My neighbour Sarah showed up at my front door last Tuesday morning looking absolutely defeated. Her hands were caked with dirt, and she had this look in her eyes that…
Last April, I drove out to this farm near Tucson after getting an invitation from a woman named Maria who claimed she’d built what she called a “closed loop paradise.”…
You know, I spent years thinking green roofs were just some trendy European thing that would never work in the Southwest. I mean, come on—putting plants on top of buildings…
Standing in my client Sarah's Phoenix home last Tuesday, watching her kids actually play in their living room during the afternoon for the first time in three summers, I was…
I was reviewing material specifications for a custom home project in Scottsdale last month when the architect casually mentioned they were incorporating "sustainable design principles." The builder, meanwhile, kept referring…
My nephew called me last Tuesday, completely overwhelmed about his first apartment renovation. "Uncle Mike, I want to do this green interior design thing, but everything I'm reading online sounds…
Standing in front of twenty-eight eighth graders last Tuesday, I found myself doing something I never expected when I started Smart Build Southwest: teaching kids how to design cities. The…
You know, I never thought I'd find myself digging through fashion brands' sustainability reports with the same intensity I bring to analyzing building insulation R-values. But here I am, at…
Last Tuesday, I found myself staring at blueprints spread across my kitchen table, coffee growing cold as I tried to explain to a frustrated homeowner why her architect's "sustainable" design…
Walking through a newly completed "green" subdivision in Scottsdale last month, I couldn't help but laugh at the irony. Every house proudly displayed ENERGY STAR certificates and boasted about their…