The Green Builder Media Network

This Week’s Sustainable Building News: Mass timber moves into affordable housing, New York City tests new ways to electrify older buildings, and California pushes the limits of local housing control. Plus, disappearing energy tax credits, private listings and affordability, new resilience data, and our Editor’s Product Pick. Mass timber moves into affordable multifamily housing : A new 150-home de...

In this solo episode of The Valuation Metric, Sara Gutterman examines what the emerging “fire age” means for the way we value homes, communities, and climate risk. As wildfires intensify, insurers retreat, premiums rise, and traditional models built on historical precedent begin to break down. Resilience is becoming an economic issue as much as an environmental one. From prescribed fire and clean...

This Week’s Sustainable Building News. Wildfire risk is beginning to show up in unexpected places in the housing market. This week, we look at how lenders are responding, a battle over building in a California wildfire zone, GM’s move into home energy, new approaches to decarbonization and indoor air quality, and more. Wildfire risk could make a traditional mortgage harder and more expensive to ge...

This Week’s Sustainable Building News. Could the Midwest become America’s next housing hot spot? This week, we look at the emerging “Resilience Belt”—plus, a major shift in where U.S. investment is flowing, surprising insurance data, wildfire-ready homes, new energy technology, construction exoskeletons, and more. Could affordable, lower-risk Midwest metros become America’s next “Resilience Belt”?...

Sara Gutterman talks with architect Bill Ramsey about how thoughtful design can create more value even as homes get smaller and affordability pressures intensify. From flexible floor plans and natural light to shared outdoor spaces, resilient construction, placemaking, and missing-middle housing, this conversation explores why good design is not simply about taking things away until the numbers wo...

This Week’s Sustainable Building News: Housing takes center stage this week as Airbnb makes a $250 million bet on getting more homes built, a national coalition pushes communities to “Let America Build,” and local housing battles show just how complicated increasing supply can be. Plus, construction automation, free technical help for builders, COGNITION Smart Data, climate and insurance risk, pla...

 Sara Gutterman talks with Rob Cecil, CEO and President of Alair Homes, about why the true value of a home begins long before construction starts. From custom homes as one-of-a-kind prototypes to wellness architecture, climate resilience, lifestyle alignment, and the power of intentional planning, this conversation explores how builders can move beyond price per square foot and design homes around...

This Week’s Sustainable Building News: ICE enforcement is disrupting construction labor in some markets, Passive House is dramatically outperforming standard energy codes, and buyers are showing renewed interest in older homes. Plus: affordable housing that still isn’t affordable, smarter ways to cut energy bills, why trees may be health infrastructure, and a growing remodeling opportunity. Includ...

This Week’s Sustainable Building News. The Mormon Church emerges as a major housing developer, new data show single-family construction spending falling, windowless bedrooms face a ban, plug-in solar comes to California, and modular housing gets a boost. Plus: mass timber skyscrapers, ADUs, heat pumps, the skilled trades and the real story behind America’s housing shortage. In this episode: U.S. C...

This Week’s Sustainable Building News. Stronger building codes, wildfire protection, passive survivability, extreme heat, tariffs, manufactured housing, modular construction and 3D-printed homes are reshaping what resilience and affordability mean for housing. In this episode: • Stronger building codes reduce hurricane damage — Homes built under Florida’s stronger code were 22% less likely to suff...

Mike and Valerie talk about AI data centers, water use and a whole lot more on the Impact Series.

This Week’s Sustainable Building News. Housing starts are falling, AI is influencing home-buying decisions, and affordability is changing where Americans are willing to live. In this episode, we break down the biggest stories shaping housing, sustainability, and the built environment. Housing starts fall, but Oregon bucks the trend . Single-family starts dropped nearly 10% in July, while Oregon ho...

