Green Business Versus Green Buildings
No doubt, everyone now knows that we are dealing with issues larger than pollution and conservation. The popularity of the concept of sustainability has become a common phrase in countless articles though there is still some confusion on the subject. There are health issues related to indoor air quality that are not quite sustainable concerns, but fall into the Green for life arena. The issues of pollution are also well-known and almost pushed aside with ancillary concerns for the rainforest, whale population, polar bear habitat, and receding ice cap. Nonetheless, the need for a Green building has emerged as the hot issue of the business community and various government bodies. This, I fear, is a good idea that have been ramped a little too high.
Building construction or renovation is meritorious and certainly a part of the big answer for environmental issues of our day. It seems that our constant quest for better, brighter, and more powerful products has neglected to ask other questions about health and safety to the living beings that inhabit this world, including the oft-decried human species. Though man has been a problem at times, he has also been the cure for problems that require more than nature alone supplies. More to the topic at hand, do Green buildings faithfully address the environmental issues that we face in the most appropriate way? To answer the question, let’s push the illustration into a hyperbole. Could a non-Green, anti-Green, or agnosti-Green business operate in what would be an Green constructed facility? Sure it could though I am sure that the architects of the Green facility would place restrictions on the leaseholders. Therefore, we have the challenge of behavior versus environment. Could a tenant spread pesticides about after carelessly allowing food to be left out? Could the purchase of equipment after leasing a facility disrupt the better practices of the building owner? Could a company be negligent to the extreme about the use of paper and packaging material? Might this offish company fail to recycle, waste resources, and careless buy from non-Green vendors?
Green practices are the proverbial “other side of the coin” that I am sure are expected to live up to a higher standard. But, therein lies the problem. After all have been done to create a Green building, how much do the tenants really know about the Green practices that should be associated with Green operation? We have seen low-income housing go into areas that was intended to give the people of that community a better life, but without stereotyping anyone, were there families who did not take care of those homes? If the facilities were not cleaned, maintained, and protected from abuse; they would eventually fall into disrepair despite the better intentions of the people who constructed those homes.
I wish to press the point that we are not educating the tenants and associates who will move into the newly-constructed Green buildings. Though well-intended and positively oriented toward environmental issues, the depth of environmental understanding of the average worker in the resident business will negate a sizable portion of the good that should be done. I advocate a Green Management training program for every business, large or small, offered by a certified Green Consultant able to address the myriad of issues contained within the larger scope of environmental concerns. Do workers even know what VOCs are, where they come from, and what they should know about the dozens upon dozens of sources for VOCs? Is HEPA a semi-understood word that is often heard in proximity to vacuum cleaners? What are the numerous ways to reduce water use other than refusing to wash their hands after going to the bathroom? Has the sales force of the company been brought into the “Big Picture” of tools that improve performance and reduce travel? There are so many of these important gem ideas that could and should be shared, but they must come from a far better source than an brochure picked up at the latest seminar.
Green businesses may rent, lease , or own their facilities. The operation or practices of the business can literally work within some otherwise non-Green buildings. If pressed into action with routine improvement, nearly any business can cut energy and water use without noticeable interference with normal operation. Why not require the janitorial service to be Green certified and use only Green cleaning products? Should decisions like buying of furntiure, painting of walls, and replacement of carpet allow for input from a certified Green Consultant even though your building is not LEED certified? Again, the answer is an unqualified, “Yes.”
Building a new or renovating an existing building to a Green certification standard can cost hundreds of thousands of dollar above the costs of a typical building program. There is no effort to criticize that level of commitment to the cause. What I routinely see, however, belies the obvious good intentions of Green buildings, and draws my attention to the day-to-day operation and working practices of businesses who do not think or realize the impact of countless actions taken each day by millions of businesses. There is a desperate and universal need for Green educators, trained as professional and certified Green Consultants, to go to work in every city and burg. Businesses, who previously required sensitivity training among their workers now need to educate their workers on something that hurts us all.
Our country abounds with businesses that are small, medium and large. We should not build buildings that are genius in concept but will be inhabited with people who are merely environmentally entertained. Green Awareness training and Green Management processes are as critical to the overall success as are solar panels and sunlight vents. If this is our chance to make a difference in world that we all share, it cannot be left to the engineers, architects, and builders alone. It is a shared burden by those who will daily live out the visions now made into the buildings of a Greener world.