Originally posted at: KBB Collective

I spoke last week with Alex Wilson, founder of BuildingGreen and executive editor of the Environmental Building News.

Alex was just named the 2010 winner of the Hanley Award for Vision and Leadership in Sustainable Housing, and will be speaking at the upcoming West Coast Green Conference in San Francisco.

BuildingGreen has been in my secret toolkit for many years and it is the first place I turn when needing information on a green material. Looking for a “green” cabinet manufacturer? Well, BuildingGreen lists 74 articles and product listings for you to review, as well as a detailed discussion of the issues in cabinet manufacturing, including formaldehyde and wood species. Think of it as the Consumer Reports of Green Building. Their unbiased (and often surprising) reviews don’t play any favorites or have blind faith in any company.

For nearly two decades, BuildingGreen has published their Environmental Building News (EBN) and has always been ahead of the curve on controversial topics in Green Building. They explained the good and bad side of the vinyl industry way back in 1993. EBN discussed the controversy surrounding waterless urinals in 2002. Any green building issues you’re grappling with now are ones they’ve likely dealt with years ago.

While Alex and his staff are inundated with new product information, he continues to be surprised with new innovations in materials. He is particularly excited to see the West Coast Green innovation pipeline.

When asked for a wish list of products he’d like to see, Alex immediately asked for an alternative to polystyrene (you may know it by the brand name Styrofoam™). This oil-based product raises many concerns over the chemicals, flame retardants and the blowing agents used to install polystyrene. He is currently obsessed with finding below-grade insulation alternatives to polystyrene, and has been featuring some on his weekly blog.

Recently, BuildingGreen revised their previous position on another controversial subject—the use of fly ash in building products.

Fly ash is the powdery soot byproduct from coal-fired electric power plants. Since the burning of coal provides up to 85% of our electricity (depending on where you live), a great deal of this waste product is produced. Some 71 million tons of fly ash were produced last year, resulting in 71 tons of mercury byproduct.

Depending upon the use of the concrete, fly ash can be substituted for 20%-50% of the Portland Cement in the concrete mix. There have been reports of some people using as high as 70% fly ash substitution.

“Like most people in the Green Building field, we used to think fly ash was great virtually all of the time, since it kept this waste material out of the waste stream,” Alex explained. “But concern about the leeching of heavy metals [mercury, for example] has caused us to modify our position somewhat. We are no only recommending fly ash in applications where 1) it’s locked up, as in concrete, and 2) the fly ash replaces the carbon emissions that would normally come from manufacturing Portland Cement.”

Officially, BuildingGreen no longer considers the use of fly ash in products to be beneficial unless it offsets greenhouse gas emissions.

Portland Cement, the key ingredient in the mixing of concrete, is one of the most carbon intensive industries. The processing and heating of the cement are responsible for 8%-12% of all carbon emissions. Since concrete is a required part of virtually every building, a substitute like fly ash could go a long way to cut carbon emissions.

I wrote about it back in 2006 and the logic of using fly ash to replace a portion of the Portland Cement still makes good sense. After all, cement manufacturers are already substituting up to 15 percent of the Portland Cement with fly ash to save money.

You can read more at BuildingGreen, download the latest issue of the Environmental Building News and read Alex’s weekly blog.

I was interviewed by Glenn Croston and his 75 Green Businesses blog.

I also got to write a testimonial for the cover. It’s a great book. Be sure to check it out.

The brilliant minds over at WorldChanging recently called their smartest, most interesting friends they know to answer the following question:

In 100 words or less, what should the next president do in his first 100 days to address the planet’s most pressing problems?

I was flattered to be included in that group. The resulting ideas for our next president are astounding. Some highlights:

from Simran Sethi:
Aggressively address climate and energy. Fossil fuel combustion accounts for 80 percent of the rise of CO2 in our atmosphere.

from Jeremy Faludi:
Appoint the following cabinet:
- Amory Lovins, Secretary of Energy
- William McDonough, Secretary of Housing & Urban Development
- Thomas Barnett, Secretary of Defense
- Vinod Khosla, Secretary of Commerce
- Wes Jackson, Secretary of Agriculture
- Bruce Schneier, Secretary of Homeland Security
- Peter Newman, Secretary of Transportation
- Stewart Brand, Secretary of State
- Frank Rijsberman, Secretary of the Interior
- Van Jones, Secretary of Labor
- Dee Hock, Secretary of the Treasury

READ FULL STORY HERE: To The Next U.S. President: 100 Words for 100 Days

My advice?

Our next President must embrace the idea of an inevitable future free of fossil fuels. I propose a call to action similar to the civilian rationing programs of World War II. Back then, it was in the name of “victory” and so our next President must redefine “victory” to mean a sustainable economy free of fossil fuels. The $78 billion of taxes used to subsidize the oil industry will be reapplied to renewable sources instead. Gasoline that is rationed and adjusted for true costs is no match for abundant subsidized solar or wind power.

