features | essays | reportage

I’m a freelance writer and journalist covering a range of subjects from ecological and economic to social and spiritual significance. A regular contributor to YES! Magazine, Alternet, and Shareable, my work has also appeared in Grist, Planetizen, Ode Magazine, Sojourners, Resurgence, and others. I’m available for assignments, so if you have a story that needs to be covered with insight, heart, and wit, I’d love to hear from you. Here are some recent clips . . .

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The Ecocity: The only way to organise massive populations? Richard Register invites permaculturists to scale up their ideas on a bigger level to cater for our increasingly large world population. Sven Eberlein talks to Richard Register, founder of the Ecocity Builders, Part 2. Permaculture, May 2013 +++ Ecocities: using creativity to express our future urban needs 'What is an Ecocity?' 'Where can we find them?' and the important role creative expression has in designing them. Sven Eberlein talks to Richard Register, founder of the Ecocity Builders, Part 1. Permaculture, April 2013 +++ 6 Ways to Fuel the Cooperative Takeover From now on, the global mantra for filling market gaps is going to be, “There’s a co-op for that.” But co-ops need customers, money, and training. How do we shift from business as usual to the work of cooperation? Yes! Magazine, Spring 2013 +++ From Soap to Cities, Designing From Nature Could Solve Our Biggest Challenges What would nature do? Biomimicry & Cradle to Cradle can answer the question. Yes! Magazine, Winter 2013 +++ Speaking For All Bodies (Not Just the “Perfect” Ones) In “Sins Invalid,” performance artists shatter stereotypes around sex and disabilities to reclaim the body’s redemptive power. Yes! Magazine, Fall 2012 +++ 9 Simple Steps to Improve Your Health (Without Joining a Gym) Laughter, the arts, touch, sleep. What you can do in your everyday life to get healthier. Yes! Magazine, Fall 2012 +++ Business for Good Benefit corporations can strive to be not the best in but the best for the world. Resurgence Magazine, July/August 2012 +++ Life Is Easier With Friends Next Door Feeling a need for community? Cohousing can provide affordable space and neighbors to share it with. Yes! Magazine, Summer 2012 +++ The Importance of Being Sassy — How Occupiers, pranksters, and artists speak louder than money A collection of different creative tactics to throw a wrench in the business as usual of the corporate powers. Yes! Magazine, Spring 2012 +++ Heavenly Energy A small church in Southern Germany has put a photovoltaic installation on their roof and made solar energy part of their theology. Sojourners, March 2012 +++ Reluctant Rebels Meet the award-winning green energy campaigners now at the forefront of Germany’s new industrial revolution. Resurgence Magazine, Jan/Feb 2012 +++ Heavenly Heat in Germany’s Black Forest A small church in Southern Germany has put a photovoltaic installation on their roof and made solar energy part of their theology. Ode Magazine, Oct/Nov 2011 +++ Tolerance in a Small Town Residents rally for their Muslim neighbors when authorities target the local Islamic center. YES! Magazine, Spring 2011 +++ A Hand-Built Home No fortune? No skills? No problem. How a novice builder used mud–and teamwork–to make a house from scratch. YES! Magazine, Fall 2010 +++ Low-Impact Urban Living The challenges of creating urban ecovillages can also be great advantages. YES! Magazine, Fall 2010 +++ Ecocities Setting the Standards. GreenMoney Journal, Summer 2010 +++ Bamboo Evolution A renewable resource is coming of age. Eco Structure Magazine +++ The Big Island of Hawaii A bucolic paradise in the shadow of a menacing volcano. Global Rhythm Magazine +++

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Trashed: A messy journey into the bowels of modern civilization Review of Jeremy Irons' new documentary film Trashed Matador Travel Network, 5/20/2013 +++ How to Start a Repair Café Don't throw that broken lamp away. Fix it at a repair cafe. If your community doesn't have one yet, then start one. Here's how. Shareable, 3/29/2013 +++ West Seattle Tool Library: Interview with Micah Summers A chat with WSTL manager Micah Summers about what it takes to run a tool library and some of the unexpected places it can go. Shareable, 2/24/2013 +++ Sharing for Profit - I'm not Buying it Anymore Is sharing for profit sharing? Is the sharing economy just for smiling would-be billionaires and well-situated creatives? Shareable, 2/19/2013 +++ 23 laws from other countries the US should adopt These laws from around the world could be steps in the right direction for the United States. Matador Travel Network, 2/6/2013 +++ Couchsurfing was my gateway drug Review of "One Couch at a Time," a movie about traveling and the sharing economy. Matador Travel Network, 1/29/2013 +++ Bring Transition Town-style Sharing to your Community The five most shareable and replicable activities to bring into your own neighborhood. Shareable, 1/15/2013 +++ How the US is behind the rest of the world in GMO policy On the state of the anti-GMO movement in America. Matador Travel Network, 1/08/2013 +++ The Top 5 Recent Developments in Bikesharing Bikesharing is gaining in popularity across the globe. Shareable, 10/23/2012 +++ Urban Prototyping: Magical Pieces of the Future Urban Prototyping Festival makes its inaugural appearance in downtown San Francisco. Shareable, 10/22/2012 +++ 9 Simple Steps to Improve Your Health Nine simple, scientifically proven ways to empower yourself to make the right choices for your body and health. The Daily Good, 10/5/2012 +++ Montreal: City of Bikes Montreal and its inspiring communities, including Bixi bike sharing and rooftop gardens. Shareable, 9/25/2012 +++ What’s the Most Sustainable Material for Daily Life? The Answer May Be Hiding in Plain Sight Cardboard and its many new uses. Alternet, 9/14/2012 +++ Climate Change SOS: Soil is the Solution or the most important environmental story I’ll ever write. Energy Bulletin, Post Carbon Institute, 8/21/2012 +++ How Smaller Cities are Taking the Lead in Sustainability Innovation Big cities get all the attention – but smaller, more agile towns are turning out to be innovators in their own right. Alternet, 7/31/2012 +++ Where No City Has Gone Before: San Francisco Will Be World’s First Zero-Waste Town by 2020 A future without landfills? SF is already 78% of the way there — but the hardest part is still ahead. Alternet, 4/18/2012 +++ Street people: In San Francisco, humans reclaim the right-of-way Photo Essay. Grist, 4/10/2012 +++ What If We Stopped Freaking Out About Climate Change? Fear is paralyzing us. How do we get over it, and find our way back to courage, power and joy? Alternet, 4/5/2012 +++ Photo Tour: What Will It Take To Make Our Cities 100% Green? Vancouver, BC is pioneering the most aggressive urban sustainability project in North America. So — how’s it going? Alternet, 3/20/2012 +++ California’s New Triple Bottom Line Best in the world? Try best FOR the world. The Golden State welcomes a new kind of corporation. yesmagazine.org, 2/9/2012 +++ Freiburg, Germany: A model sustainable city Photo essay. – Grist, 7/29/2011 +++ Let’s Have Fun at Death Party Dia de Los Muertos in San Francisco’s Mission District. – Elephant Journal, 11/1/2010 +++ Istanbul and Bicycling, Like Dark Bread It’s Good For Everyone Murat Suyabatmaz and the Turkish Cyclists Association’s quest to bring bike culture to Turkey. – SFGate, 7/28/2010 +++