The complete source for building, designing, and remodeling green homes
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The 2019 HIVE Conference
In December I attended the 2019 HIVE Conference in Austin, Texas. This was my second time to this conference and found it again to be an interesting experience, different from…
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Archi-torture: The Pain of Bad Details
While this post has little (or maybe nothing) to do with green building as most of us understand what it means, I find myself seeing some terrible residential design work…
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The Green Police: Product Retrospective
For several years in the 2000s and early 2010s, I was half of the "Green Police," a video series produced by Hanley Wood, along with green remodeler Michael Anschel of…
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Blower Door Testing a Living Building
My company recently had the privilege of being hired to provide envelope leakage testing for a new Living Building Challenge project at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, built by Skanska USA,…
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Multifamily HVAC Woes
We work on thousands of multifamily housing units every year providing certification, consulting, and testing services for affordable and market rate developers. Our influence tends to be somewhat limited as…
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The National Green Building Standard Turns 20(20)
The National Green Building Standard, AKA NGBS Green, is a residential green building certification program that has continued to grow in popularity. Also known as ICC-700, it has been revised…
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New House: Year One Update
We have been living in our new house just over a year now, so it seems fitting to offer some thoughts and insight into how everything is working out. The…
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Beautiful Simplicity
Back in 2010, I presented a case for simplifying green building certification. I was frustrated with the complexity of every green building program I was working in and felt there…
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An Off-Grid Affordable Housing Project
At SK Collaborative, my green building certification and consulting business, we certify projects through LEED, National Green Building Standard, EarthCraft, Green Globes, and Enterprise Green Communities. Our work is primarily…
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Done — Well, Almost
It has been a busy winter and spring, wrapping up construction. Work on the house and carport were essentially complete in March; however, delays in locating the pervious pavers and…
