If you need a boost to achieve a sustainability goal or advance a sustainability project, I can provide advice to get you going.
I'm available to speak to small or large groups, offering comprehensive, science-based presentations about sustainability practices including solar power, composting, recycling, electric vehicles, battery technology, diet, gardening, and other topics that may interest your audience.
I'm available to be a sounding board, provide expert advice, review project plans, or make recommendations based on decades of experience earned by helping thousands of people like you make informed decisions about sustainability options, from choosing toothpaste to building a house.
Within a 90-minute drive of Brunswick, Maine, I travel for walk-through evaluations of residential properties. Typically, the focus is efficiency upgrades, solar energy, or composting systems (including composting toilets), but I am happy to evaluate other sustainability concerns as well.
I publish weekly action guides, comprehensive sustainable practice guides, sustainability studies, and books.
I'm currently developing a Web App and Handbook for Sustainability.
Half the garbage North Americans bury in landfills we could compost instead.
Sustainability is about making the world better for everyone, now and far into the future. We're all on a journey to sustainability, together.
Do you wish your community were better at recycling? Here's a proposed pilot project you can try in your own home, organization or neighborhood to show how recycling can be done well.
Drink more water, eat more plants, and avoid beef.
Here's how to generate less garbage in the first place, and the best ways to deal with trash that's unavoidable.
Recycling metal and clean cardboard makes sense, but recycling other materials is often not the best idea.
Written for On the Pathway to Clean Energy with contributions from John Gardner.
Fall 2006 Edition
(for historical purposes only)
An Open Letter to my Friends and Neighbors
What's the real deal with electric vehicles?
Batteries are better living through chemistry. Improved battery technology is a key enabler in the transition from fossil fuel to clean energy, making solar power dispatchable at all scales, from individual devices to grid-stabilizing solar farms.
Before most people can think about environmental sustainability, they need to feel financially secure. I wrote the Horch Handbook on Investing for my children, to help them build a retirement fund for themselves. Hopefully, knowing their financial futures are secure will allow them to enjoy living on Earth and encourage them to care for it.
Published November 15, 2019
Here a few links to resources for sustainability, investing, and serving the greater good.
I'm a sustainability advisor, small business owner, author, Rotarian, Master Gardener Volunteer, former lawyer, active citizen, husband and dad living in Brunswick, Maine. After a brief career as a corporate attorney, I've had the privilege to work full-time for sustainability since the 1990s in leadership roles for non-profit, political and business organizations.
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In the early 2000s, I created and then sold F.W. Horch Sustainable Goods & Supplies, a successful sustainable living store on Maine Street in Brunswick. A few years ago, I co-founded Spark Applied Efficiency, a mechanical contracting firm focused on helping companies efficiently use clean energy. In 2022, I co-launched On the Pathway to Clean Energy, a voluntary project to help Maine business owners make a successful transition away from fossil fuel.
In 2023, Peggy Siegle and I launched a Maine partnership called Sustainable Practice, with a mission to help sustainabilty leaders and individual champions implement best practices so their households and organizations achieve meaningful sustainabilityu goals. Our vision is for people to make wise choices, share knowledge, and take effective action to create a healthy planet. We envision a world in which sustainability leaders and individual champions are investing time and money to meet the needs of their households and organizations. Our desired result is a positive environmental impact, protecting the well-being of generations far into the future.
I chose Swarthmore College to study engineering, ended up majoring in Political Science and concentrating in Computer Science, and then earned my Juris Doctor at UC Berkeley. While I was in law school I was a legal editor at Nolo Press and a summer law clerk at Pacific Gas & Electric.
My current focus is to create the best Web App for Sustainability, including the world's best Handbook for Sustainability, to help everyone achieve their sustainability goals.