Chat Expert 
Brian Benson
I get involved in about 100 projects a year at Ryan Companies, so obviously I don't spend a lot of time on each one. I'm good at getting to the heart of the matter, before worrying about the details. Most of the work I do is helping people understand how heat, moisture, air and water flow. It's harder than it sounds, but it can be really, really easy to understand, if you stop and think a bit. Heat flows from warm to cold (otherwise you wouldn't get frostbite, right?). Moisture flows from humid to dry (how fast does your bathroom mirror un-fog in the wintertime?). Air flows from high pressure to low pressure. Water flows from high to low (downhill, right?). The trick is to know how to boil down the complicated stuff into simple terms that non-engineers can understand. So, I write and talk a lot.
'Sustainable' and 'green' are terms that you now hear all the time. What do they mean? It's really very simple. We need to think much differently about how we use the earth's resources, before we exhaust them. Sustainability is all about using less: less drinkable water, less energy, less material, less waste. It's cheaper if we do, in the long run, and we won't run out.
A few little ditties about me: I love mornings. I love when it snows, especially when the snow sticks to tree branches and evergreen boughs. I love the sound of rain. I like to keep moving -- sitting still is something I do on when I have to. I love to sing in public. I love to read and think on my own time, drifting into another place and time. I love to work with wood (carpentry). I am a fanatic about spelling words correctly, and using them correctly in sentences. I love to play golf, softball, tennis, racquetball, croquet, frisbee, football. I love to play -- period. I'm more curious than anyone I've ever met. I hate to learn, but I love to know.
