Coming back from the Quiet

It's been too long since I've made time to post. Over the next weeks, I'll begin a series of posts about energy efficiency and energy conservation.

This week, it was my honor to visit with Ed Mazria, founder of Mazria, Inc. Architecture Planning Conservation in Santa Fe. He was in town to speak to the University of Minnesota's College of Design about his latest project, Architecture 2030.

Ed wrote the Passive Solar Energy Book in 1979, for years the bible for solar-sensitive design. He then disappeared from the broader architecture world, hunkered down in New Mexico building millions of square feet of energy-efficient architecture.

Mazria reappeared on the scene with his October 2003 cover piece Turning Down the Global Thermostat. For nearly four years, he's staunchly advocated for sustainable design requirements in architecture curricula all over the U.S.

Monday, Mazria spoke to about 400 students, faculty and advocates at the U of M. That same afternoon, I was invited to a smaller workshop with master's students, faculty, the Dean of the College of Design, and leaders in the field, to propose new action steps in education, practice, research and policy to push energy efficiency in Minnesota, especially in Green Building.

I will write more about this in coming weeks. Thanks for your continued interest in patience.