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9 - It’s Not Easy Being Green

Environmental and Equity Impacts of Green Building

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2022

Daniel C. Matisoff  and
Douglas S. Noonan
Daniel C. Matisoff
Affiliation:
Georgia Institute of Technology
Douglas S. Noonan
Affiliation:
Indiana University–Purdue University, Indianapolis
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Summary

This chapter reviews potential concerns of green building, including the environmental impact of the buildings, equity impacts, and environmental justice implications of ecolabeled buildings. These concerns typically revolve around the ultimate environmental impacts of green buildings and the equity implications of how we transition to a greener built environment. Green buildings may not be as green as we expect or want, and price premiums for green buildings work against affordability. Our green market transformation story is not a naïve, romantic, idealized story of perfectly sustainable practices overtaking our foolish old ways. This transformation story is messy, fraught with imperfections, and leaves ample room for improvement. In fact, that is part of the essence of this story: Iterative, ongoing improvements, building momentum toward a more sustainable system. Openly drawing our attention to these concerns and shortcomings can help us turn them into opportunities for continued gain and building on that momentum. Market transformation does not happen overnight, and it does not stop after a singular change. It is an ongoing evolution. This chapter reviews some of the shortcomings and concerns about this otherwise positive evolutionary path for green buildings.

Keywords

LEEDequityecolabelingenvironmental justiceenvironmental equityenvironmental impactsschools
Type
Chapter
Information
Ecolabels, Innovation, and Green Market Transformation
Learning to LEED
 , pp. 235 - 255
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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