greenbuilding

For California to meet its ambitious climate goals, we have to transition the state’s building stock from fossil fuels to cleaner, high-efficiency electric appliances. In the single-family residential sector, this relies on millions of households making the decision to upgrade their homes. However, accessing reliable and unbiased information about how their home energy features could […]

LOS ANGELES (July 8, 2026) — USGBC California (USGBC-CA) named the 15 companies selected for Cohort 8 of the Net Zero Accelerator® (NZA), its growth-stage commercialization program for innovative technology in the built environment. The program officially kicked off June 24th and runs through early December 2026. These companies are ready to put practical, cost-effective […]

Link to “In the Mix” – Masonry Industry Podcast (June 18, 2026) | Ben Stapleton has spent more than two decades working at the intersection of real estate, sustainability, and innovation. As CEO of USGBC California, he leads one of the country’s largest green building organizations, helping train thousands of industry professionals each year while […]

Link to Earth911 (June 10, 2026) | Every year, California’s commercial and apartment buildings burn through 109 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, guzzle 240 billion gallons of water, and release 23 million metric tons of carbon — and until now, almost none of that was easy for the public to see in one place. That changed […]

Valuable, available, and versatile: Bio-based materials are often framed as “interesting, but not quite ready” for large-scale projects. In practice, the opposite is increasingly true. Many of these materials are viable, commercially available, and already utilized in buildings today. The next gap to bridge is industry adoption. Our recent research assessed bio-based materials’ Technology Readiness […]

Global Winners Design Future Irresistible Water-Saving Approaches LOS ANGELES (May 29, 2026) California uses more water at home than almost anywhere else in the country, and most of it moves through fixtures, appliances, and landscapes designed decades ago. Drought has shifted from emergency to baseline, codes have tightened and fixtures have improved. But the way most […]

Link to Everybody in the Pool Podcast (May 21, 2026) | This week on Everybody in the Pool, Molly Wood sits down with Ben Stapleton, the CEO at the U.S. Green Building Council of California, to talk about what it actually takes to make our buildings work for the climate instead of against it. …We talk […]

Awardees include California DGS, Mad River Mass Timber, San Luis Obispo’s Andy Pease, Blade Air Pro Filter, and Epic Cleantec Global Design Competition “Shaping the Future of Water Use at Home” Winners to be Announced at Conference LOS ANGELES (May 14, 2026)  The USGBC California (USGBC-CA) will present the Product & Civic Leadership Awards on […]

“Future of Water” Design Competition Winners to be Announced, along with Product and Civic Awards Christine Harada of CPUC & Julia Hatton of Rising Sun to Keynote; Lunchtime Panel Explores Plug-in Solar with journalist Sammy Roth  Industry Expert Presentations, 60+ Exhibitors and Community Partners LOS ANGELES (April 29, 2026) USGBC California (USGBC-CA) is honored to host its […]

Link to APM’s Marketplace (April 20, 2026) | California became the first state to regulate embodied carbon in its building code. That’s changing the construction industry even beyond the state border. More than a third of planet-warming emissions come from buildings and construction. Most of that is what’s called “operational” carbon. …The rest of it […]

Link to SD Union-Tribune/Encinitas Advocate (April 9, 2026) | The City of Encinitas recently recognized The Grauer School as a newly certified Green Business through the Encinitas Green Business Network. A pioneer in holistic learning and sustainable practices, the school is the first in the San Diego region to achieve California Green Business Certification. This achievement […]

California’s Title 24, Part 6 Building Energy Efficiency Standards (Energy Code) are widely understood for what they are: a compliance framework, not a design methodology. They were never intended to shape architectural intent or engineering strategy in the same way that, say, real-world passive design principles or operational load optimization do. That reality hasn’t changed. […]