Answering the call

In Beijing, Johnson Controls Inc. just reached completion of China's Ministry of Science and Technology, the country's first public green building.

In Chicago, Mayor Richard Daley has made a green decree for all new public buildings, joining Austin, Texas; Portland, Ore.; and Boulder, Colo., in requiring such environmentally friendly standards. And in Madison, the mayor is pushing to join that group.

There's an organization called the World Green Building Council that, in a nutshell, wants everybody to work together to promote the concepts of green building and sustainable design. Its members include green-building councils in Australia, Canada, Japan, India, Mexico, Spain and the United States.

And that's just the beginning. Throughout the United States, green-building groups have sprouted up everywhere. You name the state, county or city, and they've probably got some kind of green initiative going.

Green, it seems, is the color of the day. But whether or not it fades to black is up to the construction industry.

There's a general feeling here that green is gaining a foothold. Many construction companies in Wisconsin have grasped at least bits and pieces of the green ideal and used them in their projects. Some recycle construction waste; others use daylighting or other forms of energy-efficient lighting. Some rail against urban sprawl; others choose to redevelop blighted lands.

But the hardcore, green-or-bust, environmentally friendly from top to bottom commitment is still rare. When a company meets the national green standards on a project, it grabs headlines. The attention is well deserved, but it also says something about how unusual it is that a builder or designer would reach such lofty goals.

Green building shouldn't be unusual. It should be more than just a market trend, a niche for some to exploit and others to ignore. It should always be a goal with its alternatives used only when all other options fail.

And clients aren't an excuse. They're an opportunity for advocacy. They turn to the industry for answers, so why not give them the right ones?

When it comes to green, Wisconsin's construction industry is right on pace with the rest of the world. But the next step is actually acknowledging that environmental awareness has grown to be a lot more than hippies chaining themselves to trees to keep the loggers at bay.

It's about taking responsibility. It's about recognizing that when we create, we also destroy. And it's about trying to strike a better balance in the exchange.