Green Building Takes Center Stage in Atlanta
Green is heading into overdrive over the next 10 years!
At the 11th annual Greenprints Conference and Trade show in Atlanta, Georgia this past Wednesday and Thursday, the overall message was loud and clear; building and retrofitting green is and will be the only way forward for commercial real estate and home owners.
As I made my way into a crowded conference room at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Atlanta, you could feel that finally, people are taking green seriously. This wasn’t a room full of tree hugging hippies and global warming activists preaching to save the planet, but a room full of professionals who are bringing a smarter way of living to a world that has up til now, quite frankly, lived vicariously through excess consumption.
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Never before in our history has there been such a need to shift the way we build, operate, and maintain the builds that we live and work in.
Two major themes developed throughout the conference.
1.) Green does not cost more if budgeted in order to build a sustainable structure.
2.) Lack of ‘green’ knowledge far exceeds lack of information available to the general public.
Cost of Green Building and Retrofitting
When deciding to go green, the common misconception is to add extra cost in order to build green features into a structure. Greg O’brien from Sustainable Options LLC says “How green can you build with your current budget instead of spending extra for green features?”
I thought this was great advice for anyone planning a home remodeling project. How green can your budget take you in your initial home improvement project and how long will the accumulated savings take in order to continue your home’s greenovation? Remember, going green is not a destination, it’s a journey.
This point is reiterated by Evan Tyroler, Engineering/Sustainability Specialists for Cassidy & Pinkard Colliers out of Washington DC. Evan talked about the journey that he and colleague Annalisa Givens took with a large office building in downtown DC towards LEED-EB certification. Along the way, the team was able to additionally pick up an Energy Star certification, which was an unexpected added bonus in their mission to operate the building more efficiently.
Lack of Green Knowledge
With over 110 million homes in the US, the majority of home owners are unaware of the needs of their home and the options available to them to make their homes more energy efficient. It’s not that most people don’t want to go green at home, but most people are scared to death about the cost of going green and unsure of the best way to go about doing it.
Edward Pollock, Residential Team Leader for the Department of Energy, said that educating the public about the resources available to them is one of the biggest challenges the government faces in retrofitting existing American homes. The DOE’s goal of Zero Energy Homes throughout America by 2020 will be a challenge that can only be attainable through the education of home owners. One such place to find abundant resources is throught the EPA’s website focusing on green living.
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