This channel explores affordable, resilient, and sustainable homes through conversations with green building professionals, architects, designers, homeowners, developers, and real estate professionals. Topics include green building, energy-efficient homes, electrification, climate-resilient housing, and future-ready real estate. The podcast is for homeowners, buyers, and realtors interested in sustainable real estate, as well as builders and designers working at the intersection of…
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Sustainability alone won't protect your home from Mother Nature. In this episode, Izumi Tanaka talks with Albert Slap — environmental attorney turned founder of RiskFootprint.com — about why resilience and sustainability are two sides of the same coin. Albert breaks down why FEMA flood maps miss huge amounts of real flood risk (120,000 homes flooded outside the FEMA zone during Hurricane Harvey),…
What does it actually look like to flip a house the green way — and make the numbers work? In this episode, Izumi sits down with Mary Love, a North Carolina-based green realtor, building scientist, and project manager who has been doing eco-conscious real estate investment long before "green homes" was a mainstream term. Mary shares hard-won lessons from decades of rehabbing and renting…
Are homes really built to last… or just built to sell? In this eye-opening episode, Izumi sits down with documentary filmmaker George Siegal, creator of Built to Last: Buyer Beware , to uncover the uncomfortable truth about how most homes are actually built—and why so many fail when disaster strikes. From hurricanes in Florida to wildfires in California, George shares heartbreaking stories of…
In this episode of Home Green Homes , Izumi Tanaka talks with Nick Grimm — a father, homeowner, and sustainability professional who is gradually transforming his 1953 Los Angeles home into a healthier and more energy-efficient space. Nick didn’t begin with a master sustainability plan. Like many homeowners, his journey started with basic maintenance: replacing appliances when they broke and making…
If you're a homeowner wondering whether it’s time to replace gas appliances with electric alternatives — this episode is for you. In Episode 102 of Home Green Homes , Izumi chats with Akanksha Mathur, General Manager for Southern California at Elephant Energy , to discuss what it really takes to electrify your home. From heat pumps and induction cooking to rebates, incentives, and indoor air…
What does it really take to build homes that are beautiful, efficient, resilient, and responsible? In this special 100th episode of Home Green Homes , Izumi Tanaka welcomes Steve Glenn, founder and CEO of Plant Prefab , for an in-depth conversation that weaves together architecture, sustainability, entrepreneurship, and climate action. Steve traces his path from an early love of architecture to…
“So when I think about a future that is solving climate, I think about raising our quality of life. I think about more inclusive cities with wonderful parks, and it's a fantastic mass transportation that's really considered a luxury good because whether you're the wealthiest person in that city or the poorest, you all want to be on the same subway or the same bus because it's simply the best way…
“We’re always inspired by nature and using nature as a starting point . So we can use the most advanced technology whether it’s robotics or parametric design using algorithms, AI. Regardless of the technologies our goal is to create something that’s beautiful and it’s just works as far as the simplicity. And there’s kind of a synergy in the work we do. So we’re hoping to use this advanced…
“I think there's a whole new awareness right now after these fires in LA, at least for people who live in California of like, just actually how toxic our whole houses are. So, you know, the answer for some might be, “oh, I was going to buy a new couch and I'm going to buy a couch that's cotton instead of like plastic,” you know, just smaller things. And, yeah, the more people that could be…
“The secret is cost shifting. That’s the secret. So we shift the cost from expensive mechanical systems into the quality of the building shell, of the building envelope. We have what we call a super-insulated building envelope. We have triple-glazed windows. We have insulated frames. They get installed in a certain fashion. And we basically take… we beef up the building envelope. it’s…
Healthy home supports your health, in my opinion, from the air we’re breathing, the materials around you, it's designed to promote your health and it prioritizes air quality, has items that are made from non-toxic materials, and it actively reduces toxins, you can actively reduce toxins when you have practices that support a healthy home. So all that is also going to be good for the environment…
"The fact of the matter is your heating your home and cooling your home and heating your water are the two biggest loads to your electric bill. They cost the most in in your home. So this is an opportunity to yes decarbonize and do right for the environment and our grid but also for energy usage. And the products are there. There's more and more coming for sure. " - Anita Singha The much…
