Why Your House is Fighting Against Nature (And Losing)
I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately – you know when something clicks in your head and suddenly you can’t unsee it everywhere? That happened to me about three…
Why I Stopped Treating Passive and Active Design Like Enemies
Man, I was such an idealistic mess when I first started consulting on sustainable projects back in 2015. I’d march into client meetings with this evangelical fervor about either passive…
Why I’m Fascinated by KTH’s Sustainable Urban Planning Program (And Why American Schools Should Pay Attention)
I’ll admit it – when I first stumbled across KTH Royal Institute of Technology’s sustainable urban planning program, my initial reaction was pretty much “yeah, right.” Not because I have…
Why Most “Green” Interiors Are Actually Wasteful (And What Actually Works)
Last week my former colleague Lisa called me, practically in tears. She’d just gotten her first electric bill after moving into what she thought was her dream loft – one…
How I Learned That Interior Design Choices Were Sabotaging My Energy-Efficient Buildings
Back in my early days of getting serious about sustainable design – this was maybe 2018 or so – I had this wake-up call that honestly embarrassed me as someone…
Why Most Desert Cities Are Designed Backwards (And How We Could Actually Fix Them)
You know what drives me absolutely insane? I was in Phoenix last summer for a sustainable design conference – yeah, the irony wasn’t lost on me – and I watched…