Page 74 - November 2015 Green Builder Magazine

FROM THE TAILGATE By Ron Jones

New Offerings for the Sustainable Minded

72

The Preemptive Paranoia Playbook

www.greenbuildermedia.com 11.2015 IS ANYONE BESIDES me already up to here with the
constant stream of media coverage given to the 2016
presidential races? Am I the only one who is actually Actually, we are not all so naïve as to believe that these
left less interested by all the egos, the posturing, the warnings are purely for our benefit rather than transparent
schoolyard bickering, the lack of substance? tactics to keep the dues dollars flowing and the membership
A process that should leave us more engaged in numbers growing, to keep professionals in this industry
the outcome can have the opposite effect, when it seems dependent on these special interest organizations which
everything has been reduced to camera opps, finger trade in a culture of scarcity and fear in order to justify an
pointing, half truths and outright lies. Are we really ongoing existence.
so gullible, helpless and poorly informed that we need
a bunch of talking heads to fight over who will ride to No, I am not kept up at night by worries that I am being
the rescue, save us from ourselves and “lead” us into the persecuted by the government because I happen to be in
future? Really? the homebuilding industry. If I am kept up at all, it is due
Closer to home, what is it that keeps those of us in the to the time and resources squandered on these charades
homebuilding sector up at night? I can tell you that in being played out supposedly on my behalf. GB
my case, it is surely not the endless barrage of negative
messaging I receive from trade groups several times a day.
Do they truly believe that I and the reminder of the building
community are so vulnerable that we need them to protect
us from the big bad EPA, DOE, OSHA and the Corps of
Engineers, that we are not capable of defining our own
positions on matters of importance?
All the hand wringing and fear mongering does nothing
to help me rest better. Instead, I am left trying to sort out
which items deserve my legitimate concern, and how to
distinguish real threats to the industry and my livelihood
from those monotonous cries of “wolf,” the whole purpose
of which appears to be to keep the sheep huddled together
in the fold.
Perhaps most annoying of all are the alerts to perceived
future threats, such as the one I received recently from the
National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) warning
me of a certain memo from the White House to executive
departments and agencies of the federal government
(http://1.usa.gov/1RxMT2p), calling on them to “incorporate
ecosystem services into federal decision making.” The
directive says that economic and other benefits of natural
systems should be part of the decision-making process.
For as long as I can recall, NAHB and other trade
organizations have claimed that they simply want a level
playing field, and that economic factors must be taken
into account when rules and regulations are created and
implemented. How then can those goals be achieved if we
only consider the parts that negatively impact our profit-
making abilities?