Are We Too Green?

It happened last night. I was listening to homeowners who had volunteered to be test cases for the Irvington Green Initiative's "Recognition Program." We were holding a forum designed to produce honest feedback after two months of working within our guidelines and criteria. This was it; the big test. The Committee had worked for several months to design the program and develop the criteria which these families, some experienced "greenies," some not, had graciously agreed to "test."

That's when the bomb dropped. Maybe it wasn't a bomb so much as a rising tide, a tsunami perhaps. Anyway, it started with a person that works for one of the "greenest" organizations around. It was then added to by someone from a family who has been making extraordinary strides towards sustainable ends. And suddenly the culmination of the discussion began to revolve around the fact that the very structure that we had created was inherently wrong.

Now if that didn't take the wind out of my energy conserving sail. We had modeled our process, our forms and our criteria on a number of national programs. We had given thoughtful consideration to the requirements and difficulty of progressive levels. We had ... well it just doesn't matter does it?

The tide that had risen and washed over us was the point that the program was too complicated and even intimidating, especially for those who were wanting to get their feet wet so-to-speak in being green. And it's an excellent point; possibly one of the best, straight to the essence points of the evening.

It sure got me to think. I started to think about all of the work I've done with LEED and with the NAHB Guidelines; the builders and clients that I've talked to; the interviews that I've done; the blog posts that I've written. If you're reading this you're probably in the same boat. Green is what you do. You're informed, you're educated, and you're continually learning and pushing the green envelope. But that, as it turns out, was the problem.

At the core of what we're trying to do at IGI is not reward homeowners for achieving some hardly attainable Platinum Standard. What we're striving for is to recognize those who make green strides as a way of introducing green to our community and, in turn, spreading the message and winning new converts.

Unfortunately, we fell into what's become a common mindset these days. While we're all measuring our carbon footprints, performing life cycle cost analyses and counting food miles, we may be forgetting about the fact that no matter how close to zero energy we get, there are 10 people out there that don't even know that it's possible to stop their junk mail.

Obviously, I'm not advocating giving up on any of these aspects of Green or the Green lifestyle in any way. But let's not forget that we may be able to have more impact by teaching 5 of our neighbors 3 simple things that they can do everyday to be more Green.