Greenwashing

A Good summary on Green

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Often I cruise YouTube when I’m eating lunch at my desk. The other day I found an interesting video from Belinda Carr titled The Hypocrisy of Being GREEN.

As I’ve discussed here before, I strive to sell Green that Saves Green, i.e. I’ll sell you a green option if it saves you money, not just greenwashing. I could very much identify with her comments towards the end about things that are added to projects to get green points on a score sheet that are actually wasteful and don’t advance any value to the building. If you’ve got 10 minutes to take a look, I think it’s worth listening to her explanations. She has some good points.

In Pursuit of Green

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Obtainable Green

 I ran across the above graphic in an article from Multifamily Executive, a magazine I get at the office, titled Obtainable Target by Laura McKenzie.  I’ve written here before about my concerns regarding the cost of “green” vs the claimed savings.  From my experience I have my doubts about the above claims of costs vs returns as well as the exageration rate of concerned contractors.  There is no doubt that in some cases there are legitimate savings to be obtained through green building.  I just want the clients of Easterday Construction to pursue green with their eyes open.  Greenwashing can be found in the form of shams from hucksters as well as exageration by wishfull-thinkng zealots.  Beware of both.  Do the math for yourself.  Easterday Construction Co., Inc. would be happy to help you.

April is National Landscape Architecture Month

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This month is National Landscape Architecture Month.  April is also African American Women’s Fitness Month, International Cesarean Awareness Month, Emotional Overeaters Awareness Month, Irritable Bowel Syndrome Month & Nationally Sexually Transmitted Diseases Month just to name a few.  (From the site here.)  I’m promoting Landscape Architecture since I have a Bachelor’s of Science in Landscape Architecture (B.S.L.A.) from Purdue University.  I am a Registered Landscape Architect with the State of Indiana.  I am a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA).

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Water Conservation

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Water conservation is not a huge issue in our area, but we’re hearing about it more and more on a national level.  California Governer Scharzeneggar declared a goal of a 20 percent reduction in water use state-wide by 2012.  California currently purchases water from Arizona, but with the continual development expansion in Arizona, particularly in arid areas such as Pheonix, the need for fresh water is a growing issue in the Southwest.  How does that affect us in Northern Indiana?

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Greenwashing

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” Greenwash (a portmanteau of green and whitewash) is a term that is used to describe the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service.[1] The term Green sheen has similarly been used to describe organizations which attempt to appear that they are adopting practices beneficial to the environment.[2]  ”  –  Definition from Wikipedia

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There seems to be a lot of Greenwashing going on…  Now that the bandwagon is in the parade, everyone wants to pile on!  While I think there is merit in a lot of the green movement, I want Easterday Construction Co., Inc. to follow a path that takes the best of the “new” practices and implements the ones that make economic as well as socially conscious sense to our company and our clients.  I put “new” in quotes because many of these ideas are not really new.  They have been around since the last green movement in the seventies, if not earlier… they were just not economically viable then.  Some of them have evolved into forms that are more economical.  Some have become economically feasible due to our changing energy costs.   Still others sound good, but the return on investment may never make them  feasible other than as window dressing.  (Ah, that Green Sheen!)

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