Time for Frugal Green?
Last fall, McGraw-Hill published my book, Green Building Through Integrated Design. The essential lesson and argument for the book is that design and construction professionals have to learn how to “get green done” on a conventional budget, or we’re just wasting our time. Clients of all kinds: developers, building owners, universities, local governments, etc., aren’t going to give us significantly more budget money to do green or high-performance buildings. So how do we do it? In my book, I talk about how many design teams are approaching integrated design, but the key lesson is that it’s all about “cost transfer,” taking money out of the wasteful part of the budget (which usually means mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems) and putting it into green features, products and systems. The second big lesson is to look for all the costs in a project that can be reduced by adopting green measures. One example: a project in Boston found out that by reducing water use through specifying water-conserving fixtures, they could reduce the size of the required water meter for a new building, which saved them enough money (from charges by the local water utility) to more than pay for the extra cost of all the efficient toilets, urinals and other fixtures! These examples abound, and it’s up to building design and construction professionals to find them for every project, so that the green building revolution can go forward in the new era of “Frugal Green”.
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