Greenwashing Construction: LEED Certification Helps Avoid ‘Building Makeovers’

Officially, greenwashing is disinformation disseminated by an organization so as to present an environmentally responsible public image. The Web site corpwatch.com calls it “the phenomenon of socially and environmentally destructive corporations attempting to preserve and expand their markets by posing as friends of the environment. it is environmental whitewash. Hogwash.” Greenwashing – as depicted in ads where environmentally negligent companies portray themselves through pictures of lush forests and furry animals – has also been described as “eco-porn.” The building industry, at least, is emerging from this conundrum, thanks to the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program. It is the first widely accepted standard for what makes a building truly green and consists of a grab-bag of environmental measures a builder can implement, from air quality to recycled content to energy use. Follow the link.
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Aside

Between our dreams and actions lies this world.– Bruce Springsteen

Xiaokang shehui or Xiaokang Society

The Chinese term “xiaokang society” (xiaokang shehui, literally “society of small peace/comfort/health”)—first applied in China’s Classic of Rites (one of the five classics of Confucianism) some 2000 years ago—has been widely used in the PRC since around 2002. The vision of a xiaokang society is one in which most people are moderately well off and middle class, and in which economic prosperity is sufficient to move most of the Chinese population into comfortable means, but in which economic advancement is not the sole focus of society. Explicitly incorporated into the concept of a xiaokang society is the idea that economic growth needs to be balanced with sometimes conflicting goals of social equality and environmental protection.
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