Event Description

Every year, up to 2 billion birds die as a result of collisions with glass in the United States, a problem exacerbated by increasing light pollution around buildings and structures. In this webinar, the co-leads of the Yale Bird-Friendly Building Initiative and the co-authors of “Building Safer Cities for Birds” discuss bird-safe building practices, the consequences of window strikes for wild bird populations, current trends in regulations, local efforts to mitigate buildings in Connecticut, and the co-benefits of green building and bird-friendly building practices. There is a lot that architects and designers can do to help make our built environments safer for birds.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the causes of bird glass collisions and the many design and building-material solutions. Gain facility in bird-friendly terminology and look at bird-friendly building materials, including popular products.
• Become familiar with current efforts in Connecticut to design bird-friendly buildings and mitigate existing buildings following industry best practices.
• Learn about new trends in bird-friendly building policies at both the municipal and state levels, including passage of Connecticut Public Act No. 23-143 (2023), which regulates light pollution at state-owned buildings for birds.
• Explore the many co-benefits of bird-friendly building design for green-building, including in increasing energy efficiency. thermal comfort, biophilic features, and biodiversity on site, while reducing light pollution and increasing ecosystem resilience