Let's be honest. Few people get really excited about minute details of home building projects and how to make them more energy efficient. It can get pretty esoteric. Today's guest, Scott Hedges, can dive into the details as well as any builder. But what makes Scott unique is his ability to see things from a larger perspective as well.
Scott is the co-founder of a company called WarmForm, which is using a particular building technique borrowed from energy-conscious Sweden to build homes here.
Why? Scott started his working life as an ecologist, guarding the habitats of birds and other animals in parks in Florida. Yet he became frustrated trying to preserve habitats when what he saw as the bigger issue was the further deterioration of the bigger environmental equation--massively inefficient building practices that lead to further incursions into the natural environment.
The dots connected during a stint in Sweden where he took a job building homes with a builder that was a game-changer for him. Scott realized the Swedes were doing things way different—and in his view more efficiently—than typical construction in the U.S. He began investigating further and discovered a treasure trove of information about an approach to building homes in the 1950s and 1960s the way cars are built. Yes, homes could be built on an assembly line and in fact were.
Scott says, "I have a modest proposal: skip the conferences and go spend time with people who actually are quietly doing what others are loudly proclaiming you should do. Said simply: Go to Sweden, spend time learning from a real Swedish builder."
My conversation with Scott is a both a history lesson in companies like Lustron and others that went against the conventional building industry and failed and a hopeful plea to change the paradigm in how we build homes to help save the planet. Scott is erudite and eloquent in expressing his knowledge of and his passion for the kinds of energy efficient building practices commonly used in Sweden. Scott believes the building industry in the US is fundamentally flawed and sees a disruption of commonly accepted building practices as a potential solution to making all homes significantly more energy stingy and in the long run reducing the impact on climate.
You can recognize his passion in how deep Scott can go on the details. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Scott Hedges.
Links:
LUSTRON HOMES: https://www.curbed.com/2016/10/10/13227810/prefab-lustron-house-prefabricated-home-building
Warmform: https://warmform.com/
Elementhus article: https://medium.com/@scotthedges/elementhus-swedens-ultra-modern-totally-forgotten-awesome-factory-built-house-899d0c96687d
Bygghouse: https://bygghouse.com/
Film of Construction of a house in Sweden: https://youtu.be/W-5vn9gx1QA
Construction of Swedish houses by Scott Hedges: https://bygghouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Summary-of-Swedish-Wall-Element-Construction.pdf
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