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September 18, 2005 - The Imperative Of Building `Green'
Not so many years ago, human civilizations shared a belief that the sun revolved around the earth. This generally accepted myth, that we are at the center of our universe, was eventually replaced by the knowledge that the Earth and other planets revolve around the sun.
Now, 400 years later, we face another widespread and equally self-centered myth: Americans seem to believe the United States is the center of the planet, and that everything else revolves around us. Our nation, with only 5 percent of the world's population, consumes a shocking 25 percent of the world's resources.
As an architect, I am particularly aware that buildings are the major contributor to U.S. carbon dioxide output - accounting for 43 percent of yearly emissions. Data from ice cores drilled in Antarctica reveal that atmospheric CO2 concentrations are the highest they've been in the past 400,000 years. A creeping global heat is steadily warming our oceans, melting permafrost at the poles, and changing the migration patterns of species that have evolved exquisitely over millennia.
Here in New England, we continue to act as if it is acceptable to sabotage the natural systems that sustain all life. Houses and vehicles grow unconscionably large, consuming resources at a ravenous pace. Connecticut, with the highest per-capita income in the country, builds legions of oversized homes, whose inefficient systems waste vast amounts of oil, gas and electricity. With the skyrocketing cost of fuel, and knowing what we do about greenhouse gases, does anyone seriously think we can go on like this?
While there is a stunning gap in leadership from Washington, as a country we have the opportunity to do better. We can abandon our old, wasteful patterns in favor of an energy-efficient, sustainable future. In August, nine Northeast states, including Connecticut, banded together to cap greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and reduce them 10 percent by 2020. This pact adds momentum to the pledge made in June by 70 mayors from cities around the world, who signed the Urban Environmental Accords to address issues including climate change.
As an important step forward, the nonprofit U.S. Green Building Council has created a rating system to evaluate buildings with a comprehensive set of "green" criteria. This standard, called Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, includes points for energy efficiency, water conservation, air quality, site selection and materials. Buildings can achieve four levels: Certified, Silver, Gold or Platinum.
LEED is universally accepted as the best rating system of its kind, and cities and states -such as San Francisco and the state of Washington - are starting to require it on public projects, while creating incentives for its widespread use in the private sector. In New York City, the city council has just adopted the LEED Silver rating as a requirement for all new municipal construction and major renovations. The impacts are real, whether measured in tons of carbon dioxide kept out of the atmosphere or cubic feet of debris kept out of the city's waste stream. Connecticut could take an important step forward by establishing LEED as a statewide baseline standard for all buildings.
The time to get serious about climate change is now.
As a growing community and expanding industry, green building offers an environmentally responsible and economically viable solution to the rising threat of climate change. Even the most pessimistic estimates put the cost of LEED certification at less than 5 percent of total project cost. Often, greener design requires only an extra measure of creativity in the initial stages, with a payoff in lower operating costs and greater occupant health and comfort in the long run.
We owe it to our grandchildren to respect the planet, and recognize that they will have to live with the consequences of whatever choices we make now. As architects, who naturally expect our work to outlive us, we should be especially conscious of the legacy we leave when we construct a building. We should take to heart the principle of the great Iroquois Confederacy, which believed: "In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations."
Bob Fox is a partner at Cook + Fox Architects of New York City.
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Publication: Hartford Courant
