with the down housing market, some homebuilders may be taking whatever gig they can get… so the question of ethics usually comes second.

however… precisely because of $4 gas, people are thinking more long term about where they live, and their footprint. They are moving back to the cities, where things are within walking distance. They want more efficiency, so they don’t have to pay the extra heating costs per month…

so, the money issue presents both a problem, and a solution…

To try to get to my point, lets look at money as a symbol for food and shelter. Since food and shelter are basic instincts and those instincts drive us to compete with each other to secure more and more. The more money one has the bigger and more extravagant the food and shelter has to be. Building a society of excess on a foundation of instincts, making large scale changes to our social view next to impossible unless there is a major strain on how we have learned satisfy our instincts. Since money is in short supply these days and the world is beginning to suffer the consequences from its past transgressions, we are starting to see the shift to ethical thinking only because our food and our shelter are being threatened.

Thanks for your comment. Your observations are excellent and accurate and I appreciate your taking the time to share them with such well crafted words.

It is that complexity of industries that is in many ways most resistant to change. For the consumer it is relatively easy (the product is developed and for sale), but for the industry it means re-thinking, re-learning, and re-tooling business as usual. For many, they would rather hire a marketing firm to help sell the same product than make the change. For others, as you point out, they are changing and taking those steps towards creating real change in the industry.

Michael

That is an excellent question to pose, and sadly the answer must create a tension with the way things are, instead of helping set an appropriate direction. As you state, and I agree, that is because the complexity of industries that make up building culture have not been challenged to think differently about what they do, how they do it, and who they do it for. This is changing, though, and society is rapidly engaging concepts of occupant quality and sustainability, and not just because it is more about bigger picture value creation than resource depletion… but because those that inhabit the environments created by the building culture are understanding the impact of those environments on their lives and the world around them. Society is beginning to get context and consequences with regards to building.

Change of this nature is harder than it should be, especially for Americans given our disposable culture of entitlement and immediate gratification. However, organizations and companies like those you are involved are the vanguard in making the change we want in the world. Rock on.