My friend Sarah called me from Melbourne last month, breathless with excitement about a building she'd just walked through. She's an environmental engineer who typically gets worked up about wastewater…
The other day I was crawling around another scorching attic in Mesa, thermal camera in hand, when the homeowner called up through the access hole: "So what's the secret to…
My neighbour Janet cornered me at the mailbox last Tuesday with that look people get when they're about to ask for free professional advice. "I want to make my house…
Walking through my old neighborhood last weekend, I couldn't help but notice how exhausted everyone looked trudging back from their cars. The subdivision was built in the 1990s with those…
Last month I walked into a client's newly renovated kitchen in Scottsdale, and honestly? It looked like something straight out of a magazine. Gorgeous white marble countertops, sleek European cabinets,…
I've spent the better part of fifteen years explaining why buildings fail to perform as promised, and you know what? I'm starting to think the real problem isn't technical knowledge—it's…
Just yesterday I found myself sitting in my truck outside a new subdivision in Scottsdale, watching framers install windows on what would become someone's dream home. The irony wasn't lost…
The architect arrived twenty minutes late to our consultation, which should have been my first red flag. She breezed into the coffee shop with a portfolio that looked expensive enough…
Standing on the dock in Long Beach last month, watching a massive tanker loaded with bitumen slowly navigate toward the harbor, I couldn't help but think about my old nemesis:…
I was reviewing a client's energy audit report last month when something struck me about how poorly we communicate environmental performance. The document was technically accurate, filled with BTU calculations…