Turning Green Building into Green Living

There are more important reasons to living in a energy efficient environment than saving money. Unfortunately, we’re mostly motivated by the dollar. So, as green building educators, when we talk about going green it would be smart to focus on showing how building smart can help you save through homeowner education, awareness and participation. The challenge will lie, like it so often does, in change.

Change is hard and more than not, comes slowly. Building or buying green and saving money is in the hands of the homeowner. As we construct new and improved features, designs and components in our homes, homeowners must learn to make a conscience effort to enforce good habits, otherwise the dollars they expect and the benefits we promote will be dramatically reduced.

We live in a world of absolutes and instant information. We want it now and we want hard cold facts. Green Building and saving energy is going to be largely dependent on the person responsible for keeping the doors and windows shut, the home caulked, the water turned off, the thermostat correctly set, and a host of other operational devices.

Yes, it is true that green buildings will perform better without much homeowner participation. But, to get the highest and best use of the money spent, "successful" green building will largely be defendant on how well we stay focused. At least focused long enough to change our “old” habits into becoming new ways of living. Green building then will have become green living and the savings we realize will be a nice by-product.