Its not easy being Green...Building that is...

I have been up to my eyeballs of late in studying "Green Building" Techniques, in concert with a "volunteer" (re: in our company's best interests) committee in bringing these techniques to the building type our office specializes in, and in studying for a professional exam called LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), which after paying $400.00 to take the test, I was lucky enough to pass it. (it basically makes you an official tree-hugging architect)Also, somehow I am on another committee to bring a California program to Texas in regards to creating high performance, energy efficient buildings.

So what does this all mean?

...Energy efficient buildings are good.

...Day lighting is good.

...Water efficiency is REALLY good.

...Buildings will have a greater initial first cost, but the cost savings in energy payback/resource make it worth it.

This is all well and good, and we do 85% of the stuff anyways as the basis of responsible design, but there are two funny things about it:

1. A lot of this stuff was tried in the 70's with mixed results.

2. This means a lot more paperwork--Pdf's actually.

...I keep thinking of Helen Lovejoy..."think of the children!"