Why Is Green Building Suddenly Such a Big Deal?



Energy costs are one key. The frenzy in passive solar design that began with the energy crunch of the 1970s fizzled when fuel prices declined. We lost a powerful incentive to build more-efficient houses that were cheaper to heat and cool. Building energy efficient houses was pushed to a side rail and forgotten. But now that energy prices have gone back up, we have a much better understanding of how tenuous our foreign supplies of fossil fuels have become.

Global climate change is another factor. Melting glaciers, disappearing Arctic ice, droughts and fierce storms—we’ve all read about them, and many of us have experienced them firsthand. Researchers attribute at least some of these phenomena to a gradual increase in greenhouse gases, which is causing the planet to warm up. Houses are part of the climate-change equation because they consume a great deal of energy. So when scientists talk about our “carbon footprint,” we now have a direct correlation between what we do and the world around us.


Finally, the time was right for a shift in thinking. Just as Sarah Susanka struck a nerve with her “Not So Big” approach to residential design, proponents of sustainable building have made their case at just the right time. Homebuyers are apparently ready for a change, and the building industry is ready to follow. The fact that green-built houses last longer, have fewer problems, are cheaper to live in and keep their owners more comfortable—well, that doesn’t hurt.

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