Will the recession affect the green building market? According to Peter Morris, principal of construction consulting firm Davis Langdon, the answer is yes, with both short- and long-term effects likely. Morris says green economics has lost some credibility due, in part, to the use of green building lifecycle cost studies that didn’t account for the volatility and unpredictability of oil prices. In his view, the green building industry may need to alter its economic argument to regain traction. Read more from BusinessWeek.com.
Remodeler Paul Eldrenkamp of Newton, Mass.-based Byggmeister recently contributed a thought-provoking entry about the viability of green building on the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association’s (NESEA) blog. The post has generated some energized commentary and discussion among his colleagues. Read Eldrenkamp’s post, “Green building is dead—its time has passed.” Eldrenkamp, a NESEA member who served on its board in the 1990s, was recently certified as the first Passive House consultant in New England. He also chaired the Residential Sector Working Group of the Massachusetts Zero Net Energy Buildings Task Force, an initiative of Massachusetts Governor Deval L. Patrick.
