Green building vs sustainability, and how these terms are better used in our industry.
We in the construction and design industry are currently going through a greenwash, a saturation of sustainability. In fact, we may be creating it.
This public sense of exhaustion and lack of understanding in response to environmentally conscious mentalities and building processes, anything labeled ‘green’ to be precise, is causing an increased apathy in the entire sector and is impacting the communication of projects and concepts.
Yet we are only adding fuel to the fire.
We in this industry, and even those who are not, are confusing two key terms; that of Green Building and Sustainability, in turn creating confusion through misrepresented and easily misunderstood jargon.
The thing is, it’s universal. And ever so easy to accidentally do.
Green building and sustainability do not mean the same thing. In fact the two terms are hardly interchangeable. Yet we in this industry do it all the time.