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.

First LEED Certified MedSpa

Our most recent project, the EpiCenter opened last week to a packed grand opening party.

You can read a review here. We worked with architect Justin Martinkovic, green consultant Zem Joaquin, and a great team of other brilliant people to build the first LEED Certified Med Spa in the country.

One odd thing that seems to get a great deal of attention is the ceiling. The initial ceiling was to be made of these gorgeous bamboo panels. When the price came in at $48,000, a cheaper product was needed. I came up with the solution, Homesote panels, cut into 2' x 4' panels and stained with AFM Safecoat Zero-VOC stains. The result is something that looks like leather, but the final cost: $1800. I painted the panels myself with help from the clients.

via Green Building Elements

Lecture in Santa Cruz

I am speaking to the US Green Building Council chapter in Santa Cruz, California on Wednesday March 5th at 5:30pm.

This is a late addition to the ongoing array of speaking events I am giving around the country. If you're in the area, please come by!

Details here

HousingZone interview with Urban Re:Vision

HousingZone has a wonderful interview with Urban Re:Vision founder Stacey Frost. An excerpt:

When we started Urban Re:Vision, we created a very basic platform from which to pursue our goals. We asked ourselves the question, “What If?” What if we could live in an environment that is toxin-free, works sustainably and provides a direct connection between residents and their community? We are posing that question to both design professionals and concerned citizens through our six-part international competition that deals with a variety of key issues facing our urban communities. We have been rewarded with consistently innovative, intelligent and inspiring proposals.

The design competitions from Urban Re:Vision have already generated some incredible ideas and innovations. Enter your own ideas at Urban Re:Vision.

via HousingZone

Interview on the John Adam Show

I was interviewed for the John Adam Show, the topic was "Green Business is the Place to Be..."

I talked about the book and a plan for completely getting us off of Saudi Arabian oil imports.

Listen to the broadcast here
Episode Synopsis
Episode Information Page

Grist: Eban Goodstein's article on Choose Your Future

Eban Goodstein, professor of economics at Lewis & Clark College and director of Focus the Nation, has a wonderful piece today in Grist on global warming and what YOU can do about it.

It is clear that we are standing at a critical moment in human history. Unless we begin to cut global-warming pollution within a few short years, a window for our children and the creatures of this earth will close. Forever...

Choose Your Future is a program from his group that allows people to take part in saving our planet.

Full story via Grist

Tomorrowland: A design competition for eco-smart city-living aims to turn “what if” into “what is”

The innovative and forward thinking Urban Re:Vision is featured in a cover story in via Common Ground Magazine this month. As one of the advisors on this wonderful project, I have been amazed at the caliber of the entries.

An excerpt:
Imagine a city where energy is renewably generated from helium-filled “solar balloons” floating hundreds of feet above the rooftops. Imagine a city where public transportation doesn’t follow regular routes, but is instead efficiently directed on the fly, on demand — via cell phone and GPS technology. A city where residential structures designed to keep people apart — like walls and fences — are replaced with facilities that bring neighbors together, like shared kitchen gardens or childcare centers. A city where commercial systems are designed to generate social capital, as well as cold hard cash.

Those are a small sampling of the ideas already received by the design competitions, with the promise of much more to come.

I encourage you to submit your own ideas, but in the in the meantime, read the story:
via Common Ground Magazine

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

Book Launch Party

Last night nearly 550 people packed into the Temple Nightclub in San Francisco for the book launch party for my new book, "Green Building for Dummies".

Temple touts itself as a green nightclub and generously donated the venue for the event. As usual, the hardline green people kept coming up to me with their nitpicky "helpful" suggestions:
"Why are the cups plastic and not corn based PLA? You should tell them to change that."
"Why aren't these bulbs compact fluorescents? You should tell them to change that."
"Why didn't they serve organic chocolate? You should tell them to change that."
(Very helpful indeed. For the record, I don't run the nightclub!)

We sold out all of the books, though my hand still hurts from all of the signing (I'm typing this with my left). It was a great evening and thank you to all those in attendance. There was even a special surprise announcement. (If you weren't there, ask someone who attended!)

Photo and a review of the evening courtesey of: Greenerati (Thanks, Keith!)

SCU wins Third Place in Solar Decathalon!

For those of you that might not have heard of it, the Solar Decathalon is a competition for college students to design, build, and operate the most attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered home. It is so competitive and such hard work that it's only offered every two years.

In the last Solar Decathlon in 2005, I was one of the advisors to the Architecture Department at Cal Poly. The students placed an impressive third.


This year, I was one of the advisors to Santa Clara University. Countless hours, debates, discussions and meetings later, and I am proud to announce the results. After two years of preparation and a week of competition, the final scores and standings are in for the 2007 competition.


Third Place: Santa Clara University
This team wanted to build a sustainable solar house that is functional, elegant, and innovative—and they did just that. The Communications Jury lauded their friendly, enthusiastic house tour, which was informative, entertaining, and very much "on target" for public audiences. They were one of five teams to score a perfect 100 points in the Hot Water contest and one of seven teams to score a perfect 100 points in the Energy Balance contest. Their house almost didn't make it to the Solar Decathlon, because their transport truck broke an axle and delayed them by three days.

