Building Alive, Designing to Thrive

Hello fellows! I am now 4 years past the BIG day! But while I was planning our wedding, it had to feel like it reflected our values (mine are his now ;) ) So, while I'd been researching bits and pieces for my 'dream wedding' for quite some time now, I finally got engaged in November 2016 to my long-time boyfriend, Matthew. Wouldn't you know it, after 7.5 years of dating we are having an 11 month engagement and getting married October of 2017. I searched laboriously for a blog or book to guide me in eco-friendly wedding choices, but didn't find anything that covered all of the areas I felt needed to be evaluated. So, I'll be adding to this post with my successes and failures as we encounter them. 1) The engagement ring : This one, I had already made subtle suggestions to Matt on where to source my ring :) Brilliant Earth  uses only certified conflict-free gemstones and precious metals. Most of the metals are also recycled. 2) The venue: We visi...

Working in the sustainability field has been turned on its head during the Coronavirus pandemic. I went on a short hiatus to become a Mom (Elliott was born in March of 2020 only a few days before lockdown in NJ), and when I resurfaced, our approach needed to be different, here are some examples: Typically, the balance between ample fresh air within a building and energy use would result in driving the building toward lower energy use. Now, the ability to increase the outdoor air is desirable and is carrying more importance as a design consideration. We almost always pursued green cleaning operations and maintenance plans with our projects, however the Green Seal certified (or other healthy for people) cleaning products do not disinfect to the level desired for Covid- forcing teams to decide between abandoning their healthy cleaning policies and safety. Everything is packaged and sealed, and wrapped again. Cafes stopped allowing refillable coffee cups, towns that had plastic ba...