Green For The Greater Good

I just got off the phone with a builder friend of mine from the East Coast. We hadn't talked for several months and we caught up on kids, family, dogs, weather and all the normal chit chat, then we of course drifted in to the industry talk. He is a green builder and has been for quite some time. He was telling me about his latest project and that's where the fun began.

He's working on a rather large addition to an existing home that sits within 200' of the Atlantic Ocean. He went on to tell me how frustrated he was because his clients wouldn't pay any attention to him when he reviewed the intricate sill pan and flashing details that they were employing to ensure that hurricane driven rain would not penetrate their building envelope.

He was equally frustrated that they could care less about the new zoned heating system with the aerosol sealed duct system, remote programmable controls and the super high efficiency heating and cooling unit. After that he went on to rant that the homeowner took a cell phone call right in the middle of him explaining why they had strategically located the new tank less hot water heater inside the new master closet, close to the master bath rather than down on the main level.

"I don't know why in the H@#$ these people even decided to build green!" he finally said. Now you have to know him to truly appreciate how passionate he is about his craft and green building, but I had to laugh and I replied, "Who cares!!" After a dramatic pause, at which point I thought he might jump through the phone at me, I went on, "What difference does it make WHY they decided to build green, isn't it great that people will now build green even without a reason!"

He conceded that was probably right, after all, not everyone is building green to save the environment, stop global warming, or because they know it's the right thing to do. Not everyone has to build green for the greater good, whatever their reason, just be thankful that they are!