Congratulations to the students! They were a fun group and they deserve it!

The next one will be in 2009.

A NOTE TO OTHER ARCHITECTURE PROGRAMS: If you're looking to enter the 2009 competition, contact me and invite me to be an advisor. I seem to have a track record of helping you place at least third! ;)

MORE INFO ON: Santa Clara University's Entry
MORE INFO ON: 2007 Solar Decathalon
MORE INFO ON: SCU Solar Decathalon Site

Western Interiors Home Show

The Western Interiors Home Show is coming on October 26th in San Francisco. I will giving the keynote presentation, and am very excited to see the interior design world finally taking green so seriously.

There are some amazing speakers, so join me at the conference.

Our friends at West Coast Green are also helping to host the event, and some of the features:

-giving away 2000 cfl's at the green home pavilion - where you can chat with me on Friday and other green experts throughout the conference.

- All of the exhibitors had to meet the same strict green product criteria as that of West Coast Green, so they are thoughtful products and companies

Conference site

Freed gets fiesty (a review of my talk at West Coast Green)

Green real estate blogger Keith from Greenerati wrote a review of my keynote presentation at West Coast Green. Now, I am friends with Keith, so he knows me well enough to call me "fiesty" in a good way.

Read the full story here.

You can download a PDF of my full keynote presentation here (though you miss my talk and the cool animations on the slides).

More West Coast Green buzz in the paper today

I was interviewed for the San Francisco Chronicle to talk about West Coast Green.

My favorite part? Being described as "cheeky."

An excerpt:
Back for its sophomore edition, the nation's largest green building conference really puts its money where its mouth is by erecting a green modular home in front of the auditorium on a patch of grass below Mayor Gavin Newsom's balcony in City Hall.
Dubbed the Lotus, the 725-square-foot home is the brainchild of green architect Michelle Kaufmann and boasts solar panels, LED lights, a gray-water system that collects water from sinks and the shower and recirculates it to toilets, an energy-saving "on-demand" water heater and native landscaping. For those who'll need to take a load off just to contemplate the home's ramifications, there's also a backyard complete with chaise longues.

full story

Green Building Exchange Radio Programs

The Green Building Exchange opened last month in Redwood City, California (just 30 minutes south of San Francisco). The idea is simple: a permanent, year-round green building expo. Green product manufacturers install permanent displays, and you can visit and browse anytime you like.

The GBX also offers a radio broadcast with some of the leaders in green business. To date, Green Seed Radio has an impressive line up of people, including some of our good friends:
Michael McCutcheon with McCutcheon Construction
Matt Golden with Sustainable Spaces
Jay Tompt with Plan-It Hardware
Kevin Danaher with Global Citizen Center
Anne Bollen with Green Zebra
Chris Avant with Canyon Construction
Toby Long with Clever Homes
David Gottfried founder of the US Green Building Council
Ryan Hamilton with Valencia Green
Richard Chein with SF Department of the Environment
Dan Sider, SF director of City Greening
Jennifer Gadiel with Kwan Henmi Architecture
Gary Gerber with Sun Light and Power
Moira Bartel with Greenopia
Scott Fossel with Green Century Institute
Peter Liu with New Resource Bank
Jeff Slye with Business Evolution Consulting
Paul Hawken, Environmentalist, Author, Entrepreneur
John Shurtz from Green Builders of Marin
Michelle Kaufmann from Michelle Kaufmann Designs

Archive of all Radio Programs.

I was interviewed last month as well, you can find the MP3 download here.

West Coast Green is coming!

As you should know, West Coast Green is coming! On September 20th - 22nd, the largest residential green building conference comes to San Francisco!

There is a great story in Builder Architect Magazine on how the conference came about and what you can expect.

For those of you who attended last year, you will be delighted by this years conference. An impressive lineup of 200+ speakers, 300+ exhibitors, plus the addition of the Lotus House by green pre-fab visionary Michelle Kaufmann.

Green builders have new place to browse

This past Saturday was the opening of the Green Building Exchange in Redwood City. It's a place for people interested in green products to come and see a virtual showroom of green products.

Read the press here

Video of Steve Glenn's talk at The Commonwealth Club

We hosted green pre-fab visionary Steve Glenn of Living Homes at the The Commonwealth Club last month.

The video is now available at Fora.tv by clicking here or watch it below.

Steve and Living Homes demonstrate a wonderful combination of passion and business saavy, as you will see in this talk.

I Need to Wake Up

From Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth: "I Need to Wake Up"



or Watch here on YouTube

Winner of the Oscar for Best Original Song (and the movie won Best Documentary)

RENT An Inconvenient Truth on Netflix
BUY An Inconvenient Truth on Amazon

organicAWARDS for 2007

The beginning of the year is always a busy time. Project deadlines and new clients always seem to come at this time of year. With all of this going on, I forgot to mention we have annouced our organicAWARDS winners for 2007.

The organicAWARDS are presented each January to recognize other leaders in the design industry who have adopted an innovative and green approach to their work. Since these are things we discover over the course of the year through our own research, none of the winners know they were even in the running. I like surprising people with good news!

Our award selections this year demonstrate the tremendous innovation and interest in being green coming out of the design industry.

Another mention of the awards is here.

organicAWARDS Official Site