About the Winner
You might say Tim Eian is saving his energy. Actually he aims to save energy for the rest of us, too. He runs TE Studio, one of the country's first building design firms that offers the Passive House design standard.
It's a building standard that is just now entering the US from Europe and can cut a residence's or office's energy consumption for AC by as much as 90%, compared to standard construction today. It also makes it much more attainable to use renewable energy sources go off the grid or even become a net energy producer.
Super-efficient buildings are the future, and the Passive House standard is the highest certified energy standard available globally. Eian also provides building analysis and designs that maximize the client's investment while minimizing its impact on the environment. In his words, "There is no 'greener' home today than a Passive House."
TE Studio also encourages the use of environmentally sustainable building materials and construction methods as well as recycling and up-cycling of materials to further reduce a project's environmental footprint.
Last but not least, TE Studio designs healthy buildings, looking at off-gassing from products as well as proper ventilation to ensure that the indoor environmental quality is as healthy as possible. The more broadly and rapidly we adopt this standard in the US, the quicker we'll be saving precious energy resources, reducing our dependency on foreign energy sources, and minimizing our overall energy consumption footprint.
