2011 Speakers

Alex Wilson, BuildingGreen, Inc., our keynote speaker, will be focusing his talk on resilient design. Building on his work with “passive survivability” over the past six years, this shift to “resilience” aims to expand the dialog among all sectors of society, including the design and construction community, policy makers, insurance companies, and other businesses.

Cate O'dahl, ESP Services, is an early-adopter of Green Building in Washington State. Working with private enterprise, non-profits, and governments, she designs, supports, and promotes Green Building initiatives and project promotions throughout the Northwest, primarily in the Seattle metropolitan area. Bringing green education to the real estate market has been Cate’s focus for the last few years, creating curriculum for deep green Real Estate education classes, and providing an even more thorough examination of green building at her classes for the North Seattle Community College’s Green Real Estate Certificate program.

Dave Boehnlein, Principal, will explore the permaculture design basics with his partner, Paul Kearsley, at the Northwest EcoBuilding Guild's EcoBuilding 2011 Retreat.

George Ostrow is an architect in Seattle specializing in environmentally responsible design. His firm, VELOCIPEDE architects inc, designs single family, multifamily, office, and grocery store projects. In just 90 minutes, learn how to do an energy simulation of a single family house using Energy Gauge USA, a DOE 2.1 hourly software tool.

Israel Gaphni, Sound Mechanical Consulting, Inc., provides mechanical engineering design and consulting for a wide variety of commercial, institutional and single and multi-family residential projects around the Puget Sound area as well as over 40 REI stores around the United States. Several net-zero energy projects include high efficiency space and water heating mechanical systems.

Natural Finishes for Beginners Hands-On Workshop with Kelly Lerner

Luke Howard, a Building Science Specialist with the Washington State University Extension Energy Program, will speak on Residential Performance Assessments.

Michael Eliason is a Certified Passive House Consultant and co-founder of Brute Force Collaborative - a design firm specializing in modern Passivhaus and low-energy buildings.

Designing for Water Interdependence; Rainwater Harvesting and Other Strategies for Water Resource Conservation

Paul Kearsley, Art Director. Paul will explore the permaculture design basics with his partner, Dave Boehnlein at the Northwest EcoBuilding Guild's EcoBuilding 2011 Retreat.

Peter Swensson has more than thirty-five years’ experience in land use planning, and in econometric, demographic, and land use forecasting. Employed by the Thurston Regional Planning Council in Olympia, Peter made hundreds of presentations to city councils, planning commissions, chambers of commerce, neighborhood associations, service clubs, and other community groups.

Richard Kuhnel, Gentle Harvest, offers ecological design, creative group process facilitation, life choice coaching, social enterprise development and permaculture workshops. Richard will speak on "Building Resilient Communities"

Rob Harrison will share David Rousseau's Segue Stories - explorations of the ironies inherent in design, placemaking and living a material life in the natural world.

Russell Hamlet, Studio Hamlet Architects, has been practicing architecture for over 20 years, and is the principal of an innovative and environmentally focused architecture firm based on Bainbridge Island. His dedication to small home design and use of energy efficient and innovative materials has kept Russ at the fore of his field.

Sage K. Saskill, S.A.G.E. Designs NW, specializes in Small Artful Green Environments. The denser, smaller, greener, the better! Sage has developed a passion and knowledge base of many alternative building systems including straw bale and insulated concrete forms.

Terry K. Phelan, of Living Shelter Design Architects, has been designing homes and small community structures for over 30 years. As the principal of an Issaquah firm that promotes naturally resilient options, she has championed alternative materials into permitted use throughout the Pacific Northwest. As talk show host of internet radio and podcast programs The Living Shelter Café, Living Shelter Radio, and The EcoLogical Home, Terry uses interviews with other leaders in the sustainable design, building, and living arena as a way to effect exponential change.