New study shows Green Building doesn't cost more.

The following is from blog.inhabitconsulting.com/2008/12/new-study-exposes-green-building-costs.html

New Study Exposes Green Building Costs & Benefits

Recently a study was published by
Good Energies
a global energy efficiency and renewable energy investment company, that analyzed nearly 150 green-built buildings in 10 different countries to try to get a handle on the truth about the additional costs and benefits of building green. There were some surprising conclusions.

Among them:

On average, the "public" perceives the additional costs to build green at about 17%.
In reality, the median additional costs for building green proved to be less than 2%.
Over half of the buildings studied had a green building payback period of less than five years from energy and water savings alone (a five year payback is a 20% return on investment.)
Up front infrastructure development costs in "conservation developments" can be reduced by 25%, or approximately $10,000 per home.

Ecotopia

One of my favorite books, Ecotopia, is being reissued by the publisher this month and the New York Times has a nice story about the book.

The story starts with the Pacific Northwest having seceded from the United States to form its' own country named, Ecotopia. Washington, Oregon and Northern California make up the new country and base their economy on sustainable principles. The rest of the remaining US is thrust into a recession driven by partisan politics and old models of industry and energy.

Sound timely? Yes, except that it was written in 1974.

I had the prescient author, Ernest Callenbach, give a talk to a packed house at The Commonwealth Club in May 2005. He is the most charming and delightful man and lives just across the bay in Berkeley.

While you're reading it, be sure to also read the follow up prequel he wrote, entitled, Ecotopia Emerging. In many ways, I like it so much better than the first book.

Green Your Home for Dummies

I am thrilled to announce Green Your Home for Dummies.

It is not an entirely new book, but a compilation of 7 green books in the For Dummies series. It contains several chapters of my bestselling book, "Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies", and select chapters from:
* Green Living For Dummies
* Energy Efficiency For Dummies
* Green Cleaning For Dummies
* Sustainable Landscaping For Dummies
* Organic Gardening For Dummies
* Buying and Selling Green Homes For Dummies

It will be available in January 2009, but you can pre-order it now.

West Coast Green launches video section

For those of you who haven't heard of West Coast Green, it is the largest residential green building conference in the country and is held the last week of September. This years conference will be September 26, 27 & 28th in San Jose, California.

I have been on the Advisory Board of the conference since it's inception, and watched it grow in size and scope each year. Each year brought new things to the conference as well.

For this years conference, one of the new features is the video section of the website, where you can watch recorded talks by this years speakers.

You must watch the talk by Van Jones, who brought the crowd of thousands to their feet with his take on green collar jobs.

Of the 40+ conferences I speak at each year, West Coast Green is by far my favorite. I urge you to attend the conference. Some discount passes are still available, so feel free to contact me directly if you're going to attend.

Women at the front of green

The San Francisco Examiner did a profile on various women in the heart of the green movement.

One of those profiled was Jackie Barbe, one of my incredible project managers here at organicARCHITECT. The print version had a wonderful photo of her too, but you can read the online version 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.

My interview with CalFinder

CalFinder is a site where you can find contractors to help you with a building project. They interviewed me to talk about the perceptions of green building and what is waiting for us in the future.

An excerpt:

The act of renovating your building is expensive, whether you’re green or not. Being green doesn’t cost you any more, in fact it’s an opportunity to save money.

via CalFinder

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!)

Color Palettes

There is a commonly held perception that most architects are colorblind. After all, most of them bare, create white boxes of rooms, creating a growing demand for interior designers to come in and make it livable.

I love color, so when I see a great combination of colors I make them into a palette. I also cheat a little with these online tools:

wear palettes

ColorJack

numbr

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)

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).

Interview with HousingZone

I just did a short interview with HousingZone on green issues.

Read the interview here...

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.

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?

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

Green Building for Dummies now available for pre-orders

Green Building for Dummies is now available for pre-orders on Amazon.

You'll get it in time for the Holidays. It makes great stocking stuffer!

Greenwashing Article in Natural Home

I recently wrote an article on greenwashing for Natural Home and it is on newsstands this month.

The printed version has a handy cut out card you can carry in your wallet to know what questions to ask when looking at products. A great list of certifications is also included.

