Ethics
Why So Many Houses?
We are on holiday. This morning my daughter asked, “Why wherever we go in the world there are so many houses? Why are there so little open fields with flowers?”
What have we done to this world?
I don’t care if all the houses are green. We’ve got too many of them.
We are in Aruba, a desert [...]
Green Building is More Dependant on Natural Cycles
One of the many differences between renovating a Brooklyn brownstone the old fashioned way and doing a green renovation is the difference in cycles.
A normal brownstone renovation is very similar to all post-industrial activity: MAN OVER NATURE. And ever since the “triumph of science” we have been able to overpower the earths natural cycles and [...]
Permaculture, Pigs and Bees
Here is a cool insight into nature. It is by Michael Pollan. He also talks about the Polyface Farm which is run by “grass farmer” Joel Salatin. Joel is interviewed a lot in the Food Inc Movie. Check out the talk below, follow the links above. All very cool stuff.
Not directly connected to green contractors [...]
Building Green Book
This book has a long title: Building Green: A Complete How-To Guide to Alternative Building Methods Earth Plaster * Straw Bale * Cordwood * Cob * Living Roofs. But then again it is a big book.
Written by Tim Callahan and Clarke Snell this book overflows with 600 pages and 1500 images. The book aims to [...]
Food Inc and Green Building
I had been avoiding the movie Food Inc for a while. I’ve seen lots of animal rights movies: they are depressing. They make me angry because of the barbarity and frustrated because I feel helpless.
But one evening I was feeling especially brave. It turns out the movie is UPLIFTING!
Sure it jumps all over the place [...]
Waste, Reuse and Cheese with Worms
I was just speaking with an Eco Brooklyn intern who is an architect for a non-green firm in Queens. She was lamenting a current job she is working on where they are tearing out beautiful cherry wood details to turn the building into crap rentals.
All my workers have similar stories and one of their main [...]
LEED Green Building Myth
I don’t know if it is a mainstream thing or what but I don’t get LEED. I even became a LEED AP in the hope that I would see what the big deal is but I still don’t get it. Why would you want to spend all that money and time so that you can [...]
Green Building Material Delivery
I just came across this craigslist add with the title:
green building materials delivered-brooklyn (red hook)
Being a green contractor in Carroll Gardens right next door to Red Hook, I thought, “Cool! I can get green building materials delivered to our job site!”
The add went on to read:
“Hello, we are a green company specializing in home delivery [...]
Gennaro Brooks-Church and Henry Gifford Discuss Energy on the Radio
Gennaro Brooks-Church was on a radio show with Henry Gifford last week. Henry is a great building energy technician who has pointed out that LEED houses and the USGBC are not exactly transparent in their energy efficiency statements.
Turns out LEED buildings are not as energy efficient as USGBC would like us to believe. In [...]
Congresswoman Joan L. Millman
As a green builder in Brooklyn we have very definite views on how development should unfold in the neighborhood. This ties us willingly or not to the politicians since they have influence on development.
Today I got a generic brochure in the mail from Congresswoman Joan L. Millman and out of random curiosity I decided to [...]