How it works and how we've changed it Without the nitrogen cycle, there would be no life as we know it. Plants can’t grow without...

Business and Organizational Structures for Doing Good If you have an idea to do some good in the world beyond what your own physical...

A Guide to Finishes for Renewable Materials and their Durability, Health, and Sustainability Recently I've been exploring using natural...

Everything that exists, whether in nature or society, arises not from moral value but from conditions that allow it, and our judgments of good or bad are simply the meanings we choose to assign. If we want to make a change in the world, we need to understand the conditions and dynamics that allow something to exist and change them.

Once buried by politics, hemp is reemerging as a hero of sustainable building. Humans build lots of stuff. We need sustainable materials...

Solving climate change one imaginary carbon credit at a time. Carbon offsets have become a popular tool for businesses and individuals...

Why cheap, abundant energy is problematic—even if it's renewable. Cheap energy sounds like an obvious win. Who wouldn’t want lower bills...

The many uses of fossil hydrocarbons, and what we do and don't have alternatives for. We tend to call the coal, oil, and natural gas...

How Composite Wood Saves Trees But Harms Our Health—But Doesn't Need To. When we think of wood, we often picture solid planks or logs. ...

The history, irony, and idiocracy of American lawns A lawn is a strange thing. It is a patch of land where nothing happens, a landscape...

The overlooked tankless water heater problem—plus heat pump, solar thermal, and point-of-use. When you take a shower and aren't freezing...

The Case For and Against Nuclear Energy As global electricity demand surges due to electrification, economic growth, and population...

An overview of how different nuclear power plants work; or how to get electricity from rocks. Nuclear energy accounts for about 9% of the...

A foundational concept of nearly everything that we often misunderstand Electromagnetic radiation (EMR) is everywhere, and it may be one...

What nature can teach us about designing resilient energy systems In nature, survival often depends on finding creative ways to store...

How it works, different methods, and do we need it? Carbon Capture and Storage, CCS, is a technology designed to capture carbon dioxide...

The environmental impact of what you eat and how much it matters. In Part 1 , we covered what trophic levels are and how different...

Ecological efficiency and biomass distribution in nature. Trophic levels are the different positions that organisms occupy in a food...

How Community Solar Projects Are Democratizing Energy In the past, solar energy was primarily available to single-family homeowners who...

Comparing and visualizing common forms of energy What's a kilowatt-hour? Although we still don't know what energy is at its most...