Interview in Apartment Therapy

The good folks over at Apartment Therapy interviewed me. I love these short types of interviews, they're quick and get to the point.

FULL STORY HERE

HowYouEco Interview

Luke at HowYouEco recently interviewed me with his patented list of 3 quick questions. Check out the site. It is beautifully done and provides some great information.

Sunset Magazine's new editor

Allison Arieff, former visionary editor at Dwell Magazine, is now editor-at-large at Sunset Magazine and writes for the New York Times. Today she posted this review of my book and our recent talk at the Sunset Celebration Weekend.

Her blog is a great resource, as is her NY TImes Column.

Review of the book on Inhabitat

A nice review of the book appeared on Inhabitat today. Now they see a LOT of books and resources, so a kind word from them means a great deal.

I have to admit, it's strange to work on something for a year, finish months ago (I finished the manuscript back in July) and NOW have people talking about it. As my friends will tell you, I cannot keep secrets, so keeping the book quiet while writing it was very hard! I love people are finally getting the information in the book.

An excerpt:
Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies provides an introduction to every facet of green building, from start to finish, including the materials, architecture, and construction methods of green building and remodeling for both homeowners and professionals such as architects, interior designers, and contractors.

...You won’t be a dummy with this book in your library... check out [this] truly helpful, informative reference guide, and get smart about green building in the New Year.

Thanks, Piper and Inhabitat for the kind words!
Few reviewers can seem to resist making a Dummies joke, and I think I've heard them all! Keep 'em coming.

Full Review at Inhabitat

Buy your copy of "Green Building for Dummies" now!

Inhabitat Holiday Party Photos

The lovely ladies of Inhabitat: Piper Kujac, Sarah Rich, Jill Fehrenbacher, Emily Pilloton

One of my favorite blogs, Inhabitat, shares office space with my favorite community organization, Architecture For Humanity, and my favorite design competition, Urban Re:Vision. Friday night was their collective holiday party.

This is why I love San Francisco: here you can find a room filled with the greatest people doing the most interesting things on the planet. In attendance: Michelle Kaufman, Allison Arrief, Cameron Sinclair, Sarah Rich, Jill Fehrenbacher, Emily Pilloton, Stacey Frost, Willem Maas, Bill Cahan, the gang from Ecolect, the gang from Branch and the gang from Worldchanging... plus so many friends and interesting people. (Google any names you don't recognize!)

Perhaps the most interesting thing is how connected these various groups have become. They're all friends, all working to change the world and all full of hope for our future. Hard to believe that the truly most influential people in design today are a handful of young, hip bloggers (like those pictured). Women seem to be leading the charge. There are noticably more women than men in this group. I don't know what this indicates, but it's something to consider.

Full story via Inhabitat

Flickr gallery of photos from the event

Finding the carbon footprint of wine...

This story about the carbon footprint of wine contains an interesting map at the bottom.

Essentially it cuts the US into two. West of this line it's more carbon efficient to drink Napa Valley wines. East of the line it's more carbon efficient to drink French wines. Carbon efficiency refers to the energy and pollution creted from shipping this wine from it's source.

This "grape divide" must also have other implications. Think of all of the technology from California, or the films for that matter. Does it take less energy to watch French films on the East Coast than it does to watch Hollywood films?

How I made my "PowerPoint" presentation from West Coast Green

Ever since my talk last week at West Coast Green, I have received dozens and dozens of emails from people asking, "How did you get PowerPoint to do that?!"

Well, in reality, I didn't.

First, use the right tools. Like most Microsoft products, PowerPoint lacks good design sensibilities. After years of trying to push it to do what I wanted to do with colors, fonts and video, I gave up.

The real reason I am able to make these presentations so visually rich is using Apple's Keynote. Keynote handles these elements far better than PowerPoint. C'mon, you should ditch that PC and have a Mac anyway.

Secondly, my speaking style is much more ancedotal. My job is to take this technical information and distill it into stories. As a presenter, my goal is to remove as much text as possible from the slides. You'll notice there are no bullet points on the slides, and the text is made obnoxiously large to reiterate the point.

At several points along the presentation, I have no slides at all, just an image or movie running in the background as I tell a story. For more on this technique, check out Merlin Mann's wonderful blog 43 Folders and especially his story on his own presentations.

Lastly, I am no expert on public speaking. Between teaching and traveling to conferences, I just get to to it a whole lot and the practice helps me. I also get to watch hundreds of other speakers each year and see how boring many talks can be.

To prevent boredom, I am experimenting with several techniques, including the Takahashi Method and the Guy Kawasaki Method for storytelling with visuals. The more I know about these ways to convey information, the more I realize how much great orators, such as Bill Clinton, are able to give a speech with such power using only words.

For more on using Keynote in a positive (double entrendre) way read on here and here.

DOWNLOAD MY FULL WEST COAST GREEN KEYNOTE (not PowerPoint) here (26 MB PDF)

The true costs of green building

From our friends at TriplePundit comes this story about the true costs of green building.

Cost the biggest misconception have about green building, and the one I seem to be fighting to change in peoples minds the most. I have said for years now there is no discernable difference in cost. In fact, we only encounter three items with any cost increase:
* solar panels: but have a 5-10 year payback.
* FSC Certified Wood costs 20% more than the bad wood, and with no return on its investment (other than being the right thing to do.
* Graywater systems: water is still so subsidized that the return on investment is LONG, but that will change as the future wars on water begin.

from Triple Pundit:
Well, according to WBSBD those tangible, financial costs may be over-stated by as much as 300%! That should be more than enough to get most construction projects thinking a little harder about engaging in at least some basic green practices.

The full report is available here. The bottom line suggest that the 17% premium originally suggested for "green" projects is really more like 5%.

GreenHomeGuide: my recent articles

GreenHomeGuide, an incredible green building reference for homeowners, is building an archive of information around sustainable design. I recently wrote two short articles for them, found here:

What can I do to reduce my home’s carbon footprint?

Should I worry about the mercury in fluorescent light bulbs?

Video of Eric for Let's Green This City

This is a video of my interview for Let's Green This City. I have been blogging for their Green Building section for several months now. I have no idea how many visitors it attracts, but the advertisements seem to be everywhere around San Francisco.

By the way, that IS our office and our staff. Note there are NO LIGHTS on, all of that is natural daylighting.

Worldchanging Panel at The Commonwealth Club

In December, I hosted this panel for Worldchanging and their new, wonderful book.

The audio receording of the Panel is now up and available.

Eco Blogs
in no particular order

GreenGroundZero
Treehugger
WorldChanging
MetaEfficient
MetaOptimal
Makower
Design Observer
MoCoLoco
IDFuel
Future Feeder
Triple Pundit
eco.psfk
Lazy Environmentalist