Embedding Equity in Design Practice

Hear how some in the industry are working to advance impartiality in their firms, and what we should be doing collectively to promote social equity in the built environment.

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Should Your Business Accept Credit Cards?

Offering clients the choice to make credit card payments is an affordable option that helps you get paid faster, without asking the client to sacrifice control or convenience. Here are some insights on why it might be time for your small business to start letting clients pay by credit card.

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Sick & Tired of Paper Checks?

The use of paper checks comes with pitfalls—costly processing, increased labor, delayed access to funds, and sometimes other headaches. There is an affordable, available technology to settle bills with credit cards and online payment processing. Here’s a look at some of the proven benefits of taking your accounts receivable paperless.

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Business Development for Architecture Firms: 6 Strategies to Support Client Success

Wearing the hat of Architect, salesperson, project manager and bill collector are essential parts of running your architecture firm. This guide provides proven tactics that architects and design professionals can use to leverage modern payment solutions to help run and grow your successful business—all the while delivering exceptional client service.

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Getting Paid Today: What Building and Design Professionals Need to Know

With the onset of the Digital Revolution, technological growth brought change to entire industries. How people communicate, how they shop, and how they pay for services has evolved. As a business owner, know that clients prefer easy and efficient ways to pay by card or online.

By accepting electronic payments, show the world you’ve kept your finger on the pulse of advancement and convenience. Let's break down how online payments allow you to create a modern client experience - and how they, in turn, benefit your bottom line.

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Building Quality and Reducing Risk During Disruptions

The lingering effects of supply chain strain and the new ways homeowners want to use their spaces are simultaneously creating positive business opportunities for residential contractors and presenting new pressures for home professionals to perform during unpredictable times.

Increase profitability and ease the impacts of material acquisition, customer needs, and labor demands by incorporating flexible business practices and consumer financing solutions.

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Western Red Cedar Finish Options Maximize Versatility (Print Course)

Western red cedar is a wood prized for its beautiful color and grain, natural insect and moisture resistance, and durability. It is an extremely versatile building product that can be used both indoors and out and can be finished in myriad ways to complement a building’s aesthetic.

This course will discuss best practices for finishing, care, and maintenance of western red cedar that will ensure a long-lasting finish in both exterior and interior applications.

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Resilient Exteriors

Resilience has become a central idea for assessing how our social, economic, technical, constructed, engineered, and ecological systems can withstand and bounce back from a man-made or weather- and climate-related disaster. Globally, wildfires, hurricanes, tornados, typhoons, high winds, hail, coastal and valley flooding, sea level rise, heat waves, seismic activity, extreme cold, ice storms, and snow melt have destroyed ecosystems, caused loss of life, damaged property, disrupted healthcare and financial networks, and in some cases, brought essential services to a halt. During this presentation, we’ll discuss the composition, performance, and application of engineered polymer siding and trim and capped polymer cladding to illustrate the benefits to home and building owners when construction materials are selected with resilience and sustainability in mind.

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2021 IBC: Building Bigger and Taller with Low Carbon Wood (Print Course)

In this course, you’ll learn about the 2021 International Building Code (IBC) changes related to tall wood construction, including three new building types that allow for wood buildings up to 18 stories and even taller using an Alternate Materials and Methods Requests (AMMR). Rigorous fire testing was conducted as part of these code changes to validate the safety of tall mass timber construction. Along with advancements in tall mass timber construction, the course explores design tactics and relevant code applications used to boost the density of light-frame wood construction.

Finally, this course will review the science related to wood’s embodied carbon and life cycle assessment in the context of curbing a building's impact on climate change, including a growing body of research demonstrating how building with timber represents an opportunity to increase the long-term storage of carbon in today’s built environment.

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The Ultimate Guide to Zero Net Energy Building With Propane

Zero net energy (ZNE) construction represents a vast opportunity for builders and contractors. So what is a zero net energy home? In the simplest terms, a ZNE home produces as much energy as it uses, most commonly using efficient construction methods. Achieving ZNE performance involves a whole-building design approach to consider all of a home's systems — the building envelope, mechanical systems, and lighting and appliances — in an integrated way.

This e-book collects our most valuable resources on ZNE projects to help you define what ZNE means for you and examine factors such as energy prices, net metering policies, solar resources, incentives, and budget. You’ll see that getting to zero doesn’t mean giving up desirable and high-performance gas systems.

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