The Green Builder Media Network

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...

Our current affordability crisis is the result of how we define value, what we measure, what we subsidize, and what we ignore. Sustainability, resilience, and wellness are the missing variables in a system obsessed with first cost and blind to long-term consequence. In this episode, Sara questions existing paradigms and offers innovative solutions that blend sustainability and profitability to add...

This Week's Sustainable Building News This week on Green Builder Media's Housing News Podcast, we explore the trends reshaping housing, sustainability, and resilience. Housing starts have fallen to a six-year low, raising new concerns about affordability and housing supply. At the same time, solar generated more electricity than coal in the United States for the first time ever, marking...

This week on Green Builder Media's Sustainable Building News, we explore the growing backlash against data centers, including Google's Project Skyway data center, Arizona's push to streamline small modular nuclear reactors for data center power and kneecap residents’ ability to use zoning laws to block data centers, and a construction technology breakthrough that could transform how...

Sara Gutterman talks with Doug Tarry, President of Doug Tarry Homes and author of From Bleeding Edge to Leading Edge, about what happens when housing is valued not as a commodity, but as human infrastructure. Together, they explore why homes must do more than meet code or maximize price per square foot—they must support health, safety, resilience, connection, and long-term well-being. From net-zer...

This week on the Green Builder Media News Podcast, we cover one of the biggest housing stories of the year: Berkshire Hathaway's $8.5 billion acquisition of Taylor Morrison and what it could signal for the future of builder consolidation. We also explore Houston's new solar-plus-storage virtual power plant program, Texas' growing water challenges, fire safety concerns surrounding gr...

Mike and Kelly talk about The Great Salt Lake, aliens and a whole lot more on The Impact Series. 

Could geothermal become the clean energy source everyone actually agrees on? Why is Congress considering a new EV fee? And is affordable multifamily housing one of the biggest climate solutions hiding in plain sight? This week, we break down the biggest stories shaping sustainable building, housing, energy, and resilience—including geothermal’s breakout moment, major HUD policy shifts, the future...

Florida may be rewriting the rules of homebuilding. New homes could save buyers thousands. And the AI boom? It may be competing with communities for power. This week on This Week in Sustainable Building News, Ronan Mirza breaks down the forces quietly reshaping housing, affordability, resilience, and infrastructure. From Florida’s proposed building code overhaul to a new study showing buyers of ne...

 In this episode, Sara and Cynthia expose a major economic blind spot: we’ve optimized for the transaction, not the experience. 

Resilient homes may finally start paying homeowners back, AI pulls back the curtain on climate-risk insurance pricing, affordable housing financing faces new uncertainty, and the future of building codes may be getting a major rewrite. Stories: Why states are beginning to reward resilient homes with insurance discounts, grants, and incentives How AI is helping uncover how climate risk is priced in...

Mike and Tim talk about high-performance homes, workforce development and a whole lot more on the Impact Series. 

 Sara Gutterman talks with Matthew Cooper, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at PEG, about how energy modeling, performance validation, and embodied carbon measurement are changing the way homes are designed, built, financed, and valued. Together, they explore why first cost and price per square foot no longer tell the full story—and how tools like RESNET 1550 can help builders, ma...

In this week’s housing and construction news roundup, we break down the forces reshaping where—and how—we build, from climate risk and water constraints to AI-powered jobsite tool, shifting federal housing policy, and a new generation of cash-rich homebuyers changing demand.  In this episode: Why some cities like New Orleans are beginning to question long-term livability Turner Construction’s new...

Nick Fazli, Director of Sustainability for Sekisui House, offers a provocative look at how short-term thinking is eroding long-term value in housing and the economy, and how to reverse it.

In this week’s housing and construction news roundup, we break down the real forces driving costs higher—from childcare expenses now exceeding affordability benchmarks in every state, to infrastructure uncertainty, water constraints, and shifting federal policy that could impact how homes are built and priced. In this episode: Childcare costs are major housing affordability barrier Uncertainty aro...

In this week’s Sustainable Building News, we break down one of the biggest shifts happening right now: the growing divide between housing affordability and performance—and why the metrics we’ve relied on may be leading us in the wrong direction. Stories: Our 10th Annual Sustainability Symposium —free this year for Earth Day, June 3–4.  Why 90%+ of homeowners would recommend energy-efficient homes...

Sara and Dennis explore how the principles that power great retail—trust, relationships, and customer experience—offer a blueprint for fixing how value is created in housing and across the entire economy. 

Housing policy, energy affordability, wildfire resilience, and climate action—here are the biggest sustainable building stories this week: White House Housing Deregulation West Virginia Energy Affordability Insulation Institute Energy Insecurity Data Wildfire Resilience and New Fire Codes - Texas - Colorado - California Sustainability Initiatives Michigan Maine Rhode Island Engineered Wood The Imp...

 Mike and Chris talk about clean energy, public service and a whole lot more. 

Housing policy, energy codes, and affordable housing innovation—here are the biggest sustainable building stories this week. From federal policy shakeups to a gas utility entering geothermal—this week signals major shifts in how we build. Plus editors’ green product pick, calendar of events for the building industry, and more.  This week’s stories: Cuts to HUD D.R Horton Pex Lawsuit FEMA Bric Fund...

Sara queries, what if the affordability crisis is not just a market failure, but a reflection of deeper internal and cultural misalignment?