Eight Ways to Implement Green Principles into Your Practice

Kitchen & Bath Business Magazine interviewed me for this article on how to add green to your design business.. These are the same tips I suggest to all of the architects, engineers and designers we consult with to help them green their firms.

I welcome your suggestions and additions to this list...

Reusable vs. styrofoam cups?

How many uses does it take for a reusable cup to surpass a disposable paper or styrofoam cup in terms of energy usage?

You would need to use a single ceramic cup more than 1000 times in order for it to be more energy efficient than using the same number of dispoable styrofoam cups.

Of course, this doesn't take into account anything outside of the manufacturing or washing processes...like the cost of shipping all these foam cups and what happens to them after you're done with them.

Part of how sustainability is not really a balck and white issue... ever.

Full Story

April column at GreenBuildings.com

My latest column is online at GreenerBuildings.

Q: If I want to get involved in Green Building, where is a good place to start? What business opportunities are there? Where can I do the most good?

A: I cannot tell you how many versions of this question I receive. The popularity of the question indicates a growing desire by people to get involved in something larger than themselves. It is also a sign of real changes being made...

Read the full article here

I get to mention the great work of some friends: Energy Innovations, Sustainable Capital, Valencia Green Financial, Green Key Real Estate and New Resource Bank, among others.

Last Exit: Reaching Inevitability

I recently wrote a piece for Next American City entitled Last Exit: Reaching Inevitability. It is a short essay, summarizing my thinking on Green Building as a movement. While my thinking has evolved, it is funny how I am essentially saying the same things I wrote twenty years ago in my sketchbooks and journals. Maybe I am just able to explain things better now.

If you have ever seen any of my lectures, the article will be familiar to you as it covers an abridged version of the first 10 slides of my typical talks. Take a look and tell me what you think.

This month I also have pieces in Luxe Magazine, Natural Home Magazine and Town and Country. I will post them as they become available online.

The Pharos Lens: a lifecycle labelling tool

The Pharos Project is a graphical green labelling system. In the same spirit as the FDA's nutrition labels, Pharos would go on all building materials. Consumers can look at the label and get a visual indicator of the environmental impact.

A project of the good people at Healthy Building Network, Pharos is very well researched and thought out. The framework they created is very complex, but Lifecycle Assessment is a complex subject.

There are three main categories:
1. Environment-Resource
2. Social-Community
3. Health-Pollution

which are then broken down into specific indicators:

1. Environment-Resource
Water: Net Use
Energy: Embodied
Energy: Renewable
Materials: Renewable

2. Social-Community
User Exposures
Solid Waste
Water Quality
Air Quality
Climate Change
Toxic Releases

3. Health-Pollution
Occupational Safety
Consumer Safety
Fair Compensation
Equality
Community Contributions
Corporate Practices

For an explanation of how the label works, go here for the full label or here for the categories.

Pharos is not the first rating system I have seen to use a graphical display. Reveal, offers a cleaner and numeric system to rate the greeness of materials. I like both of these, but the real test is how normal consumers will react. Which would you use?

GreenZebra

The GreenZebra coupon book was written up in the Chronicle last week. It is a nice story of how Anne and Sheryl began the company.

If you haven't heard of GreenZebra, think "Entertainment Book" like the ones your parents used to lug around when you were a kid to get bargains at places you never heard of. Unlike it's older preceedent, GreenZebra touts only green companies (including organicARCHITECT) and brings these sustainable options into the hands of consumers.

I admit, I was dubious about participating in the book, but it has brought us clients, new friends and nice people calling to thank us for our website.

To purchase the book for $25, visit their site.

American Dream: The Movie

organicARCHITECT is proud to be one of the sponsors of American Dream: The Movie.

We live surrounded by material wealth, technology and comfort. However, why is personal and collective happiness so elusive? What part of our aspirations corresponds to conditioning and advertisement and what part is genuinely our own?

These are the questions explored in this film.



Including a variety of engaging interviews with celebrities, luminaries and industry leaders such as Danny Glover, Howard Zinn, Vicki Robin, Ed Begley Jr. and others, American Dream helps shed light on our consumer culture, its causes and effects. With a combination of humor and insight, we discover an America we never knew we were a part of.

