If I Hear the Word "Green" One More Time

What's the big deal about being "green"? It is just a trendy way of saying living a life with environmental consciousness. Isn't everybody supposed to do that? 

Adding the label "green" does more harm than good. It suggests it's cool to be environmental conscious but it's okay not to. Such misconception, ironically, defends people's behaviors that are detrimental to the nature. 

As a result, many developers have been brushing off the idea of environmental friendly buildings for its higher up-front construction cost. It is like admitting they would rather waste more energy or natural resources in order to save money on expensive materials that do less harm to the environment.

Many major publications also supported that idea. New York Times carried an article in 2003 titled "Not Going Green is a Matter of Economics".The story noted that "a compelling case demonstrating the economic rewards has not been made". 

NYT's point is misleading. An article published by AIA (the American Institute of Architects), a professional association with over 83,000 members, said last year that "a sustainable building could be achieved with little or no increase in construction costs and that a minimal 'upfront investment of less than 2 percent of construction costs yields life cycle savings of over 10 times the initial investment.'"

To put it in a more comprehensible way: Developers pay more up-front and get a return of over 10 times in a long run.

The NYT article also quoted someone saying "the financial reward are unproven" after such an environment-friendly building was built. "It is an economic thing," said a source in the article.

But is it just an economic thing?

I would like to introduce a recognized concept of triple bottom lines: people, planet, profit are the three criteria to evaluate any investment (which is social, environment and economic evaluation), including the environmental buildings.

To "go green" is not to become a hippy. For not being able to "stay green", we are suffering from polluted air, new diseases, and higher cost for buildings. Instead of embellishing it, I suggest using "going de-grey" because we are just trying to go back to the norm of how our ancestors have lived for centuries.