A Zeitgeist of Eco-friendliness: The New Living Large Is Living Small

Frequent commenter John F. Robbins writes a post  on the 2GreenEnergy Facebook page re: my announcement that I’ll soon be interviewing sustainable design guru Sim Van der Ryn:

When I led a group called Alternate Energy Assn (AEA) in SW Ohio in the late 1990s, we brought him to Cincinnati to speak. He was very inspirational, but also challenging. In his book (Sustainable Design) he says a sustainable building should motivate occupants to behave differently, more sustainably. That was written before LEED, which seldom accomplishes this, instead focusing more on mostly-hidden features and pre-occupancy marketing hype which most benefits designers, builders and products suppliers. Somehow in our quest for a more sustainable future, we need to get more people on-board, committed to using far less energy and resources, polluting far less. We’ll never achieve that just with more renewable energies in our grids, as most 2nd-wave RE advocates too often lobby for.

I reply:

Thanks, John. Personally, I’m betting that this zeitgeist of using less energy lies in our near future. I.e., we are rapidly approaching a day where “it’s cool to be green.” As I often say, “The new living large is living small.” We’ll see if I’m right; I’ve been known to err occasionally. 🙂