It’s projected that by 2050, 7 out of 10 people in the world will live in urban areas, totaling 6 and half billion people. The ecological footprint of these cities will be vast, and the more we can do to make these areas self-sufficient, the more habitable the entire planet will be. Today’s guest offers a novel solution to this challenge. Inspired by the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the stratification of an old-growth forest, Dr. Jennifer Bousselot studies the benefits of combining solar panels with green roofs. This method - called agrivoltaics - brings agriculture and photovoltaics together in a shared space. Growing food under the shade of solar panels has some surprising benefits, which are being revealed through research institutions like Colorado State University, where Dr. Bousselot serves as a professor of horticulture and landscape architecture.

In her 2020 TED Talk, Dr. Bousselot coined the term “rooftop agrivoltaics”, referring to an innovative approach that integrates solar panels with green roofs. I recently toured the rooftop agrivoltaics site at CSU Spur, one of several agrivoltaics projects that Dr. Bousselot oversees. Touring this site gave me a new perspective on how rooftops can be utilized to produce energy, grow food, manage stormwater, and cool our cities. This conversation is for anyone curious about renewable energy, urban agriculture, green roofs, or sustainable design. Whether you are just discovering agrivoltaics or are already invested in the intersection of energy and ecology, I think you will find this conversation illuminating. Please enjoy!

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Episode Links:

• CSU Spur Agrivoltaics
• NREL
• Green Roofs for Healthy Cities
• Journal of Living Architecture

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If you enjoyed today’s episode, please like the show and follow wherever you get your podcasts.

For additional features like video, you can find transcribed versions of this and future episodes at my personal Substack, Echoing Earth.

The music for this podcast is Siesta by Ikson, part of the “Tell Your Story” project—a library of free music for content creators. Visit ikson.com to explore the full catalog.

If you want to understand Colorado and the American Southwest, you have to understand our most limited and valuable resource - WATER. That’s why I am excited to share this conversation with Blake Mamich, a water conservation expert and Program Director for the Colorado Water Trust. The Colorado Water Trust is a homegrown nonprofit that focuses on instream water flow restoration, a topic that Blake expounds on throughout this interview. Blake has been working for the Trust since 2022, focusing on streamflow restoration and reservoir release projects.

This interview is an overview of not just the work of the Colorado Water Trust, but of broader water policy and conservation in Colorado. I put Blake on the spot throughout this conversation, with a broad range of questions about water in Colorado. Some of the ground we cover includes the history of water rights, beneficial uses of water, key projects the Trust is currently working on, and a notable water rights acquisition currently going down on the Western slope with a price tag just under $100 million.

While this conversation is just a drop in the bucket when it comes to the topic of water in Colorado, I am heartened to know that there is an organization out there doing deep water conservation work at a time when there is so much upheaval, specifically in terms of environmental regulation and investment in ecological health.

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Colorado Water Trust

Donate to the Trust - Anyone who signs up for a monthly recurring donation gets a free Water Trust hat!

Colorado Rapids - Colorado Water Trust is the Colorado Rapids official community partner this season and will be featured in their April 12th game. Come cheer on the Raptors and learn more about CWT!

⁠RiverBank⁠ - The main event this year is held September 30th at the Denver Botanic Gardens. Join the fun and check out the Fall displays!

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If you enjoyed today’s episode, please like the show and follow wherever you get your podcasts.

For additional features like video, you can find transcribed versions of this and future episodes at my personal Substack, Echoing Earth.

The music for this podcast is Siesta by Ikson, part of the “Tell Your Story” project—a library of free music for content creators. Visit ikson.com to explore the full catalog.

Photo Credit - Yampa River / Eliza Nolte

Today I am talking with Natural Builder, Tim White. I met Tim at the Crestone Energy Fair in Crestone, Colorado, an eclectic town where I was introduced to natural building materials and techniques. Tim has been in the natural building industry for almost 30 years. During the Fair, Tim gave a talk onClay Plasters, and I was hit with more truth bombs about the built environment in that one talk than I had ever been. All of it made intuitive sense, and Tim clearly had a plethora of knowledge to offer on the topic. Backed by hard science through his studies in anthropology and archaeology, Tim distilled many health and environmental issues down to a simple dichotomy: conventional building materials versus monolithic organic (natural) materials.

Our conventional wisdom tells us that modern materials are durable, reliable, and safe. In fact, conventional building materials are toxic, highly combustible, and create over 30% of the world’s waste. The archaeological record shows that humans have used natural building materials for millenia. Their use is circular, sustainable, better for our health, and aesthetically pleasing. In fact, the techniques that Tim describes in this episode create temperature and humidity controlled environments that are livable without use of a thermostat. I invite you stoke your curiosity at the hearthside of Tim’s abundant wisdom on the benefits that natural building brings to humankind. Please enjoy.__________

• Texas Healthy Homes
• Tim@TexasHealthyHomes.com⁠
• Bruce King New Carbon Architecture
• American Clay
• Northern Colorado Hemp Expo
• Chris Magwood -Beam Estimator - Calculating your Home’s Carbon Footprint
• Hemp and Block
• Living Spaces
• Rocky Mountain Joinery

1:45 - What is Natural Building?

16:15 - Applications for a Conventional Builder

18:21 - Materials

23:45 - Hondo Project

30:59 - Toxins in the Built Environment

35:51 - Optimizing Your Health

38:56 - Problems in Conventional Building

39:52 - Building Codes

49:39 - Scaling Natural Building

57:53 - Ayahuasca Temple (Spring Construction)

1:02:45 - Unconditioning

1:06:05 - Final Thoughts & Recs __________

If you enjoyed today’s episode and found it insightful, please like the show and follow wherever you get your podcasts. A special thank-you to the⁠Crestone Energy Fair⁠ for providing hands-on workshops, tours, and panel discussions on natural building.

The music for this podcast is Siesta by Ikson, part of the “Tell Your Story” project—a library of free music for content creators. Visit⁠ ikson.com⁠ to explore the full catalog.