[Greenbuilding] sure has been busy today!

Tue Oct 25 22:47:16 CDT 2011

I like these comments. I have been on the list for a long time. At its
origin the greenbuilding community was not that large in north America so it
was relatively generalized and covered the gamut of natural building,
environmentally friendly, environmentally sensitive, and energy efficient.
It did so during the peak years of the US economy so was fuelled by people
being well employed in those areas. It was a little deficient in the 'social
housing' aspect outside of a few conversations on co-housing but that was
not the focus of the economy of the time.

In the last few years the list has consisted of mostly people looking for
information for more 'hands on' responsible green initiatives and problem
solving, looking not just for information but permission and support to go a
little further. I think this is very positive and I like the term 'honest
living' as I think the north American community will be looking for
solutions that are not just green but are social in terms of community and
economy.

I've been involved in green building and planning since the 70's when we
looked at it as appropriate technology and planning. A big part of that
movement was assumptions as to what people needed - a lot of those
assumptions were applied to 3rd world development with mostly failure and
some were applied to product development for the 'marketplace'. We now have
a great number of products that have taken a long time to get to the
marketplace that fulfill some green requirements but the question remains as
to how 'appropriate' they are for both meeting the original criteria as well
as current social and environmental needs - similar question as to how
appropriate they were for 3rd world application.. 

On a big level I would still question housing development and planning in
general as not meeting both environmental and social needs despite having
some green qualities. In retrospect I would much rather have devoted time to
meeting social needs as I feel that shifting the economy to meeting social
needs would have resulted in less environmental loss - which is the real
criteria.

I value this list and the comments of everyone that has participated. As
mentioned it is not just about information but about the kind of knowledge
that is a hands on perspective. Information is cheap at this point -
experience isn't.

Best
John

-----Original Message-----
From: greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org
[mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Douglas
E Lamb
Sent: October-25-11 1:53 PM
To: archilogic at chaffyahoo.ca; 'Green Building'
Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] Sure haz been quiet around here lately!

Dear GreenBuilding Site Participants,

This site is devoted to the hands on or tactile approach to with which
solving Green Building, Renewable Energy, Better and Honest living results.
As long as we keep sharing that which we glean through trial and error,
science and fantasy. 
This is just how I've always see it.
I have E-mail conversations that go all the way back to 2002 saved on disks.
I refresh them now and again and you would not believe how far we've
immersed ourselves into the best possible means to live our lives.
Hope this exchange lasts as long as my children will pay attention and keep
reading the ones I post on our white board for them to appraise.
We speak about a displayed item now and again.
But more than anything else I hope my children will participate in the GBN
list site long after I'm gone.   

Regards,
Doug Lamb
614.323.2005
douglaslamb at columbus.rr.com

-----Original Message-----
From: greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org
[mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of RT
Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2011 4:27 PM
To: Green Building
Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] Sure haz been quiet around here lately!

On Tue, 25 Oct 2011 13:55:09 -0400, Reuben Deumling <9watts at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I've wondered a few times if the trend you note has anything to do 
> with the rise of blogs, web-based discussion forums, etc.?

I like to think that it's because Green building has become so mainstream
these days that's there's really not much to talk about anymore. (Witness
the discussion threads that have been occurring here in the recent past when
there was some activity -- cooking, drying clothes, bicycling, warm
underwear ...

There have been times that I've thought that we might change the focus of
this List to "Green Living" instead.

--
=== * ===
Rob Tom
Kanata, Ontario, Canada
< A r c h i L o g i c  at  Y a h o o  dot  CA > (manually winnow the chaff
from my edress if you hit REPLY)

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