In this solo episode, Sara challenges the idea that America’s housing crisis is simply a shortage problem. Drawing on Harvard’s State of the Nation’s Housing report and COGNITION Smart Data affordability research, she explores why the market is both starved and saturated, and why the real crisis lies in a mismatch of price, buyer, product, and place. From shrinking affordability and stalled mobili...

This Week’s Sustainable Building News: Can renovating an existing home be more sustainable than building new? How is artificial intelligence changing housing and energy infrastructure? Why is wildfire resilience becoming a priority for every builder—not just those in fire-prone regions? We answer the biggest questions shaping the future of housing, construction, resilience, and sustainable develop...

This Week's Sustainable Building News: Can AI data centers make housing more expensive? This week we examine how America's AI boom is competing with homebuilders for land, labor, and construction materials—and why that could affect housing affordability for years to come.  We also explore: Proposed legislation that could reduce homebuilding costs by rolling back tariffs on construction m...

In this episode of The Impact Series, host Mike Collignon talks with Dr. Sybil Sharvelle of Colorado State University about the future of water in an increasingly dry West—and what we can learn from an unlikely source: space travel. From developing water recycling systems for long-duration space missions to advancing water reuse here on Earth, Sharvelle explores how circular water systems, produce...

 Sara Gutterman talks with Lisa White, Co-Executive Director of Phius, about what buildings really cost the grid—and what they should deliver to the people inside them when conditions turn extreme. Together, they explore passive building, climate-specific performance, wildfire smoke protection, passive survivability, and why first cost fails to capture the true value of comfort, health, resilience...

This Week's Sustainable Building News : What do Congress, Wall Street, the electric grid, AI data centers, and homebuyers all have in common? They're reshaping the future of housing. This week, Ronan breaks down the biggest stories affecting builders, developers, architects, policymakers, and anyone interested in the future of high-performance homes. This Week’s Story Links The 21st Cent...

This Week’s Sustainable Building News : Could churches become one of America's biggest new housing developers? This week, we explore the fast-growing YIGBY movement—"Yes In God's Backyard"—and the surprising idea that faith-based organizations could help unlock as many as 800,000 new homes. We also break down why Maryland's battle over building energy codes is really a deb...

This Week's Sustainable Building News : Can stronger building codes actually make housing more affordable over the long run? This week we dive into groundbreaking research that challenges one of housing's biggest myths, explore why Americans keep buying larger homes, examine the growing backlash against AI data centers, and look at new housing policies designed to create more homes witho...

Sara Gutterman talks with Jay Ruckelshaus, Co-Founder and Head of Partnerships and Policy at Gravity, about California’s SB 253, the evolving world of carbon accounting, and why emissions measurement is becoming central to honest valuation. Together, they unpack what the state’s reporting delay really means, how companies should prepare for Scope 1, 2, and 3 disclosure, and why defensible carbon d...

July 8, 2026— This Week's Sustainable Building News We cover the latest housing policy, building science, energy, and consumer trends shaping the future of homebuilding. From the pending 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act to Google's growing role in real estate, plus new HERS ratings for manufactured homes, smarter appraisals, Gen Z homebuyers, and a Green Builder Media study recently feat...

 Sara Gutterman talks with Curt Johansen, Development Director at Triad Development and the visionary behind Lagoon Valley, the Bay Area’s first conservation community, about rethinking the relationship between housing, land, resilience, and value. 

This Week's Sustainable Building News covers new housing finance legislation in Congress, a home battery program that pays homeowners to support the grid, the rapid rise of heat pumps, new state housing and infrastructure initiatives, innovative sustainable design, and a remarkable home with a $4.20 monthly utility bill. Featured stories and resources: Housing finance legislation package (Fan...

America is short roughly 4 million homes, yet one Indigenous-led development in Vancouver is building 6,000 homes on just 10 acres. Meanwhile, a new $11 billion transmission line highlights the massive infrastructure investments needed to support a growing, electrified future. In this week's sustainable building news: • Green Builder Media officially launches VISION House Asheville, a climate...