No word on a San Francisco screening yet, but I encourage you to donate some support.

COST BARRIERS: Rent your own solar panels

In our projects, there are now only three items where cost is still a barrier to greening the building:

1. Specifying FSC Certified Wood.
This important Certification (demonstrating wood to be sustainably harvested, still adds a 20% upcharge to the cost of your wood framing. This is a tough sell to most clients, but we try to do it anyway. TIP: save money in one area, say removing the need for air conditioning, and divert that money towards the purchase of FSC Certified Wood instead.

2. Carbon Neutrality.
Innovative Carbon Trading programs now exist for both your car and your home, such as the TerraPass and DriveNeutral. While these are great ways to make yourself Carbon Neutral, they represent a small, but additional, cost that is a tough sell for many.

AND 3. Solar Panels.
While everyone seems to understand the obvious benefits and uses of Solar Panels, the cost can often be prohibitive. Even with the great State Incentives that exist for solar, and an average payback of 5-7 years, the $20,000 average up front cost is too much.

But now, a rental program called REnU is removing this barrier to entry. Delaware-based Citizenre, a renewable energy development group, will rent solar panels to US residents on a per-kilowatt basis on a one, five, or twenty-five year contract. With a tiny $500 deposit, paid back at the end of the contract WITH interest, homeowners can easily and inexpensively make the switch from local utilities to solar power. What’s more, Citizenre acquires all necessary permits for residential installation, making the process simple. I have not tried it yet, but I have already begun the process.

List of Documentaries

My students are always asking about where to find more information. As busy students, they often do not have the time or energy to read more books. Here is a list of documentary movies I consider "must-see" films but could also be great holiday gifts. If I missed some, I would love to hear your suggestions.

Who Killed the Electric Car?
RENT on Netflix
BUY on Amazon

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
RENT on Netflix
BUY on Amazon

An Inconvenient Truth
RENT on Netflix
BUY on Amazon

Why We Fight
RENT on Netflix
BUY on Amazon

Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price
RENT on Netflix
BUY on Amazon

The Future of Food
RENT on Netflix
BUY on Amazon

The End of Suburbia
RENT on Netflix
BUY on Amazon

Monumental: David Brower's Fight for Wild America
RENT on Netflix
BUY on Amazon

The Corporation
RENT on Netflix
BUY on Amazon

Antonio Gaudi
RENT on Netflix
BUY on Amazon

Soylent Green
RENT on Netflix
BUY on Amazon

Goff in the Desert
RENT on Netflix
BUY on Amazon

The Yes Men
RENT on Netflix
BUY on Amazon

Blue Vinyl
RENT on Netflix
BUY on Amazon

My Architect: A Son's Journey
RENT on Netflix
BUY on Amazon

Rivers and Tides
RENT on Netflix
BUY on Amazon

Frank Lloyd Wright
RENT on Netflix
BUY on Amazon

Green Building Directories

There are several great directories available of green materials and green professionals. I am involved with several:

(DISCLOSURE: I am on the Advisory Boards of both of these...)
GreenHomeGuide
Greenopia
and included in:
Green Zebra San Francisco

There is another new one on the market now. It just launched this week. Green Building Blocks seeks to list green professionals and connect us with the materials, products and appliances we use. It is an interesting model.

As a professional, I obviously want to be included in as many directories as available. These four all take different approaches and all are interesting and well done.

organicARCHITECT on Green Building Blocks
Green Building Blocks Home

The skinny on solar energy costs

The costs and innovative uses of solar energy are examined in this clip from "The Power of the Sun," narrated by John Cleese.

Watch the Video Here

My column on GreenerBuildings

We had some interesting questions for this month's "Ask the Green Architect" column:

Are there green cleaning products for commercial spaces?

Are lawns environmentally friendly?

Is historic preservation part of green building?

Eric on EcoTalk Radio on AirAmerica

On Wednesday, 04 October at 9pm PST, Eric will be on the Air America Radio show EcoTalk with Betsy Rosenberg.

We had a lively talk on green building trends at last week's West Coast Green Conference, along with Kevin Danaher and other conference attendees.

Listen locally at:
KQKE-AM 960

And for a full list of all national stations, click here

Subscribe to this podcast
Subscribe to this iTunes podcast


EcoTalk is also seeking a new sponsor, so if you have any leads or suggestions, please contact Betsy here.

