Hello!
Though currently out of work like so many architectural professionals these days, I have worked for much of the last two years at HMC Architects in Ontario, California. There, I coordinated LEED documentation for their projects and did a little QA on some of their consultants' work. We worked on LEED, CHPS, and Architecture2030 items as well as a few proposals for local sustainability initiatives. Before that, I worked on a LEED for Homes pilot project called project 7ten which was with both GRAYmatterarchitects and Minimal Productions.
I am starting this blog for many selfish reasons to make sure that: while an unemployed architectural professional, I can keep up with what's going on in the architecture and green building world; I can get to meet other green professionals out there; and have a good time while educating myself and others.
Do not let the title of this blog confuse you. I am not writing it to point out specific buildings' greenwash. I am more motivated to help people (and more selfishly myself) see the danger in taking marketing as truth. This is extremely difficult in architecture since it is what we do. We have to market; we have to make bold statements; and we have to make ourselves memorable or else we don't get any work. (It should also be noted that I am a relative noob in the architectural profession and this is really a preliminary observation based on my experience and lectures that I've seen.) We have to sell projects to our clients, to our building review boards, to the communities, and even to ourselves.
LEED has become a great example of this where an actual, quantitative and legitimate system is having to rescue its brand with stricter point systems. Projects were achieving LEED certification by accumulating values that, in the newer version, would be lesser values. Now USGBC is trying to get away from the term LEEDwash as it came to describe these buildings.
I noticed a disturbing trend while working on LEED documentation that so many building materials advertise themselves as green without substantiating their claims. I now know this is basic greenwash. The part that became more disturbing was seeing other professionals partake in the same type of behavior. At Greenbuild last year, I felt almost ill when I saw products like this with huge displays on the exhibit floor. That was a harsh lesson in what a non-profit can and can't spend money on, e.g. evaluating the sustainability of products using them to market. What was worse was seeing all of the professionals standing around and possibly being taken in by it. I know that my ability to recognize those things was hard-won by the work I do but it still saddens me to think about how many people make their decisions based off of that marketing.
With that, I will try to figure out what topic I will sustain this blog with without intentionally trying to make enemies. Any suggestions?