We are focused on incentives for home upgrade projects. We’re focused right now on residential space. If anyone is listening or you might have applied for a rebate program in the past, like an appliance rebate program through a government agency or utility, it oftentimes can be quite challenging. So we provide an end to end solution to make it very easy for folks to pre-qualify projects for all…
If you’re thinking about starting an Eco-Village, you wanna know, essentially you want to know what are the issues with soil, with air, with water, in your bio-region, in the ecological region that you live in; what are the relationships that you have with your elected officials that have the power over the area where you want to make this happen; who are your neighbors, and what kind of…
“And what we did was, ‘let’s combine the performance of heat pump, off the shelf heat pump, heat pump water heater, with thermal storage with really really smart controls, and you can reap the benefit of that heat pump by shifting the load to the middle of the day and giving you a heat and hot water whenever you need it.” - Jane Melia Jane Melia, Co-founder and CEO of Harvest , the smart thermal…
“During Covid I started to think more about the products I was using and plastics. I’d always used refilled bottles for water and I’d reuse plastic bags at the grocery store. Then I heard the statistics that 2.5 billion tons of trash are in the landfill just from hand and body lotion alone and hand and body wash… “ - Libby Bourne Libby Bourne is the store manager for a sustainable store Sun Moon…
"We’re not sacrificing anything aesthetic. We’re not sacrificing anything ergonomic by being mindful. We’re just pausing and thinking about it and making a good decision instead of rushing through to check everything off the list. It’s not going to be apparent in the final end result that you did everything in a very sustainable mindful way. It looks the same. It functions the same. It’s just…
“You as a consumer, I as a consumer have enormous power to make the transformation that we want to see. But one of the transformations as a consumer is selecting the right products because the competitor who is not doing the right packaging or the right product is going to see that they’re losing clients to the competitors that are doing more sustainable product, produce and materials, so he’s…
"For me, mantra in my sort of day-to-day climate work is go for the gigatons. And while as a homeowner, a single homeowner, you can't do that, you can look at your biggest spend. So what are the most gigantic energy sinks in your home? Two-thirds of home energy use is from heating and hot water." - Trent Wolbe Trent Wolbe is currently a VP of marketing for a start-up called, Harvest, but I invited…
"For some folks, they become really motivated by the climate crisis. They start to understand that in their family, maybe their single largest source of climate pollution, and it's a big one, is sitting in their closet just heating their water and heating their house, right? So that's some folks are motivated by that, and they want to start finding out what they can do. Other folks maybe don't…
“ …what can we do in terms of water and energy? Something that's super decentralized that doesn't make people compromise. And we started to look at where water is used most within the residential home and 50% of that water use stems from the bathroom. It's quite alarming when you start looking at how much we actually use in terms of water. ” - Alisha McFetridge A typical 10-minute shower uses 25…
“I feel that we have this moral imperative from a business standpoint to preserve our markets. And so, as Realtors, we are advisors. So we explain to our developers, we explain to our buyers, we explain to our sellers how to transact in a way that is most profitable for them. how the Code of Ethics really demands that we understand the products we sell and that we do a better job of representing…
"The new thinking is around circularity. The idea of circularity is the circulation of materials at their highest value for the longest period of time. And when you design with circular systems in mind, you are thinking about the end at the beginning, meaning what's going to happen to this product that we're making? What's going to happen to this house that we're designing at the end of life? Can…
"I think that we will continue to see high performance sustainability at the forefront of innovation. I think it's going to be a slow transition depending on where you are in the world and where you are in the U.S. So I think we're going to see different rates of adoption. I think all of it is going to become faster as we realize the impacts of climate change. And the same holds true with the…
