Building & Design Blog

When it comes down to practical design and construction dollars, will Developers/Owners begin to stretch investment dollars to their maximum by choosing a less expensive building material over the more expensive green alternative? Or are they going to stick with LEED and Sustainable practices no matter the cost?

By and large the majority of sustainable practices having made the grade to current implementation are sensible and unlikely to be discarded.

The considerations are: public will, warranty disclaimer and limitation of liability.

Im a small developer and contractor in California, and most of the green movement is B.S., 25 years ago when I was starting out construction was a little simpler but just as green as today. Sustainability? are ya out of your mind, forestry management has for centuries replanted after cutting, nearly everything in a house today and one 50 years old is recyclable or sustainable. So this "new" "Green" thing is nothing more than a scam put on by salesmen and hucksters that want to force legislation on to builders so we have to install some new doo-hicky that makes the manufacturer of the doo-hicky a lot of money. In California there are a lot of examples of manufacturers that have a patent on a product that they claim should be absolutely required on all new homes, then they give the politicians a stake in the company then the politicians pass the laws and we have to install it, then we pass the cost onto YOU the consumer. THE ONLY LAWS PUSHED ONTO THE BUILDING INDUSTRY SHOULD INVOLVE STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY AND SAFETY. We could eliminate a lot of things that just raise the cost of housing. Ya know how nowadays we have all these mold problems, its because they require us to make homes nearly air tight, houses are supposed to breath some. These Green people generally dont know what they are talking about, On the other hand Im working on a wind turbine patent, its not for the green movement, its cause I want more GREEN, cash that is, let free market capitalism deal with things and humans will be better off. Lynn

I agree with you 100% No body knows whats green but green sells why not jump on the green bandwagon!l am just giving you an example its conciderd green to use Low E Glass for building Facade when you quistion the Architect how about using Shadow of the building to achive the same energy saving as that of Low E glass i am treated like a dumb fool! because the green movement here is sponcered by Glass manafacturer and supported by consultents who are chairman of Green council of india.

crm

I read something just before leaving California, some politician pushing ?ethanol? legislation - not sure, slept since then - who already had a company organized around capitalizing the output of his own legislation?

Fuzzy details, but certainly not restricted to California.

Hi Edignan, yep and over the last 20 years there have been a dozen others, and these are just the ones we know about. Given a free capitalistic market nothing is more efficient and cost effective at each given moment. Adding requirments and regulations just adds cost, the structural requirements to hold up a roof have been known for thousands of years. Some regs. for earthquakes and hurricanes make sense, but if you want more dont make it a requirement make it an extra feature the consumer can pay for if they want to. Lynn

If something is truly "green" rather than Madison Avenue hype, it will thrive, because it will be cost effective in the long run. Unfortunately, as pointed out by others, what is labelled "green" today, especially if mandated by politicians with vested interests, is most likely hype. If you want sustainable practices, consult the industry mavens, the engineers, the technical gurus, not politicians, lawyers, or idealistic activists who stare blankly when you ask about the Second Law...

Lot of truth to these statements! Unfortunately owners often reject a recommendation of the most qualified if it will cost one cent more on a project. The Moral Obligation is overlooked in favor of the competitive price.

So much is written about the manufacture of cement and the resulting Co2 emissions, yet a new look at preserving a concrete structure to prevent degradation, repairs or complete failures is a back burner item in a lot of peoples minds.

Millions are spent each year to repair or replace concrete structures, requiring more cement to be used and more Co2 to be introduced. Concrete isn't pretty, in most cases it's thought to be permenant, so we pour it and forget it until it becomes a problem. In some cases it's the concrete contractor who gives you the blank stare and says "We Been Doin It This Way For Years" or will not entertain recommending any added expense to his bid. After all he has to beat the other guy's price and the owner doesn't care!

At some point Green Practices and implementation have to be a concious moral decision !!

Thats a problem, whose morals, if its one thing Ive learned, peoples moral opinion is varible and debatable. Someone trying to push their morals on someone else is fascism, the greenies are as bad as the old church ladies, have basic laws, and give me my freedom back!

Green construction is BS hype, anyone in the industry knows this, its those out side that dont know what the hell they are talking about, and trying to force their morals and their opinions down and industries throat. They dont see the truth, half have an agenda, a product, that they want mandated by law to istall on all new homes, the increases in prices is a cause to the problem of the increasing divid between rich and poor, YES, LETS MAKE HOMES PERFECTLY GREEN SO THE POOR CAN NO LONGER AFFORD A HOME. The other half of the greenies are nieve and don't understand economics.

Pure capitalism is harsh, but its the only thing humans can make work in the long run.

Its the stick and the carrot, there has to be both, or nothing moves forward.

Lynn

I think it is fantastic how we are using renewable energy and going green in so many ways. I think we also need to do things like reducing our energy usage, like installing geothermal heat pumps to replace high energy heating and cooling systems. Here is an example of how the heat pump works http://energystimulus.net/residential_systems.html