Being Green – Green Building and Health

Hi Folks:

Friday once again, so it’s time for this week’s ‘Being Green‘ post.  First of all, tomorrow (June 5) is the United Nations Environment Programme’s World Environment Day.  I’m not sure how it differs from ‘Earth Day’, but any day that celebrates this planet we inhabit sounds good to me! This is also International Green IT Awareness Week (June 1-7) and next week is Rivers to Oceans Week (June 8-13).  June’s shaping up to be a busy month.

Before I get started on this week’s post I wanted to offer a shout out for a couple of things.  First, I was at the Victoria Emerging Green Builders meeting last night, and there is a ‘Carbon Neutrality’ workshop coming up on June 21, here in Victoria.  This workshop is being offered in collaboration with Sustainability Solutions Group.  For more information and to register for this workshop, click here: Cutting through the hot air: a course on carbon neutral buildings.  NB: Registration for this event is limited, so it’s best to get in early.  Cost for the workshop is on a sliding scale, and since this is the first time this workshop is being offered, costs are expected to rise for future events.

Several people from the Emerging Green Builders group have also collaborated on an entry for the USGBC’s 2010 Natural Talent Design Competition and they profiled their submission last night. I had the chance to talk to a couple of them at the end of the meeting and was quite impressed with the amount of effort and forethought they put into their design.

Second, next week is the 3rd Annual Canada Green Building Council National Conference in Vancouver, BC, running from June 8-10.  Should be interesting! Continue Reading →

Being Green – Cost/Benefit Analysis

Hi Folks:

Friday once again…  Before I get started on today’s ‘Being Green‘ post I thought I’d take a second for a little shameless self-promotion.  Marcia and I write on a variety of topics, as you can see from the columns on the left side of the page.  In addition to Friday’s  post, on Mondays Marcia does a ‘Marcia’s Meanderings‘ segment, on Wednesdays she writes her ‘Poetry Corner‘, and on Sundays we both write on a shared topic in our ‘He Says, She Says…‘ posts.  There are also sections on food, photography, random items, spirituality, and at the top of the page you’ll find links to some of our short stories and other creative writings.  Okay, that’s all the ‘advertising’ you’re going to get here, so on with the show!

Okay, the title for this week’s post is ‘Cost/Benefit Analysis’, and it has several sources for its inspiration.  In some Native societies there’s an idea of the ‘seventh generation’ – that we must plan our actions now for how they will affect the earth seven generations from now.  In a world run by politicians we tend to think in four-year terms instead, knowing that a new candidate or a new government can overturn much of what’s previously been done .  If the world were run by accountants, everything would have a margin of profit or loss and everything would be measured in terms of whether or not a specific product or activity made a profit.  We tend to apply such thinking to most if not all of what we do as a society. Continue Reading →