Sharon Lee, Executive Director of the Low Income Housing Institute explained, “We need to make sure low-income people can live in middle-class neighborhoods not only in distressed communities.We have changed the look of low-income housing. Not only is it well designed, it’s green.”
This begs a question that permeates nearly all of the discussions we have at BGI - "How much is enough?" In regard to Ms. Lee's quote, the question takes the form of "what exactly do you mean by green?". We all love to give ourselves big pats on the back for initiatives that are a little less bad than the ones we had before - and this is how some of our cutting edge developers and builders are defining the current green paradigm, which is best defined here in Seattle through LEED and Built Green. While it is truly encouraging to see not only a change in civic direction but a change in public attitude toward the "green" movement, one shudders to think of the time it will take for us to meet the Living Building Challenge.
What still remains to be seen is how and when governments will align themselves with developers to create and restore communities with both diversity and regenerative components. Sadly, truly sustainable technologies are still far beyond the mainstream, and in many ways both they and the diverse nature of our Utopian vision represent a push against "progress" as defined by our current economic system. More on the economy coming up next...
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