Who's Telling the Green Story Right Now?
Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 7:37PM Remember this ad? A very intelligent sounding woman explained to us the virtues of compact fluorescent light bulbs and not only that-she extolled all of the wonderful things these light bulbs will do for the planet if every Walmart shopper bought just one! If every Walmart shopper used just one per person 11 million cars come off the road! Amazing!
The tough part for all of us in the design/build industry is that we know it's much more complicated in the real world that simply changing a light bulb. If it were that easy to go green we would have done it a long time ago. True intelligent sustainable design is complex and it involves layers of decision making that would never fit into a 30 second spot for Walmart or any other brand.
That's fine, but what we need to remember about sustainability in America is that for most Americans it's major brands like Walmart who are defining what green means. Sadly, it doesn't matter how much thought we've put into our work...as more and more consumers come online and expect their spaces to be more environementally friendly they also expect them to be easier on their wallets as far as cost of energy.
It is imperative that we as a community do not shy away from this. Right now "green" building is associated with higher costs and mixed expectations. We must change our messaging and more importantly our methods to make green=more cost effective, not just because Walmart is telling people it's possible, but because if we are to make a truly scalable impact our solutions must be something any business owner or property manager will want to sign on to. Not a solution only for the affluent companies looking to make a statement. Walmart defines scalabilty...I'm not afraid to take a page out of their book.
Reader Comments (5)
Really glad I was reminded by Chris' tweet to check this post out. Some things are easy, some things are hard. Some things will save money quickly, some will save money over the long haul, others will be a push or net negative unless the overall tragedy of the commons costs get incorporated into the equation.
I for one think that Wal-Mart, Johnson & Johnson and others grabbing on to green and running shows there is traction - now it is molding this force towards better planning, better infrastructure development, and getting folks (including me!) off the couch and walking instead of driving!
What, we can walk places! Wow! Green is probably a word to shy away from, or at least redefine. Thanks James
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