Green Buildings or Living Buildings - What Can the Planet Support? Which will you have?

Here is another new trendy thing to do: construct green buildings. But what does that really mean in terms of planetary survival?

In the LEEDS (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification system) point system for determining if a building is green (or a shade of green), it is possible to get a point (or two) for installing bicycle racks in places of employment. It is also possible to "win" a level of green such as gold, silver and platinum! The Canadian website lists examples of green buildings and they are all office or work environments—there are no home environments.

It's a great start but a building may still made out of toxic materials and cement, on land that has had most, if not all, of its trees removed and rocks blasted. The entrance and area may still be cement and/or asphalt or even ground-up gyproc (recycled)—each full of toxins and formaldehyde that will poison the earth further. The walls are still constructed with press board or chip board or porridge board or gyproc made with toxic glues, and vapor barrier which makes breathing redundant. Paints may be low(er) VOC (volatile organic compounds known to be carcinogenic)—but not required to be no- VOC. Black and grey water are still evacuated to a sewage treatment plant. Water is still chlorinated. Electromagnetic radiation/frequencies are an ever increasing dilemma and they aren't even addressed in the protocol. Buildings are still torn down and taken to the dump in truck loads or barged out to sea to pollute even another environment. Construction waste still accounts for one-quarter of our waste management problem. In summary, not enough, fast enough for survival.

For housing developments for our over-population, no one asks about the best use for the land or what happens to the air we breathe when we clear cut for this development. No one wonders what happens to all the other species that are displaced to make room for yet another building. There is no LEEDS certification system, no tax incentives, nor relaxing of regulations for building a green home. Leaky condo syndrome is still with us, as are the restrictive building codes hastily written to shut the leaky condo syndrome door after the horse was out of the gate. And all construction decisions are made on the "best bang for the buck" theory again . . . still. No thought (or points) is given to whether the walls breathe, whether the building is located naturally, how healthy you and your family will be, or how much of our scarce resources are taken up by the manufacture and transport of the materials. Business mostly as usual.

We contend that green building concepts do not go far enough, long enough, big enough to save the day.

All these criticisms withstanding, green building is a start on caring whether the planet continues to be habitable for all species.

It is our position, and our experience, and our knowing that by working in communion and co-creation with Nature and the All-That-Is there are solutions that are life giving for all species, abundant, less expensive and beautiful beyond our limiting imagination.

Implementing the solutions would require, however, a change in the propensity of us all to regulate ourselves to death and in our thought patterns regarding responsibility for our actions and who should "look after us". Fear is too often a motivating factor in decision making. Many, many of our provincial acts and their regulations prohibit the implementation of simple, cost-effective changes that would give us living, breathing, healthy (and green) buildings, a healthier more sustainable lifestyle, and a choice in regenerating and restoring our planet.