If you are at all
familiar with the "going green" culture, then
you probably recognize the subtle play on words in the title.
The green industry has done a great job of inundating us with buzz words
such as, green, renewable, sustainable, efficient,
eco-friendly. But I fear that these
buzz words are just becoming a form of socio-political name-dropping, a popular
way to brand yourself, instead of what they were/are intended to be: a description
of products and practices used to simultaneously 1) make our homes and
lifestyles healthier for us and our families and, 2) better manage our natural
resources.
As a remodeler I have
seen the significant, sometimes drastic changes made to the way homes are
designed and built in order to promote energy efficiency and
sustainability. And while many of these
changes are well-intended, they themselves can often add to the problem and
make it worse instead of making it better.
In order for the green building movement to be successful in making
homes healthier for families while also consuming less energy, then there needs
to be both a realistic approach and a
sustainable method of implementation.
To be realistic, green building practices must
be taken on with the right priorities.
Right now too many people in the industry have their priorities as
follows: 1) the environment, 2) the savings, 3) the family (inhabitants). I suggest that these priorities, while
correct, are backwards, and we will look at why in another post. Another aspect to being realistic is keeping the proper perspective and not becoming so narcissistic
that we, for example, think that making everyone change the type of light bulb
that they use is going to save the planet.
We should have a healthy respect for the size and power of this planet,
and remember that it has been here long before us, and will be here long after
we’re gone. We simply need to be good
stewards of it while we are here. More on
this later…
Finally, to be sustainable, green building practices
need to be able to exist on their own, apart from laws, mandates, and subsidies. This is not intended to be a political
discussion, as politics, like in so many other areas, just makes things
worse. The more we can keep politics out
of the green building industry, the better I believe it will progress. Many of the advances in the industry have
come from companies willing to compete to make better, more efficient products
that consumers want and can afford.
Consumers want to have energy efficient homes for a number of reasons,
but one reason should never be because they have to. When governmentally mandated practices are
put into effect, it becomes more about meeting the mandates than doing what is
best. And when these practices and
products are subsidized there is no incentive to reduce costs and develop
better and cheaper products and more efficient practices – eventually the whole
industry collapses because it is unsustainable. And that is where I fear we may be heading if
we stay on this current approach. In the
next several weeks we will look at a few of these topics more in-depth and I
will share my opinions on how we can make the green building movement sustainable.
