Natural Slate Rainscreen Cladding Systems

Slate has been used for centuries as a long-lasting building material, and its natural beauty is unsurpassed. Today, rainscreen cladding systems have been developed to adapt natural slate to new architectural demands for sustainable building design approaches.

This course explores the energy efficiency and moisture management benefits of a rainscreen system in combination with the durability and versatility of slate. The different designs and fastening systems are reviewed, and case studies demonstrate the advantages and possibilities for sustainable and beautiful slate projects.

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Wellness Inspired Design: Specifying Large Scale Living Green Walls For Well-being

Creating spaces that embrace nature have both physical and mental health benefits. These benefits enhance the occupants experience in an indoor space creating the ambiance of outdoor living. In this course, we will discuss how the exposure to nature through living green walls contribute to LEED, WELL, and other green rating systems. We will cover common places where you might find living green walls, and where exposure to nature can make a dramatic difference, including offices, hotels, retail shops, and healthcare. This course will examine different types of living green walls available, how systems are designed, installed, and maintained. In addition, the course will look at the latest large scale green wall technology and how it can be applicable to a variety of applications.

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Sustainable Building Envelopes: Harnessing the Power of Metal in Modern Architecture

This On Demand CEU is a recorded presentation from a previously live webinar event. The use of metal roofing and wall cladding can help lower operating carbon emissions and make a building more energy efficient, which will positively affect the health, safety, and welfare of a building’s occupants.


There are many ways to achieve this, including the use of cool roof paint technology and above sheathing ventilation for metal roofing, metal roofing panels as a solar ready platform for photovoltaic systems, and solar air heating metal wall cladding.

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Slate Reimagined: The Surprising Advantages of Slate Rainscreen Cladding

Time-honored material offers a bold new expression of architectural excellence. Read why slate is an ideal cladding solution for numerous applications. In an industry and design environment where so many materials ask architects, contractors and owners to make difficult sustainability, performance and aesthetic decisions, consider how the simplicity and elegance of a reimagined building material presents a way forward with minimal compromise.

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Daylighting for Wellness: The Advantages of Polycarbonates in Fenestration Design

As people spend an increasing amount of time indoors, the need to bring natural light into building interiors becomes even more imperative. Daylighting is an important part of architectural design for many reasons, with occupant well-being and sustainable practices at the top of the list. This course will explore the health and environmental benefits of daylighting, look at polycarbonate fenestration products as a practical and high-performing option, and discuss design considerations and possibilities, including case studies of polycarbonate products used in daylighting projects.

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Propane-Enabled Solutions for Commercial Buildings in Rural Areas

This course will discuss how architects and business owners can achieve outstanding performance and low-cost operation by incorporating high-efficiency, low-emission propane appliances into commercial new builds or retrofits.

We will discuss the challenges of designing commercial buildings in rural areas, especially those that do not have natural gas service, and how propane can help to meet resilience and sustainability goals, and maximize health, wellness, and occupant comfort. In addition, this course will explore applications for propane in different commercial building types, as well as case studies where propane was used.

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How to Calculate the Wood Carbon Footprint of a Building (Print Course)

Are we able to dive deeper into these numbers to find ways to reduce a building’s carbon footprint in meaningful ways? What are the methods used to measure building material carbon footprint and do they tell the whole story? Are there simple tools to assess material choices? This course seeks to address these and other questions by explaining the principal methods and tools that are used to assess carbon footprint in the context of building materials.

It includes a primer on product terminology, including life cycle assessment (LCA), environmental product declarations (EPDs), carbon footprint, embodied carbon, and whole building LCA (WBLCA) tools. It explains how biogenic carbon is treated in standard LCA methodology and dives into the forest side of the equation, explaining basics of the sustainable forestry cycle. This course also highlights some ways to track and assure wood comes from sustainable forests in North America and why demand for wood products supports investment in forest management.

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Resilient and Sustainable Brick: Another Look at a Time-Honored Material

Brick is a resilient and sustainable material used in high-performance buildings, a key aspect of sustainable design. Sustainable design considers the health and well-being of building occupants and the concept of resilience, which is to withstand extreme weather events, then quickly repair and re-occupy.


The learning objectives explore the age old material, which has gained traction in resilient design and discusses how buildings constructed of the material provide occupant comfort in terms of thermal, acoustic, and non-VOC emissions.

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The Future is Biophilic – Exploring Biophilic Design in the Built Environment

Biophilic design has solidified itself as a staple of modern building design, quickly moving from a trend to an established design principle. An increasing number of building owners and tenants are interested in incorporating biophilic design into their commercial spaces, and because biophilic design IS the future of design, architects and designers are stepping up to meet the need. This course will help architects and designers understand the core concepts of biophilic design and why it’s an essential component of the current interior built environment, as well as the future of commercial spaces.

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The Role of Wood-Plastic Composite Cladding in Resilient Design

This On Demand CEU is a recorded presentation from a previously live webinar event. Buildings must be designed to stand up to their natural environment, including high winds, heavy rain events, and freeze / thaw cycles. Increasingly, building systems must also have a positive impact on a building in case of a catastrophic event, such as potential natural disasters. Wood-plastic composite cladding is a great alternative for constructing resilient and sustainable commercial buildings.


The material is highly durable with performance attributes that equate to a longer-lasting, more resilient product than alternative cladding materials. This course will cover the principles of resilient design, the importance of material durability and high performance when specifying resilient materials, and how wood-plastic composite cladding contributes to resilient building design.

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