Why We Should Care About Sustainable Building

For many years I worked in various NGO setting focusing on issues pertaining to clean water, and I even spent a year with a firm that dealt with the clean up of superfund sites. Through each of these experiences, my efforts to change policy and practice concentrated on the by-products of the built environment (sewage, polluted run-off, etc.), and it was pretty frustrating to be dealing with the byproducts of poor management and choices. For this reason, the idea of shifting my energy to buildings, both existing and new, became pretty intriguing, because one had the potential to impact the negatives in the equation.

The United States Green Building Council (USGBC) begins each of their reference guides (they cover everything from New Construction to Neighborhood Development) with a few quick facts, and LEED Homes is no different:

• There are more than 120 million homes in the United States and about 2 million new homes are constructed each year;
• According to the U.S Department of Energy, these account for 22% of the total energy consumed in the U.S., and 7% of the water;
• Levels of indoor air pollutants can often be four to five times higher than outdoor levels; and
• The residential sector contributes 21% of the carbon dioxide emissions (and I’m pretty sure this is just residential energy, notwithstanding the automobiles we use to get around).

I went to University in Canada, and during my time on campus there was intense discussion about the adoption and implementation of the UN’s Bruntland Report, titled “Our Common Future”. Within that report lies of definition of sustainability that has informed me to this day:

Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

I'm frustrated to think how little we've achieved since this report was issued in 1987. However, in constructing my home I can make choices that impact the equation, by virtue of the materials I use (and consideration of the embodied energy and lifestyle costs of these materials) and those that I don't (e.g. no tropical hardwoods or products that degrade environmental quality). Moreover, how I live in that home, including--what products I use to clean, food I eat, and how much I consume to “fill” it--will also have a real impact on sustainability and my family’s health. So hopefully, by creating just one green house inside and out, I can minimally impact the broader debate on how we will develop sustainably, regardless of what the politicians are doing!