Real Sustainability
“One is money, the second is money and the third one is also money. It is all money — money and risk go together in any development. If you take guidelines for green development and attach them to your land, then it encumbers the land. That brings the land price down. If you want to do an energy-efficient building, it costs more, though the architects will tell you it costs less. It always comes down to how much of a premium is the developer willing to put on the table?”
mark holland, the tyee
Mark Holland understands what it actually takes to devise conservation, alternative energy, bright green strategies. It is worth going over to the Tyee and reading right through.
Of course, $75.00 a barrel oil makes a lot of green planning and densification much more attractive. And the prospect of $100.00 a barrel oil is no longer fantastic.
Conservation strategies ranging from higher mileage cars to increased density make a lot more economic sense when oil is expensive. So do bright green technologies. But, most of all, the shift towards a more efficient future has to make sense to the folks who actually have the money:
Holland’s group works its magic by taking the concepts underlying sustainability — think local agriculture and community energy-generation — and finding the business upside hidden within. “We take the stuff that is granola, but real, and we put it in a blue suit,” he says. “We march it into the room with a haircut.”
the tyee
Update:
Fifty-five percent of drivers said they had reduced their driving because of high gas prices, according to a poll released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center. About one in five said they had started carpooling or sharing rides more often, while 12 percent said they had begun using mass transit more often.
examiner.com This is hardly a surprise. As gas prices go up people are going to have huge incentives to reduce the miles they drive. Who knows, some may even walk or bike.
Written by jay on August 9th, 2006 with
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