Building green resonates with many people nowadays. It should!
Last week in overly chilly Chicago, around 24,000 + devotees of building green gathered for the USGBC's Greenbuild Conference and Expo. I had never attended such a large conference, but will not miss the '08 one in Boston. I met people from Mexico and South America, heard foreign languages and saw diversity among the attendees and speakers, yet we had so much in common. We spoke the language of green and sustainability, but most importantly, shared the commitment to heal the planet and try to reverse the damage that we have collectively inflicted on our country, continent, and earth.
The didactic sessions for LEED for Homes, LEED for Contractors, GREEN Specifications and Materials- among the ones I attended- were telling of the place we have come from and the lack of direction that has reigned in the development of cities, communities and housing. It was so clear to me, while much of what I have read and researched was being confirmed by the scientists, the researchers and other panelists, that this information was only coalescing in the year 2007. I don't know about you, but when I was studying architecture at Rice in the early 80's, I visualized the year 2000 and this decade as the future, visionary leadership, architecture resulting from transcendental thinking. Not so.
The questions kept coming, and the impatience of the audience was palpable. Only now are we instituting waste management and recycling/salvaging of materials at the construction sites? Only now are we setting standards for the reduction of energy in our building and homes? Only now are we aware that potable water is a commodity and shouldn't be wasted? Only now are we setting goals of durability and low maintenance for our homes? We were taught to think this way at Rice, and yet it took me 17 years of designing without the environmental compass, and believing contractors when they said it had to be done a certain way, otherwise the cost would go up, to re-calibrate the compass.
Greenbuild was an awakening. For one thing, if you arrived in a "morning-without-coffee" daze about the movement, 3 days later, you left on a caffeine buzz-knowing that the movement was larger than expected, deeper and more philosophical than the catchy term GREEN implies, and that we had each other for support to continue to do the right thing for the environment and sustainability. In our adult life, where else could you feel that you could ask anything of anybody, that you could start a conversation with a stranger sittting next to you, and that you were willing and wanting to share experience and information with anybody who asked? That only happens on sitcoms on TV. I say not so again. it happenned all day and night at Greenbuild.
I came out with hope in humanity- after all it was a sea of humanity vying for every seat in every session to gain the tools to do better for our civilization. I came out with a heightened sense of purpose and pride- my ideas, and my vision are right on target, and the green residential design that I have done is sound and real, and it matters. I came out with certainty- that there are thousands of people all over the world, working towards a better balance between humanity and nature.
I say that attending Greenbuild qualifies as a successful endeavor. I only wished that my friends, my clients, my children, my husband and his investment friends and business associates, my community leaders, my mayor and citycouncil members, and you could have been there.
