Friday, August 31, 2007
A sustainable future is within reach
Editorial commentary
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Gregg Lewis
Lewis is a Roanoke architect.
Congratulations to Dr. Alan Henry and Larry and Veronica Van Deventer for their work to bring the Madison Field community to reality ("Building a field of green," June 13). Their passion for the work of sustainable development is beautifully illustrated by the talented staff at Hill Studio.
This development, like the murmurs I am hearing out of Smith Mountain Lake about a new EarthCraft residential development by the Willard family, bodes well for our Southwest Virginia home. The EarthCraft rating system, developed by Southface and the Atlanta Home Builders Association and brought to our commonwealth by the Virginia Sustainable Building Network (www.vsbn.org) is one of a number of such platforms in use nationwide.
The work by these groups and others locally has begun to tip our region toward the future of green building. I believe that the same is true for Rob Glenn, Breakell Inc. and Spectrum Design, who have collaborated to bring the State & City Building on Campbell Avenue toward LEED certification. LEED is the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program of the United States Green Building Council. State & City is likely to be one of the first LEED-certified projects in the Roanoke Valley. LEED, EarthCraft and other standards are laying the foundation for a much greener future.
So, is this a fad or is green thinking -- and green building -- here to stay? For the first time in our history, the 2008 presidential candidates of both parties are purchasing television advertising to show their support for alternative energy and reducing the ecological footprint of the American people.
The postmaster general of the United States was seen on C-SPAN several weeks ago to announce the postal service's new eco-friendly mailers. Wal-Mart is talking about phasing out the sale of products containing PVC, whose production is a significant source of dioxin in our atmosphere. They follow Nike, Ford and other Fortune 500 companies in this effort. I am also told that Cox Communications and Wachovia are launching new "green" goals.
Soon, our building codes will bring these ideas more completely into widespread use in the design and construction industries. Then we will want to ask ourselves: If virtually everybody who has been talking about green is actually going green -- how green can we get? The USGBC recently announced that William McDonough and Michael Braungart's Cradle to Cradle certification will become recognized within the burgeoning LEED system. With this watershed event, we can begin to talk in earnest about the future of sustainability.
When we recognize that going green can be both painless and profitable (not to mention smart), somebody will want to know how they can get a competitive edge on all these new tree-huggers.
The answer resides in the idea that instead of being satisfied with reducing the adverse impact of our commercial activity, we will decide that a more rational long-term goal is to have our commercial activity be positive for the planet and those of us who inhabit it.
You will start to see this expressed in carbon neutral or net-zero energy buildings -- buildings that will produce more energy than they consume. You will see this when the production of an increasing number of the products you buy emit zero toxins and the products are actually safe for human use and are themselves 100 percent recyclable.
You will see this when we stop dumping hazardous materials into our groundwater and air and, incredibly, the very products we buy and then realize that fewer and fewer of our loved ones are being diagnosed with cancer, asthma and other health problems.
We are inundated with plenty of bad news. We need to celebrate all of the good news and those, like Icon Development, that are generating it. We need to support these endeavors for future generations. We need to be glad that so many of us want a future of which we can all be proud.
Finally, we need to stay vigilant in the face of complacency and greenwashing. According to Merriam-Webster, greenwashing is "expressions of environmentalist concerns especially as a cover for products, policies or activities."
In many ways, it is more important to be able to verify claims of environmental action than it is to make them.
With programs like EarthCraft, LEED and Cradle to Cradle certification, we can begin to substantiate these claims and celebrate the viability of a sustainable future.
