Green Washing

I went to a class that was supposed to be a class on green washing. It ended up being a class on LEED. I just want to share with you what I think green washing is: for new construction it is not getting it certified to a minimum standard of energy star. From a real estate perspective this is the piece that translates all the way through, at least potentially.

From a building science perspective building to energy star is not very green at all. There are a lot of green build programs and ideas out there. Some have very high expectations of what the built environment can do. The living building challenge that the AIA has put out there is one of the places that the market is getting a push. Passive haus out of Germany is way ahead of anything we are doing in the US.

In my opinion, existing construction should be compared to other homes of the same era for it's green-ness. That way you are comparing an apple to an apple. There is plenty that can be done with an older home, like insulating. There are tax incentives to do a lot of what makes a building perform better.

It is not green to tear down a perfectly good home to put a new certified green home on it. Especially if you are scrapping it and putting the remains in the landfill.