JUSTIN R. WOLF




My writing


Architecture | Green Design | Energy Efficiency 

In addition to my content strategy practice, I work as a freelance journalist covering green building trends, regenerative design, and energy policy for a variety of media outlets, including Green Building Advisor, Fine Homebuilding, Metropolis, Architectural Record, ENTER magazine (AIA Minnesota), and others publications. 

Metropolis Magazine •

How the Furniture Industry is Stepping Up on Circularity

TO UNDERSTAND the holistic carbon impacts of our buildings, we need to look inside them. Specifically, we must direct our attention to interior renovations of commercial spaces, the frequency at which they occur, and what happens to all the discarded task chairs, ceiling tiles, floor coverings, casework, and more once these items are deemed obsolete. In a 2022 study conducted by MSR Design, the firm highlights an EPA estimate that some 8.5 million tons of office assets end up in U.S. landfills a...
Metropolis Magazine •

The Net Zero Conference Highlights the Importance of Collective Action

The annual Net Zero Conference, now in its eleventh year, has become a go-to event where efficiency experts and design visionaries the world over gather by the hundreds to share solutions. Such topics range from prioritizing carbon-positive building materials and designing connected energy communities to the critical role green banks can play in financing these endeavors. Indeed, the climate crisis needs optimists. Shula is one of them. He envisions a utopian “100 percent net-zero future” def...
Green & Healthy Maine HOMES •

Making the shift to whole-home heat pumps

Air-source heat pumps are efficient because they transfer thermal energy from outside air rather than generate heat through fuel combustion. And while heat pumps do result in a higher monthly electric bill, that difference can be more than offset by the savings of switching from fossil fuels. According to research group Carbon Switch, the average U.S. household can save more than $925 annually using heat pumps compared to a fuel oil furnace or boiler. More than 67% of Maine’s power generation mi...
Green Building Advisor •

Wind Power Generation Meets Green Cement Production

Last January, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey proclaimed in her State of the Commonwealth address: “We will make Massachusetts the climate innovation lab for the world. We’ll help climate tech companies not only start, but scale in Massachusetts, creating good jobs in the climate corridor we are building across the state. You can see it coming to life.” She’s not wrong. Healey then cited several key players and projects as evidence, including Somerville-based Sublime Systems and the Vineyard...
Green Building Advisor •

Federal Housing Finance Agency Could Soon Adopt Model Energy Codes

Here’s an interesting thought exercise: imagine if upwards of 70% of all newly constructed housing, both single- and multi-family, comprising the entire stock of federally backed mortgages for new homes in any given year, were now required to be built to the latest model energy codes. A portion of that estimated 70% already reflects that reality, in the form of new federal housing developed by HUD and the USDA, and soon the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), which as of last May have adopted t...
Green Building Advisor •

Rochester, Minnesota: A Model for Making Geothermal Energy Work in a City Context

Rochester, Minnesota, is a growth market. It’s the state’s third-largest municipality, behind only the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, and home to the Mayo Clinic, a name synonymous with world-class healthcare and instrumental in forging the city’s nickname of Med City. Rochester has also never experienced a population dip since railroad tracks were first laid and residents and businesses began settling in the 1860s. The city’s population, according to the latest census, sits north of 1...
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Contact me to inquire about other writing samples, including ghostwritten articles, website copy, and special projects.

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Art Criticism | Art History

Gallery Crawl •

“Remember That You Will Die: Death Across Cultures” at the Rubin Museum of Art

Memento Mori is the Latin-Christian maxim translated as “Remember that you will die.” It is altogether sobering and, in some perverted sense, comforting; it’s an epitaph for the masses—commoners and kings alike. It is also the subject of the ’s latest offering, of the same name, and although said offering is a modest one, this exhibition is, quite literally, breath-taking.
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