Talkustainability like talkitecture

Huh?

I didn’ understand your comment…..I tried but just couldn’t get it. Please elaborate…..

I think she is referring to the building in which the firm works espousing the same sustainable principals that the firm advocates…

I think firms are happy just making payroll right now instead of investing in building renovations.

what would you say to a client who rents their space and has the same question?

can you be grandfathered into to sustainability?

Is it not hypocritical to advocate sustainable designs and not implement them into the design of A BUILDING OF A FIRM?

I think that we are way more conscious of energy and environmental conservation as each decade rolls forward to the next. However, we are also very image conscious as a society as well. And as is true with every creature on this planet, we also want the most comfort that we can have at the same time – transportation, food, shelter, etc,…

There are dynamics between these three things. First, the reason that we hear the mantra of sustainability so much is clearly because society is concerned with it, or at least is concerned about the image of it. Why do so many with no jobs and big student loan debts spend even more to tag on “LEED -abcdefg” after their names? Clearly, they believe that they will be more marketable. If that is true, it absolutely must be because the consumer is so inclined to follow this philosophy that he is going out of his way to find specialized people to help keep him on track (he or she, don’t mean to be sexist, just habits fro my education – old school). So the good news is that throughout society we have a raised understanding of the benefits and consequences in these regards.

The second part of this is that to a varying degree between all individuals both as consumers and as designers, part of this “desire” is responsibility driven and part of it is image driven. Image and economics are non-separable when it comes to sales and/or getting a job on the design/construction end. Image and ego are non-separable on the consumer end.

What is all to separable is the effect of the third part of the dynamic – comfort. That can mean selling out for money or a job. It can mean airconditioning your home or office. It can mean having a full sized luxury 1-ton van that seats twelve while only having a family of three (guilty).  A great example of this crossed my desk in the last year as I was reviewing a LEED accredited LA’s plan for a summer seasonal (open in the summer only) resort. The two large gas fired fire pits made me giggle, but the large Roman Emperor-like gas fired torches on the columns made me actually laugh out loud. Don’t get me wrong. It was an excellent design and I have no problem with any of it. It was just as Lily is saying that the emphasis (more than just in the name suffix and even more so by the lead developer) of marketing sustainability vs. the excesses (these are two easy examples of many) that were introduced into this project almost seemed like a parody.

Everything comes down to how far you want to take it. How far are you going to “talk the talk”? Truly, nothing is sustainable or pure if you are altering the land to make it. Hypocracy needs to be measured against the benchmark of what YOU define by the “talk that you talk”. If your talk goes a long way, but your walk does not go as far because your lack of commitment then you are a hypocrite. If your “talk” is limited and your “walk” meets or exceeds it, you are not a hypocrit.

I vacation with friends at a lake each summer in Maine. One delightful woman is obsessed with being the queen of sustainability. She is constantly bragging about the minimal volume of trash their household produces, how she burns wood in an efficient fireplace instead of oil, compares her “carbon footprint” to everyone else ….. and runs a 500 horsepower ski boat each night all summer at home and each day all day for two weeks on the lake. I have no problem with her boat use, but she is clearly giving herself a pass on the boat. That is a hypocrite. It is also the classic self pass almost everyone of us does when we cross the line. We somehow justify that we make it up somewhere else so it is OK.   

We somehow justify that we make it up somewhere else so it is OK. – this pegs the bul$hit meter every time.