Green is Good, But is it Enough?
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the relationship between green building and sustainable development. “Green” and “sustainable” are often used interchangeably when talking about responsible development, but they aren’t always synonymous. While a “green” building may have achieved a significant reduction in energy consumption, it might not be a good example of “sustainable” development. Green buildings and the efficiencies they create cannot really be considered sustainable unless they also address the broader impacts of development. For example, an otherwise green building may actually generate a high carbon footprint if its occupants have to make a long daily commute, all alone in their cars, to get there.
Architects Joshua Prince-Ramus, Randolph Croxton and Tuomas Toivonen agree that “green building” alone is not sufficient to achieve a meaningful reduction in our ecological footprint. In a recent article, they suggest that maximizing the existing infrastructure in our urban cores must form the basis of a sustainable future. As Prince-Ramus puts it, “urban living itself is the embodiment of sustainability.”
In addition to increasing urban density, Prince-Ramus and his co-authors present several other strategies that can be implemented to incentivize growth and development while reducing our overall carbon footprint, including the use of urban growth boundaries, transferrable development rights, community-based metrics of sustainability, and the development of more flexible urban structures that can accommodate a variety of uses. While these aren’t necessarily new concepts, Prince-Ramus suggests that perhaps they should play a larger role when considering the overall impact of a project’s design – so that in addition to “greening” the technical aspects of design and construction, the development itself can help to positively change human behavior. In other words, truly sustainable development requires a holistic approach, one that incorporates systemic solutions such as increasing density, limiting sprawl, and changing our automobile-centric ways.
Do you agree with Prince-Ramus and his colleagues? What long-term strategies do you think will be most effective in reducing our ecological footprint while encouraging responsible development?
