Build It Forward
American Clay
American Clay is a great company that is reviving a millenia old building technique of applying clay to building walls.
They have a strong local culture and associate themselves strongly with their Santa Fe roots. But to grow as a company they also ship anywhere.
They are very helpful with advice too. Shaylor at American [...]
Green Brooklyn – A 10 Year View
Here is my take on green building in Brooklyn over the next 5-10 years. It is actually a lot wider than Brooklyn, but that is my focus.
Rising fuel costs will drive people back into the city, this means there will be an influx of people into Brooklyn. This will keep housing prices more elevated than [...]
Lighting with LED 1
Lighting can account for 15-20% of your monthly electric bill. With recent advances in LED technology we are able to reproduce the same level of brightness for 1/5- 1/10th the power. This is a huge savings. If we all work together we can reduce this country’s electrical draw by 10%! That equates to a lot [...]
Green Home NYC Article
Green Home NYC brought a tour to the Brooklyn Show House the other day and did a great writeup on the visit.
It talks about our company’s concept of “Build It Forward”.
Green Building Perspective
There is this great Zen saying: “Before Enlightenment, fetch water, chop wood. After Enlightenment, fetch water, chop wood.”
From the Zen perspective it is an acknowledgment of the “isness” of being, meaning that with enlightenment you see life as it is, free of expectation or judgment. You and life are simply “being” perfectly and the mundane [...]
Sound Transmission Tests
Here is a useful page showing the various sound tests on interior walls. The whole web site actually has a lot of great info. It is by the Green Glue Company, supplier of the best soundproofing materials IMO.
Conclusion: Doubling up drywall doesn’t do much for stopping sound.
Resilient channels are pretty cheap but it is really [...]
Sustainable Building
Ever wondered who coined the definition of sustainable building? Many people had a good idea what it was but it really became official with the publication of the Brundtland Report.
The Report by the Brundtland Commission, titled “Our Common Future”, was published by Oxford University Press in 1987 and laid the definition for sustainable development and [...]
Build It Forward or don’t build at all
Here is a great collection of words organized in a powerful way. If you are doing something green then you need to realize you are part of the largest single movement the world has ever seen. This is BIG.
The quote that caught my attention the most was:
“We can either create assets for the future or [...]
Conservation and Efficiency Before Renewables
The concept of “Conservation and Efficiency Before Renewables” is an important green building practice.
Lets break it down.
Conservation
The greenest building is to NOT build in the first place. In any green building it is important to constantly ask, “Is this building step necessary? Do we really need to buy this product? Does it really require is [...]
Build It Forward Further Defined
When I coined the concept of Built It Forward I knew what it meant but that didn’t mean I knew how to accurately describe it to others. Today I was describing it and came across a good way:
When you build it forward you are giving more to the world than what you are taking from [...]
We Can Influence the World
Here is a great clip. The message I got from it is that you can influence your environment through what emanates from within you. And it can be incredibly fun. We’re seeing this a lot with the work we are doing in green building here in Brooklyn. Green building is like laughter.
Laughter has been [...]
Eco Brooklyn offers English Classes
I grew up in Spain so our job site tends to have a lot of Spanish speakers. But if they are speaking Spanish at work and at home they have no way of learning English. They have the skills in terms of green building but they lack the communication skills to be able to sell [...]
Green Manifesto No. 1521
“Understanding Whole Systems means looking both larger and smaller than where our daily habits live and seeing clear through our cycles. The result is responsibility, but the process is filled with the constant delight of surprise. Neither the Earth nor our lives are flat. What happened in the 20th century? The idea of self — [...]
Build It Forward
I’ve thought up a concept called Building Forwards where you create equity for people in the future. It comes down to using time as a bank.
The perspective of time makes all the difference with how we live our lives. I had an interview with the execs at Lightolier lighting company here in Manhattan this morning [...]
Build It Forward Discussed
“Building Forward” is a concept I coined to define Eco Brooklyn’s building philosophy. Eco Brooklyn is a green building company. That is a given. But as I renovate these hundred year old Brownstones in Brooklyn I communicate with the artisans who labored over them a hundred years ago and I realize how much they have [...]