Has recycling failed? No, it has been successful beyond the convenience-industrial complex's wildest dreams
The purpose of recycling was to make the world safe for single-use packaging. It worked.
Kitchen bloat is everywhere, from tiny homes to monster homes
It's time to return to the closed, separate kitchen, and to lose the giant gas stoves.
A reader asks: What motivates me?
I struggle to answer.
Underground parking garages are not "sustainable"
The word "sustainable" has been debased beyond recognition, but the University of British Columbia takes it to new depths.
It's time for limits on truck and SUV size and weight
They take up too much space, and they kill far too many pedestrians and cyclists.
Climate doomism means I'm gonna need a bigger pickup truck
We know which way we have to go, but everyone seems to be running in the opposite direction.
Air conditioning is a hot topic these days
The CBC interviewed me about the subject; my views on it are changing because the climate is changing.
Upfront Carbon helps kill replacement of Marks & Spencer's Oxford Street store
We will be seeing more of this worldwide as embodied carbon is taken into account. There are lessons here that apply everywhere, including Toronto.
Let's get creative with our office-to-residential conversions
They might be cheaper, faster, and a lot more fun if we throw out the rules.
Listen to Zero Ambitions: PH+ Revisited
My first attempt at hosting a podcast, in a discussion with Kate de Selincourt.
The three little pigs got it wrong
When it comes to upfront carbon emissions, straw is a lot better than brick.
It's time to make side guards mandatory on every truck in North America
And now that Olivia Chow is mayor, we should start in Toronto.
Quit whining. Even the Dutch don't all cycle like the Dutch.
Many are complaining about a new study that says if we cycled like the Dutch, carbon emissions would drop by more than all of Canada's emissions. But it wouldn't be so hard.
Buildings can be too tall and too thin.
Yes, it is time for a big fat honking carbon tax on these ridiculous exercises in excess.
“Fist pumps for R290 Monoblocs!”
Journalist David Roberts once wrote "Fist pumps for heat pumps!" but we have to be more specific.
The Canadian connections and parallels to the UK drinking water crisis
This is what happens when you privatize, cut “red tape” and eliminate oversight: things cost more and don’t work as well, and sometimes people die.
Can architects and designers make a difference in the climate emergency?
One prominent English architect says we should just shut up and draw, we don't matter much anyway.
From the Archives: Le Corbusier on airplanes: " in less than ten years, the whole world could fly."
It's a hundred years since Towards a New Architecture was published. There is still lots to learn from it.
Why is it so hard to hang up the car keys?
The system is set up to regulate drivers who depend on their cars rather than planning for alternatives which work for everyone.
Scoping out carbon emissions
There are currently three scopes of carbon emissions; now a fourth is being proposed, and I think this is a problem.