Should We Call It Green Building? Or Better Built?
One should probably not start a newsletter spouting off about how annoyed one (that be me) is about a certain "green" topic. But I am annoyed and writing about it will help me get it off my chest. With Earth Month just around the corner, it's probably good to write about this. I didn't JUST get annoyed. It's been building up. Maybe if I share it, it will annoy you too - in a good way of course. And the world will change. It's about the word "green" as it applies to green building.
In doing my research to better articulate, permit me to share with you the following which I read on a green building website:
The purpose of green built programs is to encourage homebuilders, multi-family builders, architects and developers to use technologies, products and practices that will:
� Provide greater energy efficiency and reduce pollution
� Provide healthier indoor air
� Reduce water usage
� Preserve natural resources
� Improve durability and reduce maintenance
Really? Standards that high? Sarcasm intended. Get where I am going with this? Shouldn't these things be the standard for every home that is ever built and not just a GREEN home? Should builders be able to build homes that aren't energy efficient? They do - like crazy. Should they be able to build homes that don't have HEALTHY indoor air quality? What does that even mean? Why should GREEN homes provide healthier indoor air? Should builders be able to build homes that don't conserve on water, like installing inefficient shower heads and plumbing that isn't water saving? Shouldn't high efficiency plumbing be standard and not GREEN? Should builders build homes that waste natural resources of which there is NOT an infinite supply? And that last bullet point REALLY annoyed me: improve durability and reduce maintenance. Do you see where I am going with this? How long SHOULD a home be built to last? Why shouldn't ALL of the above be the standard? WHY ARE THESE THINGS CONSIDERED GREEN? Oops. Sounds like I am shouting...
Disclaimer: I am not a builder nor an architect nor a developer. But I am a person who was raised with a core value of anything worth doing is worth doing well. I don't remember any exceptions like "except when it comes to building houses." When did we, as a society, stop demanding that our homes be built well and be built to last? So as the self-proclaimed Queen of Green, might I encourage you to reframe your thinking to associate green building with better building? And to demand that our homes are "better built." There, I feel better just getting all of that out. Now I will go back to doing everything else I can to preserve the planet. I like that better anyway.
Who IS the Greenest of Them All?
Since this newsletter will be out before the final results are in, let me share just a few thoughts about the contest. It was a roller coaster ride and we learned lots. On the up side, ALL of the candidates are wonderful and deserved to be nominated. Also on the upside, people from around the country were engaged and really got behind the voting. We had record numbers of votes and voters. We loved it. The "challenging" side of this ride was our discovery that we didn't build in enough walls to prevent the voting from being compromised. There are "stuff the ballot" programs out there that people were inspired to implement in order to vote for certain candidates multiple times a day. Flies in the face of "sustainable" if you ask me. But alas - we discovered the glitch in the matrix and literally spent hours deleting the rogue votes. Kudos, thanks and praises to ALL of the nominees and to all of the honest, vote once a day people. There are thousands of you. Can't wait to see who wins at finish time!
4/2
4/9
4/16
4/23
4/30