Green is Not New

The amount of attention that “Green” building and design has received lately has really made it seem that going green is a new concept. It has actually been around in some form or another since probably well before I was born, but in today’s world the items that were new back then are so commonplace these days that no one realizes just how important and green they are.

Renewable energy such as geothermal, wind and solar while getting larger headlines today has been around for over 2 decades. Iceland is poised to become the first country that does not use a single fossil fuel for its energy production or vehicle transportation. Turning an entire country over to renewables didn’t happen over night and has been slowly taking place for years. Elsewhere in Europe green roofs have become incredibly commonplace in Germany and wind farms have now moved offshore as opposed to being located on solid ground.

These green elements are only now gaining such interest in the US because of the increase in fuel prices. What has become commonplace in Europe is only now beginning to scratch the surface in the US. And things that have become commonplace in the US are often ignored because they’re not a 200 meter tall wind turbine that is easily noticeable.

How many people drive past a detention basin or retention pond and only see a water feature that is an aesthetic focal point for a property? They don’t even realize that detaining runoff and using sediment forebays helps a project to qualify for 2 LEED-NC credits and has a large impact on the water quality and quantity that eventually exits the site. They help to prevent runoff from further degrading the water system downstream of a development.

Using lighter colored materials for paving and roofing, native plant species that don’t require sprinklers and limiting the extent of new grading for a project are all ways of making a development more green and no one even realizes it. All of these types of practices are used everytime a new project is started here. I can remember the first ever engineering work I did was for a detention basin. This was before I had even started any of my engineering classes where I learned the what, where, when, why and how of environmental design. Once I did take those classes I was able to understand the full impact of a detention basin, but it is something that has been around awhile and no one gives second thought about.

Green planning and engineering is nothing new to MCLLC and has been occurring for years. This is partially because it is required by many review agencies, but it is also because it often makes sense from both a design perspective and for a client’s pocket book. A project may not have anything as noticeable as a wind turbine, but that doesn’t mean there are other elements to making the project green.