“Building science for these principles and tools to measure and test homes and treat them as an interconnected thing so that all the systems work together and you can achieve better results by looking at the house as a system.” - Dan Thomsen Dan Thompson, the owner and founder of Building Doctors , shares his journey from flipping homes to becoming an energy auditor and contractor. He was inspired…
There’s been plenty of studies over the years ranging anywhere from half of a percent to 15 percent in value for certifications. And part of it has to do with the areas, so obviously when you get into areas like parts of Texas and California, Florida, Virginia, we saw value increases partiallybecause I think you have more educated and interested population who cares, and so they bring that value.…
My model is if you look at the cost of owning a house holistically, is a high performance home better? In most cases I can tell you with all confidence it is. But a lot of people look at first cost, and they say, “wait a minute, this house costs 10,000 bucks more than house B over here, which is code built.” And they’re missing the big picture. My point is that I don’t wanna be the right person in…
"Is my home going to last longer? Is home gonna be more beneficial for me in some ways? Is it gonna be easier to maintain? Am I gonna have lower energy bills and water bils? Is it just gonna be cooler? Is it gonna be like really interesting and fun to have some that also happens to be environmentally friendly? Knowing that information as soon as possible in your home search is more beneficial for…
So I make electricity from the sun. With that electricity, I make water out of air. With that water, it goes to the pressure tank. That pressure tank would then take it to the water heater. The water heater is a heat pump water heater, which we use the electricity from the sun to heat the water heater. The bi-product of water heater is the air conditioning. That’s the only air conditioning we…
In the beginning, just because a lot of people, like I said before, a lot of people, they don't know, or they have not conscious of what's going on in the world, and how they can save money and electricity, gas, or the more healthy. A lot of people aren’t sure. So I was a little hesitant in the beginning. I said, how we're going to market this property and to get the price that we want. Because of…
“I think there’s definitely certain Feng Shui principles and concepts that can and should be used through our architecture. At the same time, it can also be very logical because Feng Shui is based on the natural world, the interactions with the natural world, the operation of the natural world and the flow of energies.” El Larson is a wellness real estate agent and Wellness Design Consultant. She…
"Literally if you gave me two words to describe you what I’m doing, I would say “eco-flipping.” That is actually what I’d say to you. But there’s a huge difference in what it means because third party certification means adherence to certain standards and have to be not only done but defend it and understood. So the buyer of this home is going to know exactly what is behind all of their walls,…
"I want to inspire others who are doing this work but based on a different set of priorities, who understand that this priority of sustainability, of efficiencies of resources and processes, of reduction of wastes of all sorts including the carbon is valued. And you should be incorporating those priorities into your project." Steve Matloff is a “sustainable real estate RE-developer,” CEO and…
"From the environmental aspect, composing has so many benefits. When you compost your food instead of throw way in the landfill, it gets proper aeration and it has oxygen to properly decompose so it doesn't release harmful greenhouse gasses like methane into the environment. So it's helping kind of the global warming movement on one aspect. And then from another lens, I'm taking AP environmental…
"You know, I thought, I know about your podcast and I'm really thinking about what I can contribute in. It's really quite numerous. And so as I said, very little hereditary and so most of it is environmental. So one thing I want to say, it's tangential to your question, but I don't want it to be lost. It is family history and non-hereditary because we also share environments, share homes, maybe…
“Part of that is to be able to honestly and clearly articulate the difference between cost, especially the upfront cost and long term value, obviously the fiscal value of something that works as your monthly output is less for that. And that money can go towards small add to your mortgage. But there’s also these amazing soft cost value that people don’t know. You can’t quite grasp until you’re in.…
"I’m a big believer that if a product or space is human friendly, then by definition, it’s environmentally friendly. I don’t think the same is true in the opposite direction. There are plenty of products that are eco-friendly but still very very dangerous for humans. There’s also plenty of examples of things that are 100% natural that are dangerous for humans." - Andy Pace When I first learned…
