The Green Jungle

There was an interesting article in the latest IIDA publication "perspective". It is a wonderful piece that sorts out different terms, ratings, rankings and certifications. A quick read but a good read called The Green Jungle.

The article touches on something that lured me into the LEED world.
I was already committed to the environment morally but the LEED process for building showed me that we needed to change the way we build. It is about the totality of process, or the holistic approach to design. It makes it complicated but that is what it is, it is complicated. You cannot just say I am going to buy a piece of furniture because it has Greenguard certification and therefore, I am green. ( Greenguard is for air quality, emissions, toxins etc. It has nothing to do with how the product was manufactured, recyclability, content or anything else, it is just one piece of the puzzle). You cannot build a building using the conventional old ways and expect it to be a successful LEED project, LEED requires collaboration and large picture thinking.

We have manufacturer's reps in our offices daily talking about their products and saying things ( I heard this one yesterday ) like "Is the client interested in green? Our product has 92% recycled content, it is really green". This has become nonsense to me because it does not explain anything. Sure it is a great start and the fact that the manufacturer can get quantitative numbers in their process is huge but this information is only a part of the picture.

How is something made? What is the overall impact? If you haven't read "Cradle to Cradle", read it. It is a must.

There is no instant gratification in green, it is messy and complex which means you have to take the time to learn it, little by little is great, but it is continuous.