edith Green