And an Added Benefit is that it’s Good for Your Business.

Yep, I said it. Green is right. If you don’t build green, you are doing at least some of your work wrong. Not all of it, but certainly some of it. If you are building everything the right way, then you are probably building green, or very close.

I am totally over the naysayers who don’t believe that you can seal a crawl space or build a house very tight. I gave a presentation on green building last year in Michigan and two old-school builders there consistently argued with me, insisting that they could never do the things I was suggesting—all of which were fairly standard high-performance building techniques.

During the exchange, another builder stood up and asked the group if business was slow. Nearly everyone in the room raised a hand, agreeing that business was off. The builder said that he built green, did most of the things I was talking about, and had a one-year backlog of work.

After hearing that, the two old codgers left the room and let me get back to my presentation. Unfortunately for them, they could not deal with the idea of so much change and had to move to the denial stage. My sincere hope is that they are in the minority.

Practicing building professionals need to make the transition to green building sooner rather than later. If they don’t, they need to consider getting out of the business. Maybe look at selling used cars.