Page 66 - Green Builder Magazine Sept-Oct 2021

TAILGATE
New Offerings for the Sustainable Minded

It’s Time to Move

From the Sidelines

Ron Jones
to Center Stage ron.jones@greenbuildermedia.com
Co-Founder and President
®
Green Builder Media

T HAS BECOME UNDENIABLY APPARENT that the for profitability.
shelter industry is due for a serious recalibration. Those But it may not be possible to fly under the radar for much
of us in this sector must adjust our frame of reference longer. The failed strategies and policies that have propped up
and embrace greater responsibility for the outcomes of the industry are coming home to roost. We are seeing increasing
our actions. There has perhaps never been a more urgent resistance to “business as usual” in a variety of ways.
need to honestly reassess the impact and performance of For example, some insurance companies are refusing to renew
what, where and how we build. policies for homes in areas with high risk of wildfires. Similarly,
This is a time when our country, and much of the the National Flood Insurance Program is undergoing big changes
rest of the world, is undergoing a series of painful self- that will significantly impact those who have traditionally relied
I examinations in order to come to grips with a host of upon its protection.
social issues, looming environmental catastrophes, economic We are also learning of building moratoriums predicated
uncertainties and threats—internal and external—to our health, on concerns about the availability of water and perhaps other
safety and security. We can’t sit this one out. resources and essential services. The industry will no doubt
As we witness the ever-increasing destruction resulting rail against these policies as no-growth strategies conjured up
from Climate Change—as manifested in the intensification by “environmental extremists.” But who is willing to guarantee
of violent storms and flooding, unprecedented obliteration that these necessities will be sustainably available?
of entire communities by massive wildfires, megadrought Look at the abysmal condition of our infrastructure across
affecting multiple states and millions of residents, and the the nation. The daily news is full of stories about crumbling
extinction of countless species on this planet—we need to take dams, roads and bridges, deteriorating water and wastewater
a step back and own up to the part we have played in getting systems, an increasingly vulnerable and suspect power grid,
to this point. and the dangerous conditions surrounding pipelines across the
Inexplicably, we seem to willingly participate in a deadly game continent.
of chance each time we respond to another disaster by rebuilding We are left to ask ourselves whether we are going to continue
the same old way, in the very same places, with the same marginal to contribute to the problem, or become part or the solution.
systems and materials. We somehow expect a different outcome Shelter is as basic a necessity for people as food, safe water and
the next time our number comes up. breathable air. We can do better. We have the knowledge, the
It is generally accepted that buildings account for roughly tools, the materials and the technologies. The question is, do we
40 percent of energy use in the U.S. and a corresponding have the will? GB
40 percent of carbon emissions generated. Yet, the industry
resists all attempts to move the needle in a positive direction,
instead hiding behind the skirts of “affordability,” a code word

64 GREEN BUILDER September/October 2021 www.greenbuildermedia.com