Green building
RD&B magazine sent a survey to readers in November 2008 to get insight into the industry. The results were interesting - some surprising and some expected. One statistic that wasn’t necessarily surprising was that 72% of respondents said their green practices will increase in 2009. And with that, only 1.5% of respondents said they don’t use green practices at all.
Codes and laws regulating green/energy-efficiency seem to becoming the standard. EPA now has its WaterSense program to regulate water-saving products; LEED helps builders certify their projects as green; and more associations are providing resources on green topics. But at some point does green building simply mean good building?
I met an architect on my flight home from the American Institute of Architects Conference this past May who believes strongly in building sustainably. This architect builds mostly commercial structures which can be found in Dubai, China, Saudi Arabia, and the U.S., just to name a few. He doesn’t think that designing green or sustainable structures means they have to be small. He also doesn’t believe that you have to make people live in communal societies. This architect felt strongly that you can still design and build the buildings you want, but it just requires more thinking and engineering involved. One thing he said that stayed with me is that you can’t tell Americans they can’t have their dream home just because you want to design or build green. You can give them their dream homes as well as do good for the planet.
-Maureen