Jerry Yudelson, president of Yudelson Associates
It almost amounts to dereliction of your duty as professionals.
Tucson, AZ (PRWEB) September 3, 2009
Jerry Yudelson, author of ten green building books including "Green Building Trends: Europe" and "Greening Existing Buildings," says there is a new way forward for U.S. cities as they struggle with the consequences of a serious and long-lasting recession. Yudelson presented his ideas in two forums in San Antonio, Texas on Wednesday, September 2nd. His answer is a "New Green Era" focused on sustainable principles and actions, topics he expanded on in speaking to the Central Texas Green Building Council and Leadership San Antonio.
Yudelson, a leading green building consultant, told the Central Texas Green Building Council that European examples hold promise for adoption in diverse environments such as central Texas. "The focus should be on adopting the European approach of 'Quadruple Zero Sustainability' - zero net energy use, zero net carbon emissions, zero net water use and zero net waste generation, for sustainable building to firmly take root in our culture. This is second nature to many European architects and engineers, but we're still struggling with it here in the US because it takes away all our excuses for poor building performance. Zero is zero," he said, "and there's no way to weasel out of it. The New Era of Green requires a much stronger commitment to sustainable practices."
Yudelson pointed out that Europeans would not think of designing buildings without daylighting and low energy use, issues that directly run against the conventional American understanding of real estate economics. He showed that these assumptions are shortsighted and presented clear evidence that high-level green outcomes add significant value to buildings. "What part of a 30 percent increase in value from LEED certification is hard to communicate?" He challenged architects and engineers to do a better job of advocating for green building with their clients. "You are doing your clients a disservice by letting them build projects without LEED certification," he said. "It almost amounts to dereliction of your duty as professionals."
In speaking to Leadership San Antonio's 34th annual "class," Yudelson discussed how to plan for 25 years into the future, using sustainable principles, the theme of the group's event this year. Leadership San Antonio (LSA), a jointly sponsored program of The Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce and The San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, each year trains 50 new emerging and existing leaders to better serve the local community.
Citing examples of other 25-year periods beginning in 1929 and 1979, Yudelson pointed out that while the future is inherently unknowable, certain principles serve best to guide planning and economic affairs. In earlier eras, it was innovative free enterprise coupled with a strong governmental oversight. In this case, he said that sustainability is going to be the driving force for the next 25 years in every part of the U.S. "We cannot escape the inevitable consequences of widespread climate change brought on by global warming," he said, "but we can use sustainable principles to prepare our urban systems to assure prosperity, even in the event of almost certain disruptive changes."
Yudelson told the San Antonio leaders that sustainable principles represent the best integration we have of the Triple Bottom Line - economic, social and environmental well being, and that they should be doing more, both in public and private sector activities to promote education and action in sustainability.
About Yudelson Associates:
Yudelson Associates is a leading international firm in sustainability planning and green building consulting. The founder, Jerry Yudelson, is widely acknowledged as one of the nation's leading experts on green building and green development. He is the author of 10 green building books and serves as Research Scholar for Retail Real Estate Sustainability for the International Council of Shopping Centers, a 70,000-member international trade organization. He is a frequent green building speaker at industry and professional conferences and chairs the industry's largest annual show, the U.S. Green Building Council's "Greenbuild" International Conference, to be held this November in Phoenix.
For more information on Yudelson Associates please visit the company's website, http://www.greenbuildconsult.com
Video clips featuring Jerry Yudelson can also be seen on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/jyudelson
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