Where there's a Will, there's a way

Last night I went to the presentation sponsored by Sustainable Springfield Inc about a green home built in Springfield by Harv Koplo. Amanda Reavy wrote a good summary of the meeting so I won't rehash what she wrote.

One of the themes throughout the presentation was Koplo's difficulty getting builders to use green building practices that they had never heard of. That's understandable. Builders have cheap and reliable methods that they've been using for years so there's a natural resistance to the unfamiliar. Koplo advised being persistent about demanding what you want even if you need to find a new builder to do the job.

It reminded me of my recent carpet buying experience. I went around to several carpet stores in town asking for carpets with the green label that indicates low levels of toxins that affect people like me who have asthma and allergy problems that can be aggravated by indoor pollutants. No one had any idea what I was talking about. It turns out that several of the stores I visited did have green label carpets without knowing it. I had a similar experience getting confused looks from store clerks when I asked for paint with zero VOC's.

Springfield is a little behind the times with green building practices so it takes some effort to get beyond the "we've always done it that way" mentality. The good news is that doing so is becoming more affordable all the time and some green practices are no more expensive than convention methods. Others can save a lot of money in the long run.