Adios - for a little while...

I'll be looking for some open vistas and contemplative time on my upcoming bike trip--priming the pump for work I'll be focusing on during the rest of an eight-month sabbatical. Photo: Horst Hammerschmidt. Click on image to enlarge.

Next week I'm starting an eight-month sabbatical. It's made possible by the Hanley Award that I received last fall, which included a financial grant. I'll be taking an unpaid leave from BuildingGreen (after 26 years) and stepping away from day-to-day operations and the deadlines that have largely defined my life over those years.

The sabbatical will allow me to step back and consider the bigger picture of what we're collectively trying to do in creating a more livable planet and a more sustainable future. I expect to do some writing--perhaps addressing resilient design and the "passive survivability" issue that I've been promoting for the past five years. Time away from Environmental Building News and regular deadlines will allow the more concentrated time needed for such efforts.

But first, I'm doing something totally different. Starting mid-next-week, I'm heading out on a bicycle touring trip through the desert Southwest and perhaps along the Gulf Coast. The goal of the trip is to escape enough from day-to-day routines to think about issues on a deeper level--to recharge my batteries, to use an energy metaphor. I'll be flying to San Diego with my bicycle, then heading eastward from there, generally following the Southern Tier route mapped by the organization Adventure Cycling. I'll be traveling alone, camping some of the time, but also getting plenty of use out of my credit card and staying some nights with individuals who are part of a network of bicyclists who open their homes to fellow travelers.

My plan is to maintain a fairly moderate pace that will give me plenty of time to relax, think, photograph the country I'm passing through...and write. I'll be posting blogs and photos on my personal website: www.atwilson.com, through which I can also be contacted.

During my sabbatical, Tristan Roberts will be taking over this Energy Solutions blog. Tristan has worked at BuildingGreen since early 2006, and he is currently our editorial director, in charge of not only our monthly newsletter Environmental Building News (now in its 20th year), but also LEEDuser.com and our other Web-based resources. Not long before joining BuildingGreen, he graduated from Marlboro College--which brought him to the area from upstate New York, where he grew up.

Tristan and his wife live in a home they built in Halifax. The home is built largely of natural materials, including wood from the land. It is energy-efficient, heated by passive solar energy and wood, and off the grid--powered by an array of photovoltaic panels.

Like all of us at BuildingGreen, Tristan is deeply committed to a more energy-efficient, sustainable future. He walks the talk far more than most of us, and his knowledge of all things related to green building has been growing at a rapid pace these past five years.

Very significantly, Tristan is a great writer. I feel very good leaving this blog in his able hands. I expect that some of his blogs will report on his own experiences trying to create an energy-efficient, green home and minimize his environmental footprint.

Suggestions for topics you'd like to see covered in this Energy Solutions column can be e-mailed to Tristan (tristan@buildinggreen.com).

While it's far too soon for me to speak from experience in recommending a long-distance bike trip, I think it is important for us all to step outside of our routines and embark on new adventures. I am fortunate to have received support through the Hanley Award to make this possible, but even if that had not happened I think I would be looking at something like this sabbatical (perhaps in a significantly scaled-back form) to reenergize and recharge.

I plan to return with new ideas and priorities for hastening the transition to a better, more sustainable, and more resilient future.

In addition to this Energy Solutions blog, Alex contributes to the weekly blog BuildingGreen's Product of the Week, which profiles an interesting new green building product each week. Brent Ehrlich, our products editor at BuildingGreen, will be taking the lead with this blog while I'm away. Alex is founder of BuildingGreen, Inc. and executive editor of Environmental Building News. To keep up with his musings from the road and during his sabbatical, you can sign up for his Twitter feed.