We are so pleased to have advisory board member, Yahya Henry, sharing a post with us today.  You can find out more about Yahya and his commitment to green building on The B2S Team page.

Depending on who you ask and what the latest headlines are, sustainable, by definition is not universal. Looking up a definition for the word, I viewed at least 10 sub-definitions; no wonder there is some confusion as to what it is and what it is not. The built environment is flawed in this instance. Pressure is on developers and general contractors to deliver a "green" project and to help curb our carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Therefore, anything is being done in the guise of “sustainability” , even if it's ultimately ineffective. This model is not sustainable.

What attracted me most about Build2Sustain was that they clearly laid out their mission as to how sustainability was to work and be applied specifically to commercial renovations – that speaks volumes. Confusion (and the learning curve) can be lessened by a clear mission among project practitioners. More often than not, the majority of people that make those claims of sustainability don’t know what it actually means or how it relates to what they are trying to accomplish. Claims that a project is sustainable, green, or has green elements has no benefit to the end-user if they can’t be articulated in a way that makes sense in application. The built industry has its share of greenwashing as well.

Globally, a shift is taking place and if the momentum is harnessed, great environments will be created. I’m afraid that if it’s not channeled in a manner that seeks to create a more equitable future, we’ll be repeating this cycle in another generation.Awareness will play a significant role ­in this process to differentiate what is green, sustainable or hype. While I applaud the USGBC on what it has done to bring awareness to the importance of green building and their LEED program, they too are finding inefficiencies in measuring true building performance and sustainability claims. An invisible tipping point exists. Unless there is a resource to draw from, we will continue to see similar inconsistent results. I’m hopeful that Build2Sustain will serve as a prototype of what can be achieved when a bottom up approach is taken.