Sustainable Buildign Advisor in TRAINING

Hey there!

I just wanted to let you know that I took the leap of cash and signed up for the sustainable building advisor class being offered at COCC to 30 lucky individuals. At the end of nine months I will be able to take a test to become a Sustainable Building Advisor - a new designation given to people with more than a cursory knowledge of sustainable building techniques and principles. I am very excited. I have homework for the first time since I graduated from college (Seattle University)!

So...what's more appropriate for a blog than my first assignment. The question we're supposed to comment on is: “What are the benefits, pitfalls of approaching sustainable building from a philosophical position?”

Here's my answer. It's kind of long (1 1/2 pages) and I'm not a tremendous writer, so bear with me. I'd love to hear / read your comments if you have time and the inclination.

Enjoy these EPIC FALL COLORS! I was at Shevlin for a run yesterday at 4 pm and couldn't believe the backlit leaves - so pretty!

Eric

PS. Oh...the paper.


Eric Marley
October 11, 2007
SBA Class

“What are the benefits, pitfalls of approaching sustainable building from a philosophical position?”


As a contractor, I have had the opportunity to not only think about this question, but to make serious business decisions based on my philosophical position as it pertains to the environment. I came into the building industry in a unique way; a friend of mine needed some assistance in his growing general contractor’s business in the office. He really did need help – he was keeping most of his receipts in cardboard boxes and the rest, well, they just kind of vanished. I’m certain his accountant hated him. I know a lot of his clients did. Over 18 months, I was able to get him a system that worked for him and kept his clients apprised of their progress financially. About that time he decided he needed to cut overhead, and I was the bulk of it, so I left. I was ready anyway. After watching him, I decided I could do it as well, so I got my general contractor’s license, lined up a couple pre-sold build jobs and went after it.

What does this have to do with building from a philosophical position? Well, since I had never been on a jobsite before (office geek exclusively), the first thing I noticed was the sheer volume of waste being generated by the framers. I was appalled and, although at the time I was decidedly less “green” than I am today, I recognized a waste of trees, not to mention lumber, not to mention money. That was my first real shift towards building greener, not just quality. I noticed right away that recycling took a time commitment. No one was sorting recyclable material from non-recyclable for me, so I took that on. It was messy and time-consuming, but it kept me on the job site and I felt good doing it. I think that this experience has been quite indicative of the bulk of my efforts to build in a more socially responsible way. Most times I take another step towards building more sustainably I find it costs more to me in time and money. There are more details to keep track of and it’s more difficult to find subcontractors that are committed as well. If they like the idea but aren’t knowledgeable, I end up educating them. All this takes time. I have found in the past year since I started building again that it takes a sincere desire and solid commitment to build according to my philosophy, which has become quite green. It takes money and time; money for education and “greener” products, money to learn better practices and time to implement what I learn.

So why do I do it? Why, in this competitive market, should I make a business decision that has not been a good one from a financial perspective in the short term? This is where the benefits come in. If the pitfalls are time, money and extra effort, the one real benefit comes from the fact that I believe that all businesspeople, contractors included, need to start thinking long-term, not only short term as it applies to the bottom line. Realistically, there are limits (so far we arguably have that luxury), but wonderfully, each person sets their own limit as to the time and resources they are going to put into building and buying sustainably. I was able last week to sit in the house of a self-proclaimed green builder who made no bones about his feelings about most other self-proclaimed green builders.

“They’re not green”, he said with a disgusted look. “I hate this “green washing” – everyone says they’re green and they’re not.”

Well, to a man that single-handedly dismantles old buildings and then remills the lumber to make a new house using 95% reused materials, he’s right – hardly anyone’s green to his standards.

In the end, each contractor needs to make their own mind as to what is important and in what amounts. If green to one guy is using FSC lumber, let him sleep well, knowing he is doing something. However, given the urgent nature of the current environmental crisis, it is incumbent on the rest of us to educate this builder. We do this through gently informing without condescension as we seek mandates to coerce compliance on some issues. When the strength of his belief in preserving the world increases; when he becomes more informed and convinced of the importance to act now; if he is a man of integrity, he’ll change. He, like each of us, will learn and grow and implement more sustainable practices so that not only will he sleep with a clear conscience, but he’ll be closer to doing his part to implement the most important benefit of all – saving the environment we call earth.


Eric Marley
October 11, 2007

John Muir and my brother

John Muir said, "When one tugs at the strings of a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world."

Of all the things I could write right now, especially after such an unforgivably long time since last time, it would be about this one quote. So let me take a minute and at share at least a few thoughts about it.

Not long ago, I had a conversation with a dear family member about global warming vs. commerce, science vs. pseudo-science and "the sky is falling" vs. a reliance on technology to solve our problems. Although this family member and I are close, the discussion eventually dissolved into one of elevated voices, with each side dissatisfied that their point had been truly heard, let alone understood. If I could have that conversation again with my brother, I would be tempted to start with the quote at the beginning and try to help him see the truth of that statement. My brother is not very excited about the out-of-doors; he is excited about moving his family to a big city next month. Not that that defines one's feelings for the environment, it's simply illustrative of his particular tastes. He'd rather have creature comforts than creatures, I guess, if he had to choose. My wish and hope is that I have some chance someday to talk to him more calmly this time, to convince him that that is the choice sometimes. Increasingly so. I'd like him to believe with me that, for instance, low prices on lumber most often do come at the expense of large trees and real forests - not re-planted ones that will be harvested again in a certain number of years. Furthermore, I'd like him to see that the destruction of these ecosystems affects water quality, air quality and the quality of a good hike through a forest, where filtered light comes through needles and leaves, backlighting them as brightly as colored bulbs in a darkened room. And I think that's really the crux of the argument, isn't it? I've seen how a vine maple seems to reach out to put a few leaves in an area where there seems to be a ray of light, illuminating them so that from a distance they look like bright butterflies hovering. In the autumn, how aspens are firely yellow, a color that seems to say "thank you and good night" to every observer just before they lift off to fill the ground with spun gold as they re-fertilize the ground like they've done for eons. I just don't think my brother has seen this, not often enough, anyway. I think that if I am to have any hope to convince my brother of the inherent value of the natural world, I'm just going to have to haul him out into the woods. Maybe, if we do that enough, he'll have the spiritual connection that he needs to have to see that John Muir is right, it does matter, and that it's worth some inconvenience to save it.

I hope we can all resolve, instead of trying to convince someone of the truth of the crisis we face from a scientific point of view, that we'll simply take them for a walk - punctuated by long stretches of silence - along a creek bordered by tamaracks, maples and aspens. Maybe that's the best way to convince the skeptics we all know.