Sustainability Week Highlighted By Green Building

The executive director of the Green Building Alliance has found a solution to the problem of finding a sustainable way to live where you want: how we design, use, and construct buildings, a system the GBA calls “green building.”

Rebecca Flora returned to Virginia Tech Tuesday to give this presentation as a part of Sustainability Week.

“We’re not just here to talk,” said John Randolph, director of the School of Public and International Affairs. “We’re here to figure out what to do.”

There is a problem, however, with this solution. According to Flora, the core issue is changing people’s attitudes. Educators are expected to be the leaders in the growing movement toward green building.

Teaming up with the town of Blacksburg, this year is the first Virginia Tech has been involved in Sustainability Week. Events continue throughout this week.

According to Flora, the challenge the GBA is attempting to overcome consists of suburban sprawl, a less healthy society, and climate trends. Green building practices are proving to overcome this, with evidence of 20 percent better testing rates in schools and earlier discharges from hospitals.

In a green building, integrated design is key. Understanding how and facilitating different systems can work together to lessen environmental impact is the goal.

According to Flora, much of society is attempting to place responsibility for our environmental problems elsewhere. Some believe that China, India, and other developing countries are to blame. Flora counters that they are simply mimicking the United States; we need to be a good environmental role model.

Still others claim that technology will solve the problem. “We can’t control mother nature,” said Flora. “The next generation will pay the price.”

Flora is finding that one of the most difficult things she’s encountering is that most people’s attitudes are, “How much is this going to cost me?” To which she counters, “What will it cost not to do this?”

Because of this fact, the Green Building Alliance is expecting educators, K-12 as well as higher education, to be the leaders in this movement.

The reason is twofold: most college campuses own their own buildings and therefore it would be in their interest in terms of capital investment to build green buildings, and because educators are society’s teachers and leaders, they will see the inherent value to the environment.

Following education, government and healthcare are in the list of the top five organizations that will lead the green building movement.

Virginia Tech is proving itself to be one of those leaders taking environmental problems seriously with its involvement in Sustainability Week.

There was a program concerning sustainability last year, set for the first week of classes. The Town of Blacksburg put together a program titled Sustainable Blacksburg. Unfortunately, the drama of William Morva overshadowed that program.

This year, Blacksburg hoped to put on another program, and decided to collaborate with Virginia Tech to put on the week of events seen on campus now.

To change attitudes, Flora uses an approach that targets what’s most important to each client.

She uses herself as an example: she is, first and foremost, a mom; her children are most important to her. So to sell green building to herself, she would focus on the fact that it helps to save the environment for the next generation.

For certain clients, GBA has to connect the dots between green building and economic development, for example, in the number of jobs provided.

The motivation driving the green building movement is documented by the GBA as 82 percent saving energy costs, and 68 percent LEED documentation standards.

LEED is a system for certifying green buildings. When a building is green, they get breaks on insurance according to its LEED score.

This has gotten very competitive between states. “We are a football town,” said Flora. “We are a competitive society and that can drive decisions.” Right now, California is far and away the leader in green building.

Green building, with the LEED system, is fairly new, only seven years old. One of their challenges is breaking into the financial sector. Currently they only have 5 percent market penetration. They need at least 10 percent to be taken seriously.

Flora is undaunted. “If we can get 10 percent, the rest will follow; that’s how the market works. We don’t have to convince everyone,” she said.

This message is given throughout the events of Sustainability Week this week. Yesterday, there was a fair in Squires Student Center. Activities include tours of the Blacksburg Watershed, fairs for Green Halloween, and presentations about alternate transportation.

More information is available at the Sustainability Week website.