People Centered Environmentalism

I firmly believe that there are absolutes in this life, and I left Greenbuild 2010 knowing of others sharing that belief - but with a slightly different twist.  Some at Greenbuild gave presentations of their version of an absolute - one certification regimen is the absolute best and only way to quantify and qualify environmental aspects and impacts.

Several months ago I wrote that I felt good that we’re not limited to one authoritative view on the subject of environmental responsibility and/or sustainability, and having sat through a session where the “right way” acknowledged all but one other certification, I found my initial thoughts coming back to me.

There isn’t one expert, thankfully, and as much as I was surprised to witness rivalry by exclusion (UL Environmental ignored MBDC’s Cradle to Cradle), I was thankful to see the projection screen plastered with certification schemes.

I had the honor of sharing an interview with William McDonough (MBDC) and the interviewer asked what Greenbuild would look like in 10 years.  I answered that I thought it would still be called Greenbuild, but the talk would move off of “green” and onto “good design” because by then we’ll all recognize that environmentally responsible design (product or building) is simply good design.  In 10 years we’d all better reach that point or we’ll continue to drive each other loony with green-speak.

Time will sort the proverbial wheat from the chaff, and various certification/declaration schemes will be, or continue to be, the gold standard, and as William McDonough said in an interview that week (and I paraphrase), MBDC C2C isn’t an environmental certification, it’s a quality certification.  I liked that, and not just because it fit my bias, but because C2C stands on 5 pillars that individually make sense, but together define the quality of one’s environmentally responsible work and design for sustainability.