New Link

Finally taking my own good advice, I setup a better name for this blog. It appears we are getting a great deal of traffic to this site now (go figure!).

Please bookmark this address instead:
organicarchitectBLOG.com

It redirects to this same page.

Calculate

The Miles per Dollar Calculator takes the current gas price and your car's miles per gallon, then gives you an estimate of the distance you can drive for a dollar (i.e., your miles per dollar).

Of course it's no revelation that you can calculate how far you can drive for a dollar. That said, calculating your MP$ is an interesting way to measure the approximate cost of any trip you take, and it may make you think twice about the worth and necessity of taking your car with you for every little errand. Knowing your car's MP$ might help you save money on gas.

via Lifehacker

August Column at GreenerBuildings.com

We had some interesting questions for this month's "Ask the Green Architect" column:

I saw your recent article in the September 2006 issue of Dwell on "Flooring with a Conscience." However, it only addressed wood flooring options. What environmental suggestions do you have for carpeting?

What are some examples of how building green can actually save you money?

What are some rules of thumb for selecting green systems in buildings?

Give your home an energy audit

The Home Energy Saver is a free home energy auditing tool designed by the U.S. Department of Energy's Berkeley Lab.

Enter your zip code and fill out some questions about your home, and the Home Energy Saver provides a list of measures you can take to cut down your energy costs.

Home Energy Saver (U.S. Department of Energy)

Make your own Solar Power

For only $350 you too can make your own solar power for a specific appliance or device in your home or office.

Full Post

My latest column at GreenerBuildings.com

My latest column at GreenerBuildings.com had some interesting questions this month:

JULY 2006:

Why are mirrors not used more often in green buildings as a way to double the amount of light without using energy?



Based on your previous article, I am installing an earthen floor. I wish to use radiant heating in the floor, but does it use the same tubing and systems?



Do illuminated building exit signs really use much electricity? Are there energy-efficient options available and if so, how do they compare?

A New Voice of Business

After a year of planning, a new organization finally launched last week to the business leaders of San Francisco. The New Voice Of Business held a gala reception at the Academy of Science to annouce their new initiatives and programs. As they explain, it is a "non-partisan, national organization of business people working to develop pragmatic solutions to benefit business, society, and the world."

That is the official version. The easier way to explain it:
gather all of the visionary and socially responsible business people into an active and vocal group to support clean energy, corporate social responsibility and this new role of business.

Sound exciting? It should. Led by the enigmatic Elliot Hoffman (formerly of Just Desserts), it is a remarkable group of people. I am pleased to be one of the founding charter members (and one of the organizers of the launch party).

Check it out:
New Voice Of Business

June Greener Buildings Column

My latest column at GreenerBuildings.com had some interesting questions this month:

LEED Consulting
I'm a LEED Accredited Professional and want to consult to project teams to perform the LEED certification. What fees are appropriate for my services? Is there an industry standard? Any other costs to consider?

Sizing Solar Panels
Do you have any good rule of thumb for sizing solar panels?

The First Green Building
When and where was the first-ever Green Building and was it a commercial facility?

NRDC Green Building Tools: From Principle to Practice

The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has a wonderful website on green building here.

They also have a great section on The Costs of Green Building.

My latest column

My latest column at GreenerBuilding.com had some interesting questions this month:

Tips for Greening Your Office
What can we do to make our office more green? Will any of these things help in obtaining LEED Certification?

Alternative Foundation Materials
Do you know of any innovative, alternative foundation materials?

Specifying Green Products
What are some good sources to identify the best products to place into specifications for green buildings?

Online Tools

Online Tools
We get dozens of requests for suggestions of Green Building software or online tools. Here is a list of the sites we use. Please contact us if you have additions.

The Sensor Placement + Optimization Tool or SPOT is intended to assist a designer in quantifying the existing or intended electric lighting and annual daylighting characteristics of a given space and to help establish the optimal photosensor placement for the space relative to annual performance and annual energy savings.

Eagle GeoCode will calculate the longitude and latitude of any street address. We use this information to calculate the angles of the sun.

