We Need to Heal our Environment...

Bill Austin, Austin Design

02/03/2009

Name: Bill Austin
Business: Austin Design
Position: Founder and owner
NESEA member since: 2005
Website: http://www.austindesign.biz/index.html

Business description:  Austin Design, Inc. provides architectural design services to residential, commercial and institutional clients. We give careful consideration to environmental consequences and sustainability.

How do you define sustainability?
It's about stopping the excesses, halting the downhill slide. I've started using the term "regenerative" to describe what we're doing. For me sustainability's gone from being the pro-active term for describing the environmentally responsible work that we've been doing as architects to a process of just halting the degradation to the environment we've seen. I now view or goal to be one of healing or regenerating our natural, built and cultural environment.

What project are you most proud of?
The Wisdom Way Solar Village in Greenfield, Massachusetts. It's a 20 unit affordable housing community, currently under construction.  Our first unit has a HERS rating of 16 or 17, which makes it near zero net energy. It will save utility costs for people who most need to save costs in their housing.

What energy advice do you have for the new president?
I don't know how much advice I need to give him. He hit the grand slam for me with his notion of investing in sustainable or regenerative infrastructure.

What promising technology would you like to know more about?
First and foremost, anything in the realm of insulation, especially bio-insulation such as soy-based, so we can get off petroleum. Also air to air VRV heat-pump technology.

What's the public's biggest misunderstanding regarding sustainable energy systems?
That it costs too much money to do. The public is very misinformed about the actual costs.
 
What prompted you to join NESEA?
I had been a member of NESEA years ago, then dropped off the rolls. I admit I became a bit embarrassed to be doing this kind of work and not being part of the organization that in many ways got the ball rolling.

What's the most irritating example of "greenwashing" you can think of?
It's not greenwashing, per se, but I think domestic window manufacturers have to step up to the plate. When they talk about all the good things they're doing, they're pushing old technology. The Canadians are way ahead of them. But I may be picking on them a little bit.