Amid turmoil in the housing market, there are opportunities, as well as challenges, for greens and those who want to protect open space. Will we see more green building to increase value and energy efficiency? Or will an economic downturn mean people abandon going green?
Real Estate Woes? Recession? What Does It Mean For Green?
Real Estate Woes? Recession? What Does It Mean For Green?
(via www.thedailygreen.com)
Submitted by socialpyramid on Mon, 2007-09-17 15:47.
» login to post comments
Should be good, but probably not
Especially in the construction sector, recession should be good, in several ways ... but probably won't be. Less new construction is less buildings to get resources for, heat, cool, etc. That's the regressive view. The more progressive view is that recession will slow overall construction, and hence adoption of sustainable building practices, which while cheaper in the long run, are still more capital intensive.
On the transportation front, less money means less stuff. The regressive view says, well, that's less of the more stuff we don't need. My progressive view agrees with my regressive view on this point, except that the folks getting the short end of the stick in a recession are not our Escalade driving, 6,000 sq foot house buying friends, but the people who always get the short end: people who already have less money.
Open space and almost any "discretionary" projects can kiss it goodbye. Recession causes retrenchment, fear, uncertainty and, well, "recession" back to the way things were before they got bad. Of course those things are usually the root causes of the problem, but let's not go there :-)
My sanguine view? More money is bad: less money is worse.
Tom Harrison
Five Percent - Conserve a Little Energy