BLOGS
Green Building Advisor Martin Holladay’s Musings of an Energy Nerd.
BS + Beer Show Opportunity, via recorded zoom videos, to learn from professionals in ‘green’ construction.
Zero and Beyond Spartan and Hannah’s super energy-efficient build.
Edgewater Haus Passive House project. A lot of information on planning and choosing materials — their struggles with choosing windows is definitely worth reading.
Modern in Minnesota Cool house project — many interesting design details.
Matt Risinger Austin, Texas based builder with a lot of useful ‘green’ building info on his series of YouTube videos.
Life of an Architect Building process from an architect’s POV (definitely worth reading).
BOOKS
Green Building / Architecture / Design
Sarah Susanka The Not So Big House
Julie Torres Moskovitz The Greenest Home: Superinsulated and Passive House Design
Sheri Koones Prefabulous + Almost Off the Grid
Janet Cotterell The Passivhaus Handbook
Christopher Alexander, et al., A Pattern Language
Kevin McCloud 43 Principles of Home
Alain de Botton The Architecture of Happiness
Matthew Frederick 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School
Cristina Paredes Benitez Small ECO Houses: Living Green in Style
Leonard Koren Wabi-Sabi: For Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers
Andrew Juniper Wabi Sabi: The Japanese Art of Impermanence
Permaculture / Landscaping
Masanobu Fukuoka The One Straw Revolution
Toby Hemenway Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-scale Permaculture
Sepp Holzer Permaculture: A Practical Guide to Small-Scale, Integrative Farming and Gardening
Edward O. Wilson Biophilia
James B. Nardi Life in the Soil: A Guide for Naturalists and Gardeners
Peter Bane The Permaculture Handbook
Will Allen The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People and Communities
Eric Toensmeier Paradise Lot
Jessi Bloom, Dave Boehnlein Practical Permaculture
Ann Ralph Grow a Little Fruit Tree
Paul Stamets Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World
B.C. Wolverton How to Grow Fresh Air: 50 Houseplants that Purify Your Home or Office
John Greenlee The American Meadow Garden (lots of info and beautiful photos throughout)
Lew French Stone By Design (includes many photos of his intricate, amazing work)
Dan Snow In the Company of Stone (more beautiful examples of stone in the landscape)
Art Ludwig Create an Oasis with Greywater
Brad Lancaster Rainwater Harvesting
Robert Kourik Drip Irrigation: For Every Landscape and All Climates
WEBSITES
Green Building Advisor Great research tool. A lot of great information, and the Q&A section of the site proved to be invaluable, both during the design phase and even during the build when questions or problems would arise.
Building Science Corporation Fantastic research tool when designing a Passive House or a Pretty Good House.
Pretty Good House Helping designers, builders, and homeowners navigate a high-performance build without seeking official certification from Passive House or LEED.
Green Guard Greenguard Certification. Independent third party (part of UL) testing organization that researches product claims regarding their ‘green’ status.
Jetson Green A lot of interesting ‘green’ building info.
Treehugger Interesting articles; more wide-ranging than just construction.
Building Green Great resource for self-builds as well as for those already certified in ‘green’ building techniques.
Green Building Supply Located in Iowa. Excellent resource for low or No VOC products for a ‘green’ build. I’ve used them several times for our own build, including paints, sealers, and caulks/sealants.
475 High Performance Building Supply Passive House-oriented building supplies, located in New York. We also used them for our WUFI analysis. Excellent resource for both products and ‘green’ building knowledge when questions come up during a build.
Small Planet Supply For consumers, another great option besides 475 HPBS, for Passive House or Pretty Good House builds. Located in Washington state and western Canada.
AFM Safecoat Low or No VOC paints and finishes.
Passive House Accelerator Useful information for everything Passive House.
Source 2050 Passive House-oriented building supplies.
GO Logic Design/Build firm focused on Passive House projects, located in Maine. Lots of useful info, and their projects are always interesting.
Hammer and Hand Passive House builder in the Seattle/Portland area. Lots of useful info and fantastic videos — indispensable for DIYers tackling a Passive House-level new build. We couldn’t have built our house without their videos and their Best Practices Manual.
Living Building Challenge Holistic approach to building; encompassing on-site construction issues apart from overall energy demand. Another option, along with LEED and Passive House, for ‘green’ building certification.
Permies Plenty of info, regardless of experience with permaculture principles. Great learning tool. Useful forums to share, or just read about, problems/solutions.
Geoff Lawton Really interesting permaculture projects from around the world. Great videos.
Midwest Permaculture Based in Illinois. I did a phone consultation with husband and wife team, Bill & Becky Wilson; extremely nice people, and definitely worth it. They offer Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) training throughout the year at various sites.
1000 Home Challenge For anyone considering a deep energy retrofit (DER) project on an existing home or building.
MAGAZINES
TV & YouTube
This Old House (PBS)
Grand Designs (UK, Channel 4). Program follows the progress of unique builds from start to finish (sometimes shows up on YouTube or Netflix). The builds are always interesting, with many of them ‘green’ builds. It has Australian and New Zealand spin-offs that are equally good.
Growing a Greener World (PBS)
The Victory Garden (PBS)
P. Allen Smith’s Garden Home (PBS)
The Gardening Channel with James Prigioni
BUYING PLANTS ONLINE
Natural Gardening Company Great selection of organic seeds and veggie transplants.
Peaceful Valley Farm Supply Peaceful Valley Farm Supply — wide variety of products, seeds, plants, and even fruit and nut trees.
Bluestone Perennials Wide selection of ornamental ground covers, flowers, shrubs, and even some trees.
High Country Gardens Western/Southwestern US selection of plants. I’ve had good luck with many of them in the Chicago suburbs as long as they’re at least Zone 5 rated. Their Agastache (Hummingbird Mint) varieties are perfect for attracting pollinators, especially hummingbirds, who definitely love this plant.
Johnny’s Selected Seeds Employee-owned company supplying seeds, plants, and tools.
Seed Savers Exchange Wide selection of heirloom seeds. Using their annual catalog you can share unique varieties from small growers all over the US, many of them otherwise unavailable. Great info on their website. Based in Decorah, Iowa. Definitely worth a visit to check out their facilities, but also the downtown district and surrounding area has a lot to offer in terms of shopping and outdoor activities, including great parks and forest preserves.
Prairie Nursery Wide selection of Midwest natives from Wisconsin.
Praire Moon Nursery Wide selection of Midwest natives from Wisconsin.
Pleasant Prairie Nursery Wide selection of Midwest native flowers and grasses grown in Illinois.
Seeds of Change Large selection of organic seeds and seedlings, along with food products.
Swan Island Dahlias Large selection of beautiful dahlias. They’re a little fussy, but well worth the effort — hard to beat for size and color; and they make great, long-lasting cut flowers.
Oikos Tree Crops Large selection of items, including fruiting shrubs, tea plants, and strawberries. Excellent resource for starting or growing your own edible landscape based on permaculture principles.
kimchi & kraut 
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