Mary Adam Thomas

Mary Adam Thomas is an award-winning author who has written professionally since 1985. She spent the first ten years of her career working in marketing agencies prior to setting out on her own as a freelance writer and communications consultant. In addition to books, her portfolio includes feature articles, personal essays, sales and marketing materials, online content, and more.

She has solo-authored five titles released by Ecotone Publishing:

- Challenge & Change: Miller Hull’s Living Building Practice explores the arc of this architecture firm’s sustainability story from its 1970s origins as a pioneer in environmentalism to its 21st-century role as one of the most prominent designers of Living Buildings. (2023)

- The PAE Living Building: Developer-Led, Nature-Inspired does a deep dive into this game-changing Living commercial office building sited in downtown Portland, Oregon. (2022)

- The Greenest Building: How the Bullitt Center Changes the Urban Landscape is an in-depth exploration of the world’s first Class A commercial office structure designed and engineered to meet the rigorous demands of the LBC. Winner of Indie Excellence Awards in two categories as well as a Foreword Indie Award. (2016)

- The Living Building Challenge: Roots and Rise of the World's Greenest Standard is an overview of the past, present, and highly anticipated future of the LBC. Winner of a Foreword Indie Award. (2016)

- Building in Bloom: The Making of the Center for Sustainable Landscapes at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens explores how a historic Pittsburgh conservatory endeavored to achieve the world’s most rigorous green building certification. It was the debut title in the Living Building Challenge Series. (2013)

In addition, Mary collaborated with Jason F. McLennan on Zugunruhe: The Inner Migration to Profound Environmental Change (2010) and contributed the introduction to McLennan's Transformational Thought: Radical Ideas to Remake the Built Environment (2012). Mary provided extensive editorial support to Living Building Makers by Jonathan A. Wright (2019), Busby: Architecture’s New Edges by Peter Busby (2015), and Living Building Education: The Evolution of Bertschi School’s Science Wing by Chris Hellstern (2014) – all published by Ecotone.

In the healthcare genre, Mary collaborated with Andrew Schorr on The Web-Savvy Patient: An Insider's Guide to Navigating the Internet When Facing Medical Crisis (2011).

More about Mary and her work can be found at www.thomascom.com.