ShareThisWhere Are the People in Sustainability?
A quick glance at recent green building conference programs shows that there is an increased interest in energy and sustainability performance metrics. While I applaud efforts to bring legitimacy to sustainability with measurable outcomes, I hope that we as an industry don’t get so caught up in measuring Air Changes per Hour (ACHs) and carbon emissions that we forget an important aspect of the sustainability equation: people.
Fortunately, I’ve seen signs in recent media coverage that lead me to believe that this is not the case. Perhaps the impact of the economic recession has reinvigorated efforts to make sustainable housing accessible to people, regardless of their socioeconomic status.
Recently, I was watching the CBS Evening News and saw a short segment about a North Carolina-based nonprofit organization called Builders of Hope. Builders of Hope takes homes that are slated for demolition, moves them to development sites to be created into communities, and performs deep energy and sustainable retrofits. These homes are sold to low- and moderate-income people who would otherwise have a difficult time affording safe, healthy and efficient homes.
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Even more impressive is that Builders of Hope has developed and integrated a mentoring and training program that targets populations that have difficulty becoming employed and provides them with the training, experience, and confidence they need to learn a new trade and enter the mainstream workforce. We were inspired by the story of Builders of Hope and are pleased that CEO Nancy Murray will be one of the keynote speakers at our Green Day Forum on November 3rd.
Habitat for Humanity is perhaps one of the best-known community-oriented, affordable housing organizations in the world. The fact that they are the sixth largest homebuilder in the U.S. underscores the point that there is a real need for more affordable housing in this country. Some Habitat affiliates have truly embraced and integrated the concept of sustainable building practices into the homes that they build.
A recent webinar on Green Expo 365 showcased Habitat for Humanity’s efforts to build Passive Houses in Kentucky. In June, Habitat for Humanity hosted its first regional sustainable building conference in the Pacific Northwest where staff from Habitat affiliates throughout the region learned about topics that ranged from universal design and facilitating eco charrettes to renewable energy solutions and getting a Habitat home LEED-certified. To put to rest any claims that green building and affordable housing are mutually exclusive, presenter David Bonn, who is the director of housing for Habitat Portland Metro East, shared that: "I was able to build LEED Platinum homes for $70 per square foot."
These are just a few examples of business models that take the needs of society into account and demonstrate that it is possible to build sustainable homes that are accessible to a wide range of people and that provide avenues for developing workforce opportunities. Please send us an email and let us know if you run across any other interesting sustainability business models that take people, planet, and profit into account.
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