What elements make up sustainable / ecological building -- and which building style is right for you?  How do we create healthy homes for ourselves? These are the questions that this webinar, converted to a podcast, addresses.

This podcast is taken from a Q&A webinar on Healthy Sustainable Homes.  It is a two part series with the next part to follow in one week.  The focus is defining green, sustainable, and natural building. Additionally, what elements make up a sustainable home and what should be considered.

Adam Fries of How 2 Build Green (that’s me!) presents How to be Your Own Contractor: Sustainably as a webinar that has been converted into a podcast.  About halfway through the podcast/converted webinar, I take questions from attendees - Q&A.  If your interested in potentially being your own contractor of your new home or remodel, this is for you.  Adam has been a contractor and designer of sustainable and natural homes in Durango, CO for 12+ years.  

Clarke Snell's area of focus has been research, development, and low-carbon footprint building systems. Initially, his focus was on site-harvested or recycled materials, but in recent years, he has been looking at industrial materials, and most notably,  lowering the environmental footprint of concrete. With a team at University of North Carolina Charlotte, he has been working to integrate a new material, geopolymer cement concrete, into an innovative building envelope system that utilizes existing  precast concrete technology.

Andrew Morrison is passionate about straw bale construction and sharing his knowledge to others. He has a wealth of experience in designing and building conventional, tiny, and straw bale homes. After years of building, he has moved his practice entirely to consulting and teaching. Straw bale houses are cool!

Ross Beck Operations and HR Manager for Tumbleweed Tiny House Company. He drafted his first tiny houses as a high school freshman and 30 years later lived in a tiny house. In the tiny house, he learned how easy it was to live in such a small carbon footprint, because he had so much less stuff to deal with and everything had its place.  He learned to live at a human scale!

Rev. Bingham has been voted one of the top 15 Green Religious Leaders. She is an Episcopal priest and the Environmental Minister at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, CA. Bingham previously served on the board of Environmental Defense and San Francisco’s Commission on the Environment, and has earned many accolades for her work, including the Green Power Leadership Pilot Award and the 2002 Energy Globe Award. She heads The Regeneration Project which addresses environmental concerns from a faith perspective. The Regeneration Project is an interfaith ministry devoted to deepening the connection between ecology and faith.

Chris Magwood is the Executive Director of The Endeavour Centre, a not-for-profit sustainable building school based in Peterborough Ontario.  In 2012, his organization built “Canada's Greenest Home”, an amazing example of sustainable building practices applied in a mainstream, urban setting. Chris has written books and articles on the “building green” subject, including his book, Making Better Buildings: A Comparative Guide for Sustainable Construction. Chris is an absolute inspiration and one of the top change makers in the sustainable building industry!

Michael Reynolds is the creator of the epitome of sustainable design and construction, THE EARTHSHIP.  It is arguably the most eco-friendly and energy efficient design of all sustainable building methods. No part of sustainable living has been ignored in this ingenious building. Michael is a noted architect, a biotect, if you will, and has amassed  an incredible collection of building, media, and legislative accomplishments worldwide, through his career.