Building Better

Concrete and steel are responsible for significant carbon emissions within the built environment—especially when you consider the short time frame to address our climate emergency. But what about wood? Sustainably harvested wood is a low-carbon alternative, and mass timber—a collection of strategies that includes cross-laminated timber (CLT)—is gaining traction in the United States after ma...

Project Drawdown ranks commercial refrigeration as the #1 opportunity to reduce emissions and combat our climate crisis. So we've got two guests on the show to discuss how grocery operators are exploring natural refrigerants to reduce potent greenhouse gas emissions.

Danielle Wright is the Executive Director of the North American Sustainable Refrige...

Kira Gould and Lindsay Baker host a sort of cousin podcast to this one. It’s called Design the Future and it chronicles women leaders who are doing great sustainability work within the built environment. They've produced more than 20 episodes in 2020, and their guest list is a rock star roster. I've listened to nearly all of their conversations and love the inspiring stories they've feature...

Molly Freed is the Manager of Buildings and Water at the International Living Future Institute. We take a deep dive into water codes and permitting, in the context of using and reusing water more efficiently. Molly offers anecdotes from around the country to help us understand the intersection of public health and sustainability goals. We also cover the water petal of the Living Building Ch...

Sloan Ritchie’s firm Cascade Built has delivered around 100 units of comfortable, healthy, and energy efficient multi-family buildings in Seattle, and has 200 more in their pipeline. Sloan talks about learning through mistakes and his journey to combining energy efficiency, financial returns, and quality housing. We also explore a new Seattle City Light program that helps solve the split in...

Margaret Montgomery is the Global Sustainable Design Leader at NBBJ, and she covers a lot of ground in this episode. From her Mom reading Rachel Carson when Margaret was young to large building projects that won’t open until 2030, she offers great perspective. We talk about her recent work with the American Institute of Architects, to help refresh their Framework for Design Excellence to be...

Myer Harrell is the Director of Sustainability at Weber Thompson, a multidisciplinary design firm. We review Weber Thompson’s growing experience with the Living Building Challenge and debate how the City of Seattle’s zoning incentive is helping to spur more LBC projects. Also … I challenge Myer to recite Red List ingredients, Myer exhibits keen memory of green building conferences in the ou...

Vincent Martinez is Chief Operating Officer at Architecture 2030, which is a non-profit dedicated to aggressive carbon reductions in buildings. Vince and I explore many topics including the time value of carbon, low-carbon product innovations, and building electrification. Other fascinating topics—material science is awesome, building trust with industry, why Vince did not make it as an aer...