The good folks over at Apartment Therapy interviewed me. I love these short types of interviews, they’re quick and get to the point.

FULL STORY HERE

Luke at HowYouEco recently interviewed me with his patented list of 3 quick questions. Check out the site. It is beautifully done and provides some great information.

Allison Arieff, former visionary editor at Dwell Magazine, is now editor-at-large at Sunset Magazine and writes for the New York Times. Today she posted this review of my book and our recent talk at the Sunset Celebration Weekend.

Her blog is a great resource, as is her NY TImes Column.

A nice review of the book appeared on Inhabitat today. Now they see a LOT of books and resources, so a kind word from them means a great deal.

I have to admit, it’s strange to work on something for a year, finish months ago (I finished the manuscript back in July) and NOW have people talking about it. As my friends will tell you, I cannot keep secrets, so keeping the book quiet while writing it was very hard! I love people are finally getting the information in the book.

An excerpt:
Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies provides an introduction to every facet of green building, from start to finish, including the materials, architecture, and construction methods of green building and remodeling for both homeowners and professionals such as architects, interior designers, and contractors.

…You won’t be a dummy with this book in your library… check out [this] truly helpful, informative reference guide, and get smart about green building in the New Year.

Thanks, Piper and Inhabitat for the kind words!
Few reviewers can seem to resist making a Dummies joke, and I think I’ve heard them all! Keep ‘em coming.

Full Review at Inhabitat

Buy your copy of “Green Building for Dummies” now!

The lovely ladies of Inhabitat: Piper Kujac, Sarah Rich, Jill Fehrenbacher, Emily Pilloton

One of my favorite blogs, Inhabitat, shares office space with my favorite community organization, Architecture For Humanity, and my favorite design competition, Urban Re:Vision. Friday night was their collective holiday party.

This is why I love San Francisco: here you can find a room filled with the greatest people doing the most interesting things on the planet. In attendance: Michelle Kaufman, Allison Arrief, Cameron Sinclair, Sarah Rich, Jill Fehrenbacher, Emily Pilloton, Stacey Frost, Willem Maas, Bill Cahan, the gang from Ecolect, the gang from Branch and the gang from Worldchanging… plus so many friends and interesting people. (Google any names you don’t recognize!)

Perhaps the most interesting thing is how connected these various groups have become. They’re all friends, all working to change the world and all full of hope for our future. Hard to believe that the truly most influential people in design today are a handful of young, hip bloggers (like those pictured). Women seem to be leading the charge. There are noticably more women than men in this group. I don’t know what this indicates, but it’s something to consider.

Full story via Inhabitat

Flickr gallery of photos from the event

This story about the carbon footprint of wine contains an interesting map at the bottom.

Essentially it cuts the US into two. West of this line it’s more carbon efficient to drink Napa Valley wines. East of the line it’s more carbon efficient to drink French wines. Carbon efficiency refers to the energy and pollution creted from shipping this wine from it’s source.

This “grape divide” must also have other implications. Think of all of the technology from California, or the films for that matter. Does it take less energy to watch French films on the East Coast than it does to watch Hollywood films?

Ever since my talk last week at West Coast Green, I have received dozens and dozens of emails from people asking, “How did you get PowerPoint to do that?!”

Well, in reality, I didn’t.

First, use the right tools. Like most Microsoft products, PowerPoint lacks good design sensibilities. After years of trying to push it to do what I wanted to do with colors, fonts and video, I gave up.

The real reason I am able to make these presentations so visually rich is using Apple’s Keynote. Keynote handles these elements far better than PowerPoint. C’mon, you should ditch that PC and have a Mac anyway.

Secondly, my speaking style is much more ancedotal. My job is to take this technical information and distill it into stories. As a presenter, my goal is to remove as much text as possible from the slides. You’ll notice there are no bullet points on the slides, and the text is made obnoxiously large to reiterate the point.

At several points along the presentation, I have no slides at all, just an image or movie running in the background as I tell a story. For more on this technique, check out Merlin Mann’s wonderful blog 43 Folders and especially his story on his own presentations.

Lastly, I am no expert on public speaking. Between teaching and traveling to conferences, I just get to to it a whole lot and the practice helps me. I also get to watch hundreds of other speakers each year and see how boring many talks can be.

To prevent boredom, I am experimenting with several techniques, including the Takahashi Method and the Guy Kawasaki Method for storytelling with visuals. The more I know about these ways to convey information, the more I realize how much great orators, such as Bill Clinton, are able to give a speech with such power using only words.

For more on using Keynote in a positive (double entrendre) way read on here and here.