Eliminating the word “green”

Law & Regulatory — By Rich Cartlidge on June 24, 2009 at 6:57 am

If you have been following Konstructr for awhile now or have gone back through the archives you are aware that both Vik and myself have a dislike for the word “green”. On a personal note the overuse of the word green makes me feel green in the face, as I feel its constant application and misuse cheapens the efforts of individuals who are truly trying to design and construct sustainable buildings and communities. However, as was mentioned at the Green Cities Florida conference in May the word green is short, easy to use and say, and already associated with the sustainable movement in a manner which makes is disposal impractical. As I have previously mentioned it will be a great day when the word green no longer needs to be used as an adjective to describe a building as being special as it will just be the norm. A recent article by Hospitality Design suggests that we are indeed moving in that direction.

While the economic slowdown has certainly affected the construction industry it has also yielded unexpected benefits. The slowdown in construction has led to an increase in legislation seeking to encourage green or sustainable building practices and in several parts of the nation these practices are no longer voluntary but rather mandated by local or state law. Recently Ohio introduced HB 7 which would require new construction to meet the USGBC’srequirements for LEED Silver. The Bill reads:

Sec. 153.013. Whenever any building or structure is to be erected or constructed using any state capital moneys, including moneys from the education facilities trust fund, the building or structure shall be certified as meeting at least the silver standard of the leadership in energy and environmental design green building rating system developed by the United States green building council.

Whether you believe in requiring green standards or not, mandates like the one mentioned above as well as those seen in Seattle, and Oregon are helping to move our world one step closer to the day that all buildings will be “green” buildings. A day that can’t come soon enough for this author! Please comment and let me know your opinions on the direction of the green building movement, how the economic downturn will redefine the future, and what you think should be done to make sure we emerge as strong as we possible can.

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  • RichCartlidge
    James,
    Excellent point regarding the energy usage of these buildings and how they are falling short. I think Chris Cheatham did a good job of explaining why that might be the case in his posts discussing LEEDigation. The individuals who are developing and managing these properties are afraid of properly commissioning them or performing energy audits because of the potential for litigation. I think that the failure or success of green buildings and sustainability in general will ultimately not be the buildings themselves but rather how they are used by their occupants. Without educating the end user of the product there will be a variety of means by which a project can fall short of its targeted energy goals (a prime example is overriding the occupant sensors on lights). Thanks for the input and the interesting link.
  • Rich, while I agree with your overall assessment of where the industry is headed, green fading away as a set of best practices are adopted. I am extremely concerned about what those best practices are.

    A recent assessment of LEED buildings currently measuring energy use showed that nearly half were using more energy than expected. The scary part the 78% of buildings with no data to report. For more check this out....

    http://www.centralpennbusiness.com/article.asp?...

    The point is we need a long-lasting vibrant "green" or sustainable movement that will outlast being trendy and make a long lasting impact on our culture. Moreover as an industry we need to really assess how "green" we can make our buildings. I would say what we currently call "green" isn't close to where we need to be. We need buildings that aren't just neutral to their surrounding environment, but are actually beneficial to the environment and the occupants. We need to rethink everything. If that means we need to call it "green" to keep people focused, that's fine.

    The important part is that we all move toward that goal together and never, ever, stop getting better and building and rebuilding our space.
  • RichCartlidge
    Thanks for the comments. Mark I fully agree I think that your industry is about to see some radical changes as a result of green construction. I will be very curious to see if the underwriter's who are pushing incentives for green construction will end up being exposed to more liability in the future due to "early adapters" not properly understanding the risks (such as those pointed out in your last post). Vik great points there was a recent study which analyzed sustainability and companies shifts from how can we do "less bad" to how can we do "more good" which I think is a shift that we are currently seeing across the population in general.
  • We share your view. Green buildings in Chicago, this is what we're trying to achieve here. We're working hard on it right now.
    G. Boiciuc
    Marketing at Goby, Chicago IL.
  • Great write up Rich - with the economic downturn and the U.S. now entering a period of great recession it'll all about low cost (what's reasonable). Companies won't have the money to push a green agenda and it'll just go to what makes sense.

    Not only that, but I think consumers will become more savvy to what's going on and asking the right questions. Green will just need to be defined to a point where firms will find it advantages to just explain themselves and drop green altogether.
  • Mark Rabkin
    Great comments! I think that steps need to be taken to ensure that these new technologies and materials associated with sustainable and low-impact development ACTUALLY do what they are intended to do. Extreme financial pressure will force development to achieve as many points as possible at the lowest possible price regardless of the inter-connectivity of the building systems.
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