If it's one positive thing this financial crisis has done, it's to make us forcefully aware of how we spend our resources. This includes our natural resources. Take for instance our supply of clean water. Should we really be flushing it down the toilet, only to spend millions more to sanitize it?Let's talk crap (orig published 10/18/08), an article from Salon.com questions the amount of natural resources committed to handling our wastewater (click here to listen to the interview.
Realtors and Architects are not trained to address urban design and infrastructure issues like how a municipality handles its wastewater. Most people think only in terms of traffic commute time. But these underground issues do shape our communities and affect the bottom line.
This is an interesting time when the word Sustainable has become more than an elusive ideal for green Architectural design. It's now on everyone's mind across America: How much longer can we sustain this kind of (consumerist) lifestyle?
Maybe one day all plans will have to be routed through HECO (much like Board of Water and Wastewater dept) to verify that electrical capacity in the neighborhood is sufficient for a new electric car or a 2nd refrigerator.
