Chelsea Green Green Building Books

Chelsea Green Authors
Building a Green Future

Passive Solar, Straw Bale, Cob Building, Energy Efficiency

For more information or to interview one of these authors, contact Jon-Mikel Gates at jgates@chelsesagreen.com, 802-295-6300, ext. 111.

James Kachadorian

Primary Expertise: passive solar construction

James Kachadorian is a civil engineer with degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He is the founder of Green Mountain Homes, which has gained national recognition as the first provider of innovative, manufactured solar homes. He has built more than three hundred passive solar homes, including his own home in Woodstock, Vermont. In June 2006 Chelsea Green will release the second edition of his popular The Passive Solar House. This edition includes CSOL passive solar design software to help readers analyze the efficiency of their passive solar house designs and the solar potential of their current homes or building sites.

Dan Chiras

Primary Expertise: ecological building methods, energy-efficient homes, passive solar power, active solar power

Dan Chiras holds a Ph.D. in physiology and teaches courses on sustainability and biology at the University of Colorado and University of Denver. He is the author of The New Ecological Home, The Natural House, and The Solar House, in addition to five college and high school textbooks. Chiras has spent much of the past 30 years studying sustainability and applying what he has learned in solar energy, natural building, and green building to his residences. He shars the practical knowledge he has gained through writing, lectures, slide shows, and workshops.

Greg Pahl

Primary Expertise: green building materials, alternative home-heating options, biofuels, living off-the-grid

Greg Pahl, a journalist and author of several books, has been involved in environmental issues for more than 20 years. In the 1980s he lived "off the grid" in a wind-powered home. He has written about wind power, solar energy, electric cars, sustainable forestry management, and home building materials. His book, Natural Home Heating, is the first comprehensive guide to heating your home with renewable energy sources. Pahl offers a well-organized, easy-to-understand tour of all available renewable home-heating options, including wood, pellet, corn and grain-fired stoves, fireplaces, furnaces and boilers as well as masonry heaters, active and passive solar systems, and heat pumps.

Pahl and his wife live in Weybridge, Vermont. They heat their home with a biodiesel blend. Visit Greg's Web site at www.gregpahl.com.

Athena Swentzell Steen and Bill Steen

Primary Expertise: straw bale construction

Athena Swentzell Steen and Bill Steen are experts on building with straw bales. They wrote The Beauty of Straw Bale and are co-authors with David Bainbridge and David Eisenberg of The Straw Bale House. Athena grew up in Santa Fe and at the Santa Clara Pueblo, where she began building with natural materials at a very early age. Bill is a photographer and collaborative builder who is especially interested in combining building techniques with community-enhancing approaches to design. Athena and Bill are co-founders of the Canelo Project, through which they conduct ecological design and construction workshops in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. They live in Canelo, Arizona.

Ianto Evans, Michael G. Smith, and Linda Smiley

Primary Expertise: building with cob

Cob is a building method so old and so simple that it has been all but forgotten in the rush to synthetics. Ianto Evans, Michael Smith and Linda Smiley are the authors of The Hand-Sculpted House and have taught dozens of cob building workshops in the United States and around the world. They use the oldest, most available materials imaginable—earth, clay, sand, straw, and water.

Ianto Evans is an applied ecologist, landscape architect, inventor, and teacher with building experience on six continents. Cob is traditional in his homeland, Wales. In addition to teaching ecological building, Ianto has consulted with USAID, the World Bank, the Peace Corps, and several national governments.

Michael G. Smith teaches practical workshops and consults on cob construction, natural building, and permaculture. He is the author of The Cobber's Companion: How to Build Your Own Earthen Home and co-editor of The Art of Natural Building: Design, Construction, Resources.

Linda Smiley teaches workshops on cob, sculpting sacred spaces, intuitive design, and natural plasters and finishes. With a background as a recreational therapist, she specializes in helping people use natural building as a tool for personal transformation and healing.