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Is it time for the home building community to build sustainable houses?
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| Submitted by: | Chris Stewart (chrisstewart1@verizon.net) 4/25/2008 7:16:49 AM PT |
Yes, As Jeff points out, scientists have been warning us for thirty years or more that we are headed for a train wreck. Yet the majority of Americans seem to believe that free market forces automatically favor the optimum condition and all things will just work out with no effort on our part.
Well they are right. In the end it will just work out. Nature has a way of bringing everything into balance. My problem with this is that I don''t always like natures way of correcting problems.
It is human intelligence that gives us the ability to consider the consequences of our actions and then to modify them for a more favorable future condition.
For example: Anyone would have to be a total idiot to believe we are not running out of oil.
The free market person says -OK as oil runs out it will become more expensive and then other forms of energy will become more competitive. (and then doesn''t think about it anymore)
The prudent person says yes that will happen some but...
Our current society has been built on cheap oil. There is currently no good replacement for it. Maybe there will be in the future but it would be best if we transition into a low oil use society well in advance of it''s actual end.
Also I don''t see the free market doing anything about global warming.
| Submitted by: | Jeff Foster 2/20/2008 4:31:07 PM PT |
| Location: | Atascadero, CA |
| Occupation: | Home builder |
Every few years we are bombarded with new doomsday threats that we're running out of oil, electricity, trees for lumber, etc. That's been going on for over 30 years now. Remarkably, technology and productivity (namely capitalist entrepeneurship) has found a way to
continue to provide these resources to our population, and they'll continue to do so in the future...if they're allowed to.
It's simple. When "green" products and sustainable building techniques become cost effective alternatives, they'll become more widely used.
| Submitted by: | Jane Talkington (Greenqueen@hotmail.com) 2/12/2008 8:12:30 PM PT |
| Location: | Stillwater, Oklahoma |
| Occupation: | Sustainability Consultant & Writer |
I think it is too easy to blame the home builders for pushing a
substandard product. Consumers forget they have the money and the
power to refuse to buy marginal products. Of course, this requires
consumers to take responsibility for educating themselves about the
greatest purchase they will ever make, is that asking too much? Naivety is
lazy.
| Submitted by: | Craig Smith (craig@cpscustomhomes.com) 2/10/2008 9:08:23 AM PT |
| Location: | St. Louis, MO |
| Occupation: | eco-design/builder |
Our time is severely limited so action is imperative. Its great that an editor for a major industry mag is finally asking this question. I think many of us are motivated to adopt the changes that are needed to become more sustainable, the big roadblock to us moving forward is that the system is rigged against this kind of change. If you build a sustainable product you will be fighting numerous entrenched institutions and beliefs, such as: min. sq. footage ordinances, real-estate appraisers who primarily value sq. footage over energy efficiency and resource conservation (homes w/ small footprints won''t comp-out against conv. construction), lenders who won''t be able to fund your project because of the "bad" appraisal, realtors whom you''ll have to educate and who most probably will be resistant to change, and finally buyers who''ll also be affected by all of the above. We need leadership across the board to move the industry in this direction in a big way fast!
| Submitted by: | Rebecca Lively (rebeccaxi@yahoo.com) 2/8/2008 1:13:20 PM PT |
| Location: | Honolulu, Hawaii |
| Occupation: | design-build architect |
Building green houses is only one small piece of the puzzle. The sustainability issue is much much larger than simply green materials and green construction techniques.
Yes, by all means, we should persue green materials and methods. But focusing on them exclusively or so intently takes away from the larger issues of land use patterns, transportation, infrastructure, etc which have proportionally a much larger influence on sustainability.
Over-focus on specs also also hides under the rug the relative importatnce of issues such as size and design of all things from houses to cars to refrigerators.
| Submitted by: | green (greenexpert@msn.com) 2/6/2008 11:59:14 AM PT |
as previously stated the nahb is the problem and continues to be the problem.as the top 25 builders constructed more than 40% of the nations homes for the last decade. and every one of those homes fall in value every day.america has no leadership..no electronic manfacturing,no auto mobile leadership,all servce sectors fell in the last report,politicans bow to industry lobbysits.ie 200 billion dollar annual no bid war contracts.
as energy costs continue to rise where was the industry leader and nahb president? asleep at the wheel every person,city,lender gov agency is affected by this failure to lead.and what did the nahb do? lowered the bar from international leed certification because of their lazy 235k members.
expect more failed leadership in the future.
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