The big green picture

I had lunch the other day with a friend and a good part of the conversation centered around urban planning, European city design, Los Angeles, public transportation, the L.A. River, urban infill, and other such issues. When I got back to the office I started a LEED checklist for a new project for which the owner intends to achieve Gold certification. While doing this I started to think again about my Smart Apartments idea and it occurred to me that perhaps a Smart Apartment built without any appreciable change in the standard building practice might have a smaller carbon footprint than a large home built with the latest in 'green' technology, perhaps even if this large home has a LEED certification.

How do we, in the U.S., look at sustainability? I suspect that in many ways we see it as some kind of redemption for our conspicuous consumption. Do we feel much better living in a MacMansion because it is  certified by LEED or any other 'green' entity? Of course, but we haven't made the quantum leap away from conspicuous consumption, we've only sugar-coated it. My next task is to investigate, at least at a conceptual level, what impact does it have on the carbon footprint to reduce the size of a home or office by 10% using standard construction practices Vs. a space with the same programmatic requirements but with a LEED rating. What impact does a smaller car with a standard combustion engine Vs. a hybrid SUV? On a grander scale, what impact on the environment does a compact and efficient city have Vs. a series of independent green developments?