Financial Incentives for Solar Energy lists the incentives and rebates in California for Solar Panels.

Sun Path Program creates sun charts for any latitude location.

The photovoltaic performance calculator , PVWatt, calculates typical performance of solar electric arrays for more than 200 locations in the National Solar Radiation Database.

The Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy (DSIRE) is a comprehensive source of information on state, local, utility, and selected federal incentives that promote renewable energy. DSIRE now includes state and federal incentives for energy efficiency.

Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability (BEES) 2.0K Software for measuring environmental and economic performance.

GreenerBuildings a free resource to help companies of all sizes and sectors understand and address building design, construction, and operation in a way that aligns environmental responsibility with business success.

All Tech Lighting offers this free online calculator to help building owners understand the financial impact of replacing or retrofitting their existing lighting to energy-efficient systems. Simply enter the number of fixtures, number of hours on per day, and cost per killowatt hour to calculate your savings.

Building Energy Software Tools Directory: More than 275 energy-related software tools for buildings, with an emphasis on using renewable energy and achieving energy efficiency.

EnergyPlus is a building energy simulation program for modeling building heating, cooling, lighting, ventilating, and other energy flows.

eVALUator Financial Analysis Software calculates life-cycle benefits of improved building design investments. The analysis considers a variety of factors over the life of a project, including energy costs, financing costs, operations and maintenance costs, and tax implications.

An Italian site dedicated to Organic Architecture:
The International Web Portal of Organic Architecture

16 Ways to Celebrate Earth Day in Your Home Today
On Earth Day 2006, thanks to GreenHomeGuide.com, getting from green question to green action will get a lot easier. For the first time, a homeowner planning a more energy-efficient and healthy home will have a one-stop resource for best practices and experiences, as well as 14 regional directories of locally available green home products, services, and retailers.
FULL STORY

GreenBuildings: Ask the Expert for March 2006

How does a green roof work? What are the benefits and drawbacks?


Instead of operating a refrigerator during the cold months is there a way to harness the cold outside air to keep the food cold?

I'm considering an earthen floor with radiant heating, in a new strawbale house. Have you installed these, and seen that they last and don't crack (much) over the years? I'd like to know if it's a good, long-term investment, especially with the radiant heat.

MP3 Downloads of Lectures
at the Long Now Foundation:

Very Long-term Very Large-scale Biomimicry

Spencer Beebe

Cities & Time
Stewart Brand

How Societies Fail-And Sometimes Succeed
Jared Diamond

Eric's column at GreenerBuildings.com:

Ask the Green Architect: October 2005
Topics covered:
The Top Ten Green Building Questions
1. Why do green buildings cost more than traditional buildings?
2. What is a "LEED" building?
3. What do you mean by a "green" building?
4. What is indoor air quality?
5. Which is better: a recycled material or a natural material?
6. How can I determine if a material is green or not?
7. Where can I purchase green building materials and products?
8. Are there any building code restrictions on the use of green materials?
9. Why should I care about green building?
10. Why aren't ALL buildings built to be green?


Ask the Green Architect: November 2005
Topics covered:
* Sources and Directory of Green Product Manufacturers
* Cradle to Cradle (C2C), McDonough/Braungart
* Efficiency Advice for High Ceilings & Green Remodels
* Standards for Certifying Green Products
* The Benefits of Daylighting to office workers

Eco Blogs
in no particular order

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

List of Eco-furniture

BRUCE GOFF Videos

Green Resources

Alameda County Waste Management Authority has some amazing resources to promote environmental building.

Click to download the PDF brochures:

Green Building Materials Resource Guide

Home Remodeling Green Building Guidelines

New Home Construction Green Building Guidelines

Builders' Guide to Reuse and Recycling

Book Suggestion
A good friend of mine has a book out that you might be interested in reading:

Kick Start Your Dream Business: Getting It Started and Keeping You Going

CLICK HERE for a comprehensive and up-to-date look at the damaging impact of the Bush presidency on our environment.

Here is a beautiful new color finish system I discovered.

There are two books I was reminded of today that I believe helped me develop into an architect. They are books from my childhood but still relevant:

Goodnight Moon

The Dot and the Line

This was one of my favorite books when I was in school:

Art Forms in Nature
by Ernst Haeckel