Happy National Indoor Plant Week!! We love indoor plants; they offer multiple benefits, both for your physical well-being and the environment. Here are some of the advantages of raising indoor plants: Improved Air Quality: Indoor plants remove harmful pollutants from the air, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs) like formaldehyde, benzene, and xylene. They also mirror…

World Water Week – August 20-24 Seeds of Change: Innovative Solutions for a Water-Wise World  Rushing celebrates World Water Week 2023 which focuses this year on innovations in design during a time of unprecedented challenges. Planning for various water uses within a building is becoming a high priority. This is due to the increasing cost…

The business case for wellness protocols in the built environment. By: Carissa Nelson and Nina Olivier We all know the research, the built environment plays a crucial role in our health and well-being, but is there a business case that supports the investment of a focus on occupant health through Wellness protocols like WELL &…

People & Place: Linking Stewardship, Community, and Conservation. As a part of Rushing’s Earth Month Series, the Sustainability Studio had the opportunity to interview Leanne Weiss, a Director of Conservation Transactions with Forterra. Rushing’s Sustainability Studio connects PNW clients and projects looking to achieve land conservation and restoration goals with Forterra’s programs. On April 21st,…

Restoring the Human-Nature Connection through Biophilic Design. By: Carissa Nelson, Manager of Sustainability It is time to invite humans back into a kinship with nature, and we can do this through the design of our built environment. Design is a powerful tool, and when speaking on the scale of the built environment, the impact on…

The demand for sustainability in the built environment is a priority and, in many jurisdictions, no longer optional. Modern sustainability has grown vast in the topics it encompasses, which can be daunting to endeavor. Our sustainability team aims to deconstruct and demystify the ever-growing facets of sustainability to support cost-effective strategies for teams to achieve…

The Center for Active Design has announced the forthcoming release of the Fitwel Standard, Version 3 (v3). The new Standard will reflect insights from the latest public health research and data-based evidence substantiating the valuable link between health and the built environment. It will offer a streamlined and more efficient documentation and certification process, new evidence-based…

Stefanie Young is a principal here at Rushing and the Director of Sustainability. She holds the following accreditations: LEED AP BD+C, WELL AP, Built Green verifier, BREEAM assessor, and LEED for Homes Green Rater. Stefanie has been with Rushing since 2012.  How did you get interested in sustainability? Since I was a child, I wanted…

USGBC has posted updates to LEED v4 pertaining to the Energy and Atmosphere category. These updates are open to public comment before they are presented to USGBC membership for ballot approval. Updates will officially apply to projects registered after the date of approval; previously registered projects will not be impacted. Implications of the updates include…