High Performance Natural Building with Jacob Deva Racusin

Jacob Deva Racusin is a natural building designer, builder, and educator. He is a longtime leader in the field of sustainable building and the co-founder of New Frameworks, a worker-owned cooperative committed to a “kinder sort of building.” Using natural materials such as native hardwood, clay, and stone, they are developing data-driven and scalable solutions for cost-effective, non-toxic, plant based building that can substantially impact our urgent ecological and health crises. Starting as a young person in the punk rock scene, Jacob got involved early on with forward thinking movements around sustainable agriculture and building, and he hasn’t looked back. Now, he is hopeful that the world is catching up and that healthy, natural building is poised to be a major solution to our global environmental crisis.  

In this episode, Jacob and show host Neal explore Jacob’s early transition from organic agriculture to pioneering sustainable building practices, highlighting his work in natural building and his path to becoming an advocate for ecological building materials. They delve into Jacob's innovative approach to construction, his early experiences with straw bale homes, his formative experience with Yestermorrow Design School, and his contribution to the BEAM tool with Builders for Climate Action. They also discuss the challenges of integrating sustainable and natural building practices into the mainstream, as well as the potential to encourage widespread adoption, especially as the world looks for ways to cut carbon emissions. For more information about his work, visit newframeworks.com (and follow them on IG) or buildersforclimateaction.org. 

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