Being “Green” means being truly “Sustainable”. Something that is “Sustainable” is something you can do for a long period of time without “excessive” ill effects on the Earth or Society. Something becomes “excessive” when it’s being done well beyond that point where it should be stopped for good reasons, like damaging the world and the life upon it.
Unsustainable things, like burning fossil fuels and generating greenhouse gases (GHGs) are heating up the earth, causing Climate Change, and threatening not only our own wellbeing, but are and in fact causing ever increasing amounts of species extinction. Buildings produce nearly 40% of the GHGs in the U.S., and the U.S. is the world’s 2nd largest producer.
To avoid a global calamity with mass extinctions, we must reduce our use of fossil fuels to the point where we no longer generate harmful amounts of GHGs. Eliminating GHGs in the atmosphere will actually return the environment to a more natural state, but the longer it takes to achieve this goal, the more the world will suffer, irreparably in many ways. I cover this in more detail in my blog post: Your Future Depends Upon Switching to Green Energy & Green Buildings.
But there is hope. Since so much of the world’s GHGs come from U.S. buildings, we can make a major difference right here at home by switching to Green Homes and Buildings that don’t need to burn so much energy. We can use more efficient and effective thermal envelopes (exteriors) in our homes and buildings. We can switch to renewable electrical sources of power and space conditioning, such as heat pumps instead of furnaces, and we can design buildings to use less materials when they’re made too.
Right now, we can easily make buildings that produce 90% less GHGs than conventional buildings, and we can retrofit existing buildings to be nearly as good. We can start making a real difference in our survivability simply by improving our own lives when we build Green Homes and building. The Simplus Building System was created to make exactly these changes and do it in ways that other building systems just can’t match, especially when it comes to saving time and money. For more information on saving time and money read my blog: What Does A "Green" or "Sustainable" Home Really Cost?
The Answer to our problem is really just as simple as “Doing the Right Thing”. The hardest part may be just getting people to understand and commit to having a better future, but every step taken helps. Doing nothing is the worst thing you can do, so what’s important to you?
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