Lloyd Alter

Happy 125th Birthday, Alvar Aalto; We are still learning from you

These days, with Covid still floating around, people want lots of fresh air in their homes and offices. Surfaces that are easy to clean. A little space and separation from our neighbour or co-worker. The building scientists have been saying since…

Stop the attack of the killer bathtubs!

Thanks to the pandemic, I have not been to the Interior Design Show in Toronto since 2020. Much has changed, but one thing stayed the same: the proliferation of killer bathtubs. The bathroom is the poster child of dangerous design. It is as if…

The Goldilocks Density has the lowest carbon footprint

In 2014 I wrote an article for the Guardian where I discussed density: Thanks for reading Carbon Upfront!! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. “There is no question that high urban densities are important, but the question is…

How Dangerous Design in our cities and homes is killing our olders

I used to write a lot on the Mother Nature Network about the problems facing aging baby boomers. One issue that preoccupied me was how badly designed our cities and homes were for people who didn’t have perfect sight, hearing or balance, and how this…

Why Toronto's Yonge Street bike lane is part of a worldwide transportation revolution

People have their pitchforks out and are marching down Yonge Street once again, but this time it is the establishment that is on the move to City Hall, protesting the bike lanes that were installed as a pilot project in 2021 through a fancy part of…

How to Understand the Scale of Embodied Carbon

Engineer Will Arnold has come up with a clever way of demonstrating the scale of upfront carbon emissions, a problem many have been wrestling with. Whenever we talk about fixing old buildings instead of tearing them down and replacing them, you can…

Well, this was a surprise....

So, as of today, I am no longer writing for Treehugger. In 2004 I was trying to promote prefabricated housing in the early days of blogging, and discovered Treehugger shortly after it started. Having a lot of time on my hands, I read everything I…

US Government to Crank Lightbulb Efficiency Up to 120 Lumens Per Watt

The U.S. Department of Energy is cranking up the minimum lightbulb efficiency level to 120 lumens per watt, up from the previous standard of 45 lumens per watt. The new standard, announced in December 2022, will collectively save consumers $20…

The Comeback of Small Cars and Trucks Is Good for Everyone

Is the world of SUVs over? If you ask Vincent Cobée, CEO of the French automaker Citroen, then the answer is an overwhelming yes. He made this case in a series of interviews in Europe with statements that are discordant with what is happening in…

'Moving Parts' Exhibit at Toronto's Interior Design Show Spotlights Tackling Climate Through Design

Treehugger has visited the Interior Design Show (IDS) in Toronto for years, looking for the latest in sustainable design. Every year, the posts get shorter as everyone makes dubious claims about sustainability. But this year, one booth stood out:…

New Sublime Process Decarbonizes Cement With Low-Carbon Lime

One of the biggest problems in dealing with carbon dioxide emissions is the making of the key component of cement: lime (calcium oxide). Now, a small company with the cute name Sublime Systems appears to have solved this issue. The concrete industry…

England Is Finally Getting a Deposit Return Scheme for Some Bottles

After years of prevarication and delay, the British government announced a deposit return scheme (DRS) for bottles and cans in England. Consumers in the U.K. use roughly 14 billion plastic drink bottles and 9 billion cans each year, many of which are…

Let's Talk About 'Induced Distance' Instead of 'Induced Demand'

Traffic management consultancy Inrix released its 2022 Global Traffic Scorecard and it's making headlines around the world. The Washington Post published "At 155 hours, Chicago congestion at No. 1 as traffic grows nationwide," while the Toronto Star…

London's 'Black and White' Building Is Complete—and It's a Knockout

The latest mass timber building by Waugh Thistleton architects, the Black and White Building, is complete. The project, located in London’s Shoreditch neighborhood is as elegant and refined as the structure holding it up. It's the first new building…

Architects Need to Consider Human Health When Designing Any Structure

Building with wood has become more common as of late, with new technologies and changes in building codes. We often note the benefits of reduced carbon emissions and speed of construction. Tye Farrow of Farrow Partners Architects started working with…

The gas stove freakout is ridiculous but unsurprising

I have been writing about the dangers of gas stoves for at least a decade, although most of the posts have been removed from the site because I am an architect and not a doctor, and therefore not qualified to write about health! So I am starting over…

What Really Matters in Multi-Story Design? A New Study Looks at It All

Treehugger often talks about window sizes, dumb boxes, mass timber, air tightness, upfront carbon, or even construction cost, but never all in one post. But a new "simultaneous sensitivity study" looks at all these variables at once. It's a wonderful…

America's Gas Stove Freak-Out Is a Culture War, Not a Scientific Disagreement

Change is hard. That's one reason people aren't rushing to trade in their gas stoves. It seems particularly hard for men, even when they typically don't do much of the cooking: According to the Pew Research Center, women do more cooking and grocery…

CAKE Is Going to Build the Cleanest Dirt Bike Ever

Embodied Carbon Emissions, or Upfront Carbon Emissions, as we prefer to call them, are greenhouse gases released during the making of a product before it is delivered to a customer. Most manufacturers or customers pay little attention to them;…

Was Roman Concrete Especially Durable or Is Modern Concrete Exceptionally Crappy?

There is the famous scene in Monty Python's "Life of Brian" where Reg asks, "What did the Romans give us?" A commando responds, "The aqueduct?" After some back and forth, Reg asks, "All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education,…