It's a new year and a new opportunity for all of us to live smarter and better lives. As everyone must know by now, we're facing perhaps our greatest challenge ever in global warming—or, better put, global weirding, a phrase coined by Hunter Lovins, co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute. He refers to the many strange consequences of global warming, from droughts and cold spells to more violent storms, flooding, and forest fires.

And it turns out, building more responsibly in response to this crisis is tied directly to living better. It's already been well established that building green is crucial to reducing our impact on the environment, and that it is more cost-effective in the long run, as it cuts operating costs. What hasn't been made clear enough in our minds, I believe, is that building green also means living more comfortably. With homes and offices that are built tight and ventilated right, we can enjoy greater comfort—no more drafts or cold spots—and improved indoor air quality, which means better health. Add design that emphasizes natural light and ecofriendly building materials that minimize harmful indoor pollutants and the result is even greater comfort, ease, and productivity.

But we've still on a learning curve, and attitudes and accepted wisdom change slowly.

The other day I was visiting a friend who is putting an addition onto his Ulster County cabin that will enlarge his kitchen and extend his living room. When I visited, the framing had begun, so I asked him about the R-value of the walls. He shrugged and said, "We like our house to breathe." I was shocked to hear this from someone I know to be a brilliant educator. But like so many others, even he retains the conventional notion that houses should ventilate themselves passively, through leaks.

As our green architect Michael McDonough explains in his column this issue, building a better wall means getting rid of seams and leaks altogether. Ventilation is then managed actively by way of a mechanical filtration system, like the energy-recovery ventilator, which gathers the heat energy from the outgoing stale air to warm the incoming fresh air.

Challenging the stubborn, conventional ways of thinking—and building—is one of our first duties here. That and answering tough questions about performance and efficiency in all areas of home life. In this issue, you'll find answers to a couple more tough questions: How do I design a kitchen to accommodate multiple cooks and helpers? How can I find home electronics that are energy and resource efficient?

I hope this issue helps inspire you to make the new year a better one than the last, and that you enjoy it in peace and good health. Cheers!

Your neighbor,
Jim Andrews