We as humans really require few things, food, water, air, and shelter, are enough for an individual to survive. However, with food being produced on clear cut forest land, and shipped across nations, water being produced with petroleum products, air throughouly polluted through everyday human practices, and shelter being the number one user of energy, the very things needed for us to survive are slowly becoming our civilization's downfall. Luckily we have not reached the tipping point, and through sustainable practices life's essentials can become more of a benefit and less of a bane to our future.
One of the new concepts to emerge from the concept of sustainable living is green building. The US Green Building Council(USGBC) is working towards making green buildings available to everyone. A green building is a structure wherein the process of its construction and its life-cycle are resource efficient, and environmentally responsible. A green building is rated based on the LEED scale, and is given points for using sustainable sites, being water efficient, having no negative effects on energy and the atmosphere, using renewable materials and resources, indoor environmental quality, and bonus points for innovative design and regional priority. The scale is based on 100 points (+10 bonus points) and ranges from Certified (40 points) to Platinum (80 points). Indiana had it's first platinum rated home early this year in Franklin. From "Principles of Green Architecture" (Vale 1991), similar standards are addresed for defining green building. They submit principles of conserving energy, working with climate, minimizing new resources, having respect for users, and having respect for the site.
Understanding the concept of green building is one thing, but it is another task to implement these practices. There are many policy options in place to facilitate the amount of green building being pursued. Offering financial incentives would be paramount to attracting builders, corporations, and homeowners into looking to build green. By giving them tax credits or money back for using sustainable building practices, many entities would be driven to build green. Also by spreading information and educating people, they can understand that over the term life of a building, green building will make it more affordable, by lowering energy costs, requiring less inputs, and serving its purpose for a longer amount of time. Cities could also encourage green building practices by requiring all building projects to offset that buildings effect on climate by planting the equivalent amount of forest. An idea offered up by William McDonough when offering to construct a green building in Poland. This could be applied to all buildings, and the less sustainable buildings will be far greater penalized in costs to plant forest. Perhaps not the most feasible idea, but not only would it encourage people to build green, but it would also have a positive net effect on energy by planting the trees.
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