Green building is not difficult or expensive if you have the right team and the proper planning. However, it cannot be done "on the cheap." In fact, the current real estate market will not forgive or overlook mistakes just because the project is "green." Instead, green building cannot be anything less than better, smarter, and more advanced building. Great ideas are only the first step. The execution of those ideas takes high levels of skill and experience.

If a green building, as a product, falls short of meeting the needs of its potential buyers in regard to space, amenities and location, it simply will not sell. Put another way, the needs of the end user and the benefits to them must be considered at all times during the planning and execution of a project. If the end-user benefits are not clear, you do not have a marketable product. In that regard, green builders must begin the planning process by conceptualizing a project that is a clear winner in the market based on aesthetics and desirability. Then they must design and build it better than everyone else.

The financial trade-offs that green building makes possible must be behind the walls. Design a better building shell and make your HVAC smaller. Don't skimp on beautiful finishes and user convenience. Make the product better!

Green building must be approached as a business. The project must have its "financial feet" under it on the merits of the project. It cannot be made clear enough that potential developers cannot simply rely on the charity and good will of the "eco-minded community" to absorb project costs. The market will not let them. The numbers must work... just like they must work on a "conventional" development project. An inexperienced developer who ignores this truth because he believes the project to be "special" will end up insolvent, with a project that has tanked. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Chicago has been littered with the corpses of well-intended, but poorly planned and executed "green" projects. This hurts the field almost as much as builders who tout a building as "green" when it sports very few environmentally preferable features. Using low-VOC paints in an energy hog does not a green building make.

Additional Resources
The High Performance Home 100
A Colorado group promoting green building practices. Many different stakeholders are represented and their reports form an excellent overview of the potential and challenges of green building.

Raise high the green beam, carpenter
Auden Schendler, Director of Environmental Affairs at the Aspen Skiing Company, explains the practical difficulties of delivering truly green buildings.