Do I Scare You?

A movement abounds where homes and buildings are recognized, even rewarded for being energy and resource efficient; for being healthy for their inhabitants and friendly to their environment. Products are being developed to add comfort and value to your home. What's not to like?

I'm guessing that given the choice between building a home that allowed you to spend less on utility bills and maintenance and that was a healthy place for you and your family to live and a home that was built with little consideration of any of these issues, wouldn't make for a tough decision.

Let's say that you're headed out to buy a few gallons of paint to spruce up your family room. If you could buy a paint that was healthier for your family than the brand that you typically use would you buy it?

If you needed to replace your furnace and air conditioning and could receive rebates from the equipment manufacturer and your energy provider, tax rebates from the government and a lower billing rate from your energy provider, just by choosing an energy efficient model, would you take advantage?

Sure, these are pretty easy examples that only scratch the surface of what being, dare I say it, GREEN is. I've been hearing from a number of colleagues and industry experts lately that the terms Green and Sustainability may scare consumers.

Fine, let's talk about energy efficiency and life cycle costs, indoor air quality and healthy homes. However you'd like to define it and whatever you want to call it, hopefully these examples begin to illustrate the fact that it doesn't take too much thought to realize that Green isn't that scary at all. In fact, it really makes a lot of sense.