My relationship with aluminium started pretty negatively, I'll admit. Back when I was first getting serious about building performance, I kept running into these awful aluminium-sided houses from the 1960s…
Walking through a high-end furniture showroom last month, I couldn't help but notice how many supposedly "sustainable" products were being marketed with vague claims about being "eco-friendly" or "natural." The…
My phone rang at 7 AM last Tuesday, which already had me suspicious because nobody calls that early unless something's wrong. Turns out it was my colleague Sarah, practically vibrating…
I was sitting in a cramped conference room at a regional builders' association meeting last spring when someone mentioned Cornell's sustainable design program. The guy next to me rolled his…
I've been spending way too much time scrolling through design award announcements lately, and honestly, most of them make me roll my eyes. You know what I mean? Those glossy…
I've been fascinated by European building approaches ever since I attended a sustainable design conference in Denver three years ago. The keynote speaker, a Dutch architect named Marieke van der…
I was skeptical when my colleague first mentioned Kate Fletcher's work. Another academic talking about sustainable fashion? I mean, how many times can we hear about organic cotton and recycled…
Walking through the newly completed Verde Commons housing development in Tempe last month felt like stepping into the future I'd been advocating for since my college days. Here were actual…
I was standing in a client's kitchen last Tuesday, watching her run her hand along what she thought was a "sustainable" bamboo countertop, when I had to break some uncomfortable…
Standing in a converted Victorian warehouse in Shoreditch last spring, watching an interior designer named Sarah Matthews explain how reclaimed shipping container steel was being transformed into kitchen islands, I…