Green Building Elements

Green Building Elements is about the construction of green buildings, both in terms of the pieces that go together to make them, and in terms of the ideas and the design behind them. We are interested in all aspects of the built environment, from bricks to cities.

We draw inspiration from completed projects and look for new materials that will help to make future buildings more sustainable, energy efficient, and green. We are interested in the best examples in all categories of buildings and materials.

Green Building Elements is part of the Green Options Media Network. You can get more contact information for us on the Contact Green Building Elements page, or you can contact us with recommendations, story ideas, questions or comments at: greenbuildingelements [at] greenoptions [dot] com (note the new address!)

Green Building Elements is written by:

Joel Bittle Great Plains
Joel Bittle is the director of RSI Green, the green building division of RSI Kitchen & Bath in St. Louis, Missouri, and is a member of the St. Louis Home Builders Association Green Builders Council. Joel has worked to bring in and promote green kitchen and bath products in the St. Louis area.

Originally from California, Joel taught high school English in San Francisco and St. Louis before splitting his time raising his two daughters and developing RSI Green. Joel writes about his experiences as a stay-at-home dad in STL Homeboy.

Kristin Dispenza Pacific Northwest
Kristin writes on architecture and design topics. Even as an architecture student at The Ohio State University, she gravitated toward history and theory classes, and happily volunteered for any writing work that was to be done for her studios’ team projects. Moving to Seattle in 1989, Kristin got her start in freelance design journalism with regular assignments with Seattle’s Daily Journal of Commerce, writing feature stories and columns covering a wide range of architecture, engineering and construction topics.

Now based in Ohio, she continues to have regular feature articles in trade publications, and has contributed to company and association newsletters and is involved in projects utilizing newer media forms, such as CD-ROMs, the Web, and, podcasts.

Dawn Killough
Dawn Killough is the owner of a sustainable construction consulting firm, Tree Hugger Consulting, located in Salem, Oregon. She has over 10 years experience in the commercial construction industry. In 2006 she became a LEED Accredited Professional and a Certified Sustainable Building Advisor. She is currently working on three projects that are going for LEED certification, and certified her first building in 2007.

Philip Proefrock Lead Writer, Midwest
Philip is an architect and photographer living in southeast Michigan. He is also a LEED Accredited Professional. His professional involvement with green building includes working as project architect for the award-winning Malletts Creek Branch Library for the Ann Arbor District Library, which received the 2005 AIA Michigan Sustainable Design Award, and which was the first completed commercial vegetated roof (green roof) in the state of Michigan.

In addition to writing for Green Building Elements, he contributes to other GO Media blogs. He also writes about architecture for Jetson Green and about all manner of technology issues for EcoGeek.org. He is still astounded that he ended up here.

Keith Rockmael Pacific Coast
Living in progressively Green San Francisco, Keith Rockmael works in Commercial Real Estate and Leasing with a special interest in Green building. He also specializes in helping people buy and sell Green business and restaurants.

He maintains his own blog at Greenerati.com.

Chris Schille
Chris Schille discovered his true passions early in life when his parents moved to a piece of bare land in Humboldt County, California. There they built their own passive solar home, planted a huge organic garden, and joined a community striving for self-sufficiency. It was there that Chris developed a life-long love for the natural world and rural life. Chris holds degrees in mechanical engineering and computer science. After a ten-year stint in software, he left to design and build his own passive solar home (in Humboldt). A love for all aspects of building, and concern for its environmental costs, led him to start his own residential building business, Rustic Precision. He lives with his wife and daughter in Cupertino, California.