Warm Greetings!
This Blog was born out of inspiration to connect environmentally conscious community with green resources in the area and share ideas and solutions online. As you can see, we are all about green! That is sustainable building, green remodeling, green design, and green living and of course our favorite – green homes. Research shows, our homes contribute to a total of 21% of our nation’s energy use and carbon footprint. This means that by taking a few smart and calculated steps, every single one of us have a tremendous opportunity to make a positive impact on the environment and our community.
San Jose Green Home is a Blog that explores sustainable lifestyle options at home by pulling resources from personal experience of the authors. We do it with passion and always some humor. It is dedicated to all earthlings of our San Jose and entire Bay Area community who aspire to live more vibrant and sustainable lives.
Owner Author/Facebook Admin – Tadas is a simple, down to earth guy… an idealist but a “realist” you can say. You’ll find him to be a fun friend, a dedicated activist, a networker, and a supporter of many causes. Before moving out of area, Tadas served as a member of the USGBC (US Green Building Council) and was an active advocate for eco-smart real estate practices in Santa Clara County. His aspiration is to encourage others to live their lives to the fullest and spread awareness about everything that will help us exist more in sync with the environment. Feel free to contact him with any questions, article idea or suggest a great resource.
My deepest wish is that you find here a wealth of meaningful information. If you haven’t yet, please implement some of these ideas into your daily activities. Living a more sustainable life not only fun but immensely rewarding, both spiritually and financially.
Facebook Admin – John is our main Facebook page contributor. An east coast transplant, John grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He is a Mechanical Engineer, receiving his degree from Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute. A business transfer brought him to San Jose in 1980, where John has seen explosive growth over the years. Before retiring, John provided professional consulting services to many of the Bay Area’s high tech start-up companies.
John is a strong believer that it’s the “individual” that can make a difference within our local environment, through green living practices. “Changing our bad habits acquired during the boom years in Silicon Valley, will take time.” John prefers to lead by example, rather than wait for local municipalities and state legislation to embrace green practices. Through his own green living practices, John has demonstrated that living green is not only easy and beneficial for our local environment, but these same green practices can also save you money.
Contributing Author: Dr. Ann Haiden – a holistic functional medicine physician based in San Jose, California. She works with people who are looking for more natural or preventive solutions to health and wellness. Many of her patients have been frustrated with the challenges of finding answers to problems as diverse as diabetes, food and gluten sensitivities, irritable bowel problems, fatigue and environmental chemical sensitivity.
She is an advocate of eating whole foods and living a clean environment life. She authored a paper on the hazards of aerial spraying for the light brown apple moth in the San Francisco and Monterey Bay areas and has testified before the state senate about pesticide exposure.
Dr. Ann, as she is often referred to, is passionate about reaching out to the community. In addition to helping patients individually, she also speaks to interested groups, holds various internet and telephone based educational programs, and is always looking for programs that give back to our communities.
Contributing Author: Tyler Lewis – a licensed California general contractor who comes from a long line of builders and entrepreneurs. He is passionate about growing a successful green business in the building industry, and in 2009, co-founded Energy Beyond Design. Tyler has over 10 years of related industry experience ranging from high-end stair-building and finish carpentry to customer relations and project management for Pulte Homes Inc., a Fortune 500 company.
Tyler’s company, Energy Beyond Design provides Home Energy testing and retrofitting services, focusing on reducing energy consumption, lowering carbon emissions and improving occupant health and comfort. Tyler is a trained Building Performance Specialist, BPI certified Building Analyst, HERS rater, Certified Green Building Professional (CGBP) and an advisory board member for the Laney College Building Performance & Energy Efficiency Program (BPEEP).
Contributing Author: Thomas Amaral. Tommy, as friends call him, has a long standing passion for parks, open space, and community recreation. One of his largest goals is to advocate and encourage others to be good stewards of their communities.
There are also multiple guests who regularly contribute informative posts. If you you have something on your mind and would like to share your ideas please contact me directly.
You can contact me via my website listed above or through the form below: