The Tesla Roadster of Green Building
Mobility, food, and buiding sectors cause 70 to 80% of the total environmental impacts in society. Working solutions for these problems do exist, yet somehow have failed to enter the mainstream.
So, maybe 2007 should be about carefully choosing our battles, choosing the best places to intervene. 10 years ago, the late Donnella H. Meadows wrote about this:
People who manage to intervene in systems at the level of paradigm hit a leverage point that totally transforms systems. [...] There's nothing physical or expensive or even slow about paradigm change. In a single individual it can happen in a millisecond. All it takes is a click in the mind, a new way of seeing.
Therefore, I think we should carefully choose our ‘battles’ so that we can both drastically reduce of CO2 emission and environmental damage, and demonstrate how feasible, desirable, affordable and ultimately preferable a sustainable society could be.
Tesla Motors get this, and have a terrific master plan to take on the automobile-related problems, at least in part. My position is that passivhaus buildings could achieve the same on in building: 75% to 85% reduction in emissions and energy use, and with careful design there is no need to incur much additional costs.
I personally know the family living in the first passive house in the Benelux. It cost approximately $910/m2 to build (that’s $85/sqft for our readers in Liberia, Myanmar and USA), and their yearly total utilities bill is around $1.3/m2 ($0.15/sqft)
Above all, though, this family would not want to miss the exceptional thermal comfort found in this house: no temperature gradients, no draughts, lots of fresh air. Just a warm, healthy environment without ‘punishment,’ constraints, or compromise. An experience shared by many living or working in the more than 6,000 passive buildings across Europe (housing, office buildings, apartments, university dorms, sport facilities, supermarkets, etc.)
Curiously enough, on the American Institute of Architects 2006 Top Ten Awards for green projects, not a single passivhaus building. So let’s find a gutsy, visionary leader who would consider this kind of innovation applied to a high visibility, high impact office building in Silicon Valley. Make a ruckus about it, set an example and inspire others to follow.
And do well in the process.
