These “green giants” encourage us to believe that the building industry has this all figured out and we’ll be enjoying “Zero Energy” living in McMansions with solar panels and atrium entries. We will (and must) continue to understand more and more profoundly and consciously: Energy is precious.

The Zombie building industry hopes to resume life by building a better version of what we don’t need. It’s time we responded to what’s different.

My career started in the 70’s as a house painter.  A painter touches the surfaces of each project three times: Prep. Prime. Paint. Over dozens of projects I saw and touched every finished part of …

That’s the complaint.

We stand at the refrigerator and stare at the contents. We rummage through the boxes and cans and bottles and jars in the pantry. We open drawers of spices and grains and close …

We are inclined to tolerate conditions that are less than ideal. When we end up sick, or too cold or warm, or find our homes too dry or maybe growing mold, we employ these readily available workarounds. Offered the opportunity to take actions to eliminate the conditions that create these maladies, whether in our existing homes or when contemplating constructing new, we become daunted by the necessity to make up front investments in perpetual relief from these intolerable states.

In answer to one of my many “why?” questions about how poorly we understand energy, engineer Marc Rosenbaum explained, “Honeywell put us to sleep!”
What did he mean?
Not that long ago when it was cold out, …

Here’s a thought exercise: Imagine 147 fit athletes pedaling bikes uphill – call them our energy slaves – to create the energy we depend on to live.

Our houses have habits. And we learn them.
Next thing you know you’re adapting your behavior to the way your home doesn’t work. There’s no place to organize the mail, so it lands on the kitchen …

We like things simple. And relatively immediate. Safe is nice too. Sacrifice? Hopefully not.
That’s what makes an abstract idea like climate change and the prospect of literal sea changes such an uninviting topic. The scale …

I was born in 1953. Growing up, we mostly drank milk and water. Sometimes Kool Aid. And having a glass of orange juice was a treat (and it was a small glass!). Having a coke …