Another Nail in the Coffin of “Tips for Going Green” and The Pursuit of Honest Green Residential Building

As the readers of this blog know, I am highly suspicious of the well meaning, yet misleading and short sighted green home and lifestyle tips peddled at other websites and in books.  That’s why I write in the Lifestyle and Green Hacking parts of this site that you must target the big wins first and [...]

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David Foster Wallace on American Culture and Choices

David Foster Wallace on American Culture and Choices

The following is an excerpt from a 2003 interview that was just released with David Foster Wallace.  I made the transcript myself, but the interview can be found here, in ten parts. I include this as part of Smarter Context as a way to understand why we make the choices we do as a culture.  [...]

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R&D.I.Y. – Open Source Urban Gardening

NPR reports on the growing trend of Window Farming: Urban farmers use the Internet to exchange ideas for improving the window farms technology. It’s a process Riley calls “R&D-I-Y” or Research and Develop It Yourself. One window farmer figured out a way to silence the gurgling sounds these window farm systems make — and he [...]

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Have a Time Out

Stomacher – Untitled/Dark Divider from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo. (Hat tip: Sullivan) Share on Facebook var button = document.getElementById(‘facebook_share_link_418′) || document.getElementById(‘facebook_share_icon_418′) || document.getElementById(‘facebook_share_both_418′) || document.getElementById(‘facebook_share_button_418′); if (button) { button.onclick = function(e) { var url = this.href.replace(/share\.php/, ‘sharer.php’); window.open(url,’sharer’,'toolbar=0,status=0,width=626,height=436′); return false; } if (button.id === ‘facebook_share_button_418′) { button.onmouseover = function(){ this.style.color=’#fff’; this.style.borderColor = ‘#295582′; this.style.backgroundColor = [...]

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The Tipping Point: What If Your Goal Was To Make Your Home Energy Efficient – Step 2

The Tipping Point: What If Your Goal Was To Make Your Home Energy Efficient – Step 2

If you’ve automated your home as discussed in Step 1, you’re ready to optimize. Make it Automatic – Then Optimize Optimization is just fine tuning your settings.  See how far you can turn down the heating temperature at night.  Then see how far you can turn the heat down during the times you’re actually using [...]

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The Tipping Point: What If Your Goal Was To Make Your Home Energy Efficient

The Tipping Point: What If Your Goal Was To Make Your Home Energy Efficient

As I wrote before, I don’t think “green tips” mean much without attaching them to goals.  To achieve goals you need to be focused.  And the best place to start is with the big wins. Big Wins and Lattes I like to use the analogy of personal finance.  There are some personal finance experts that [...]

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The Tipping Point: Why Most Green Tips Suck

The Tipping Point: Why Most Green Tips Suck

There are a TON of tips that a simple Google search will find.  People are always asking me for tips, and saying it would be great if I could include even more tips here . . . and it drives me crazy.  The reason it drives me crazy is that the tips are biased (and [...]

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Leave the Attitude at the Door

Share on Facebook var button = document.getElementById(‘facebook_share_link_367′) || document.getElementById(‘facebook_share_icon_367′) || document.getElementById(‘facebook_share_both_367′) || document.getElementById(‘facebook_share_button_367′); if (button) { button.onclick = function(e) { var url = this.href.replace(/share\.php/, ‘sharer.php’); window.open(url,’sharer’,'toolbar=0,status=0,width=626,height=436′); return false; } if (button.id === ‘facebook_share_button_367′) { button.onmouseover = function(){ this.style.color=’#fff’; this.style.borderColor = ‘#295582′; this.style.backgroundColor = ‘#3b5998′; } button.onmouseout = function(){ this.style.color = ‘#3b5998′; this.style.borderColor = ‘#d8dfea’; this.style.backgroundColor [...]

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An Award Winning Sustainable Architect's Top 3 Priorities for Your Home

An Award Winning Sustainable Architect’s Top 3 Priorities for Your Home

In the second teleseminar of our series on home efficiency, I spoke with Mike Cronomiz of Re:Vision Architects.  Revision is an award winning firm that’s been involved in sustainable architecture well before most people heard of it.  The firm watched as their clients went from needing to be educated about sustainability to seeking out and [...]

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Bill Gates Is Given One Wish

It sounds like the beginning of a piece of fiction: A man who changed the world once is a given the opportunity to make One Wish for the future . . . But, it’s a piece of non-fiction.  Surprisingly, at least to me, he doesn’t choose the vaccines that his philanthropic foundation is know for.  [...]

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