“So it is one of the most effective things you can do as a homeowner to make a difference to the world with respect to climate is by going solar. So please do not delay because our planet can, well, our planet will be fine, we'll just be dead. We need to make a difference if we want to make this planet a planet where our children and grandchildren are going to be able to enjoy. So make that…
“I think especially when you get to the point of EHS, that everybody takes responsibility for their own energy, and that’s part of the healing. Just as important it is to put that metal shielding around those wires as it is to be very mindful of how we’re using our energy, and how we’re treating out bodies.” Michael Bender, an artist and writer by profession, who struggled with increasingly…
“A couple of things to know about tax credit. So there’s efficiency tax credit and renewable tax credit. Efficiency tax credits are the ones that were expanded this year. It used to be set at $500 whereas now you can take up to $3,200 in the tax year in which you make the installations. On the renewable side, one thing that’s important to know is that for the first time now battery storage is a…
“If I’m speaking to a builder, your home owner, your client is going to be more comfortable, they’re going to be happier; they’re going to be healthier; and they’re going to love living in this home compared to any other home that is less than, and that is something that I think isn’t top of mind for a lot of people when they think about green building. Health and comfort doesn’t always come.”…
"I went down the rabbit hall of, “O.K. how can every choice I make as a consumer be made with an idea of thinking about where does this come from, what are actually the ingredients, and materials that are being used; and what happens at the end of life of this product?” Basically, my mission right now is I guess I categorize myself as becoming a zero waste living advocate." Amanda Cavallo is an…
“When you purchase a home, it’s more than just principal and interest. You’re never going to own a home and not utilities, not have power payment, not have gas payment, and not have water payment. So we said, O.K., let’s talk about PITI plus utilities and then what’s that total payment, then how can we maximize that for home buyers.” When purchasing homes, home buyers who are financing the…
Definition of sustainable site is it promotes land development and management practices with our future in mind. So sustainable sites generate less waste, minimize impact on the landscape, and use less energy, water and natural resources. Brandon is a Sr. Applications Engineer for one of an innovative solar technology company. He was influenced by growing up with a father who was a pioneer of…
I think we understand more and more that life webs that we’re all in makes human beings happier and healthier, that there’s things to do to acknowledge those life webs and do what we can do to help it. Greg Travis is an old friend of mine, who has become an amateur expert on native plants gardening. He and his partner bought their 1908 craftsman they now call home in West Adams area of Los Angeles…
[This episode is from a short video about Adam's project. Best to watch on HomeGreenHomes YouTube channel.] Adam, a long-time construction professional, and his family were experiencing health issues when they found their “property” in Redwood City, California. What they wanted was a place where they felt healthy. Yet the property was in such disrepair that his first thought was to demolish and…
“I’m a firm believer that the soil health is human health. If we start with the land first, it will reap the fruits of our labor and it’s highly reciprocal.” Diego Torrelio is a Founder and CEO of Circlefoot. Circlefoot is the leading wellness landscaping and construction company based in San Mateo County, California. They design, build, and manage homes, gardens, homesteads, and small farms in…
“Discussion about energy efficiency, net positive and locking your energy cost by installing solar power. They’re privileged conversations. But I want to deliver energy efficiency and the promise of being a part of clean energy future to bigger groups of people that don’t necessarily have access and make it a much more equitable thing.” Realty Energy Partners work with Realtors and their…
We are not looking to be orthodox about our ability to create low carbon footprint and green homes. We’re looking to educate people and let people know that this is possible, and you can do it beautifully, economically and have impact. Greg Roth is the senior designer for CarbonShackDesign , a branch of Home Front Build , an architectural firm. CarbonSharkDesign offers a holistic approach to green…
“Capturing rainwater and letting it make its way back into earth is really the most sustainable thing you can do with the water on the property, and a good way to guarantee water supply in a more sustainable way.” Do you know that an inch of rain on a 1,000 sq/ft roof topcan collect 600 gallons of water? Jesse Froehlich Savou, a native of Davis, CA native, thinks everyone should be able to harvest…
