Living Up to Our Eco-Mystique

We are doing something right on the Left Coast.

Oregon and Washington are home to the most LEED certified buildings per capita. In 2005 Washington was the first state to require by law certification to green standards for public buildings. In 2006, Portland was ranked #1 and Seattle #3 by Sustain Lane for most sustainable of all major US cities.

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What makes me most proud of and honored to work with green building professionals in the Northwest is how humble they are of their achievements, authentic they are in their motivations, and selfless they are in their actions. I believe these traits are due to the fact that these leaders so clearly see the larger picture. The impending crises of climate change, irreversible loss of biodiversity, market threats to our natural resources and economic base, and inequities within our fragile social structure all pale in comparison to energy and water savings in one building. But, these leaders know that their efforts influence larger change and so they strive to do more and better.

In short, we here in the Pacific Northwest and B.C. personify the most sincere intention of creating a world that we are proud to leave for future generations. To be clear, we are all part of this clan of NW green building leaders, whether we are the legacy that created the movement or we are among those inheriting it.

Our blessing is also our curse, of course. The obligation we have willingly or unwittingly assumed is the role of trailblazer. We have professed the ability and desire to reject the status quo and exceed expectations. And now we have this reputation to live up to. I’m pleased to report that in most instances, we are doing just that. One indicator might be the overwhelmingly positive response to the Living Building Challenge and now the Pharos Project. These two programs are on the cutting edge of sustainable building daring us to think beyond green in our buildings and in our materials.

As we learned at Greenbuild a few weeks ago, we in Cascadia are not alone. Teams from across North America are taking up the Living Building Challenge. These allies in innovation are helping us create the space necessary to break down all barriers to truly sustainable building. We in Cascadia are pacesetters and it’s time now to set our sights ever higher. We must not only reject current limitations to broad adoption of “green” building practices, we must remove them.

There are many barriers to green building, but let the first barrier you seek to deconstruct be the misperception that green is sufficient. “Green” should be the minimum accepted performance for buildings. As our understanding of the human and ecological effects of our building practices deepen, so too does our obligation to adjust standard practices.

The second barrier is misperceptions about the intent or goals of the green building movement it is not about one issue or for one segment of society - it is holistic and inclusive. We must reinforce this nature of green building in all that we do: invite new comers and welcome them with open arms; meet skeptics halfway; teach those who want to build green how to do it.

Misperceptions about the cost and value of green building is the third barrier. We all have an integral role to play in debunking this myth. Be honest about the true capital investments required to build responsible buildings and be honest about the long-term value the building will retain. Share what you know so that everyone can wisely and confidently invest to build or remodel green.

The fourth misperception is that green building is only about the constructed result. Even the most efficient building is not green if one’s only method of visiting the building is via a single occupancy vehicle. We have an obligation to weigh in on urban planning issues such as mass transit, zoning, and growth of urban areas. We do not design buildings in a vacuum and so we should not be mute when decisions are made that will affect our ability to build safe, efficient, sustainable buildings.

As members of this bioregional green building clan, I hope that you will seize this obligation. We have been presented an opportunity, perhaps like none we will ever see again. We do have our work cut out for us, but I have no doubt we’ll live up to our eco-reputation and even establish our place in history as a result of our actions.