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Sustainable Business: Natural Homes and Green Building
BJ Harris
Whether you are starting new, improving or simplifying your home or office, a well designed,
ecological habitat can reflect your caring for the earth, your well being and your investment.
As a writer, designer, holistic building materials specialist and "weaver of life," my intent in
serving as guest editor of this issue of GreenMoney is to present a sampling of practical
information - and to inspire readers to investigate a more holistic approach to home building and
renovation.
An ecological home is the result of appropriate materials selection, a
design that considers sanctity as well as comfort, and the choice of beneficial natural resources -
against a background of equity and
balance. When nature is considered an ally in home design,
the outcome of the project not only supports the environment, it also nurtures the mind, body and
spirit of everyone involved in its creation.
Architect Tom Bender, 2002 national award
winner in sustainable architecture from the American Institute of Architecture, is one of this
issue's guest writers. Bender has written a number of books - including Silence, Song & Shadows
and Building with the Breath of Life - that discuss the wisdom of regarding nature as sacred and
explores the relationship of that viewpoint to our personal health, homes and the entire universe.
In his most recent book, Learning to Count what REALLY Counts (Fire River Press, 2002), Bender
documents the "Factor 10" principles he developed in the 1970s to achieve order-of-magnitude
improvements in economic effectiveness and sustainability.
Also in this issue are three
interviews with industry leaders who are helping to transform the future by adding their voices and
activities to the "green" front.
Our first conversation is with Nadav Malin, editor of
the Environmental Building News. Malin, along with executive editor Alex Wilson, has been
publishing stories about the green construction industry since 1992 - covering projects, policy and
products in an impartial way that has helped establish an environmental foundation for designers
and builders.
Next we talk with John Schaeffer, founder of the Real Goods store and
catalogue and the California-based Real Goods Solar Living Institute, which averages 200,000
visitors per year. Schaeffer's understanding that the sun is the ultimate source of renewable
energy guided him to establish a company whose mission is to help others live sensibly,
intelligently and lightly on the Earth.
Our third interview is with Robyn Griggs Lawrence,
the editor-in-chief of Natural Home magazine, which has been growing in both pages and subscribers
despite a stagnant economy. Natural Home demonstrates what our lives and homes can be like when we
align ourselves with the environment.
Our homes are constantly evolving - shifting as
we become more intimately connected to the world in which we live. As consumers, we all have the
ability to transform the future with our actions. The poem (see below) Tomorrow's Child by Glenn
Thomas, lends purpose to our efforts.
Glenn Thomas, a salesman for Bentley Mills, wrote
this poem after listening to a presentation by Ray Anderson, CEO of Interface, Inc. Interface, the
world's largest floor covering manufacturer, owns Bentley Mills and many other
textile-manufacturing facilities around the world. Anderson has made it his personal mission to
present the failings of today's industrialized world to as many people as possible.
Tomorrow's Child
by Glenn Thomas
Without a name; an unseen face
and
knowing not the time nor place
Tomorrow's Child, though yet unborn,
I met you first last
Tuesday morn.
A wise friend introduced us two,
and through his shinning point of view
I saw a day that you would see;
a day for you, and not for me.
Knowing you has
changed my thinking,
for I never had an inkling
That perhaps the things I do might
someday, somewhere, threaten you.
Tomorrow's Child, my daughter-son,
I'm afraid
I've just begun
to think of you and of your good,
though always having known I should.
Begin I will to weigh the cost
of what I squander; what is lost
If ever I forget that
you
will someday come to live here too.
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