Page 220 - The Green Building Bottom Line The Real Cost of Sustainable Building

198 CHAPTER 6

Conservation is, in concept, relatively simple (not easy): protecting irreplaceable natu-
ral assets, entities, and functions. Sustainable development, on the other hand, is a com-
plicated dream, an intoxicating brew of enlightened policies, unpopular lifestyle
changes, expensive (in the short term) process improvements, innovative designs/prod-
ucts/materials, hazy goals, and splendid values. 14

Cunningham concludes that restorative development, by focusing on the already-
built environment, serves both to conserve and sustain. I find the concept compelling.
Although my colleagues and I often refer to our company’s aspiration to be a sus-
tainable developer, we also aspire to be a restorative developer; focusing on urban-
core locations, avoiding greenfields, staking out a preference for in-fill and rehab work,
looking for opportunities to link our bricks-and-mortar activities to enhancing com-
munity. While there is tremendous opportunity for green development that accrues
to a company’s bottom line, there is even greater opportunity to realize value and val-
ues by green redevelopment.

NOTES
1 James Howard Kunstler, The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America’s Man-
Made Landscape (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993), pp. 55–56, 90, 97, 103–107.
2 From Martin Melaver’s notes from an address by Tom Bisacquino, President of the National
Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP), at the opening session of the
DevelopGreen Conference, Glendale, Arizona, March 12, 2008.
3 Stewart Brand, How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They’re Built (New York: Penguin
Books, 1994), pp. 5, 7.
4 Ibid., p. 12.
5 Ibid., p. 13.
6 Ibid., p. 11.
7 Ibid., p. 19.
8 Ibid., p. 23.
9 Ibid., pp. 21–23.
10 John Tillman Lyle, Regenerative Design for Sustainable Development (New York: John
Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1994), p. 23.
11 From the Architecture 2030 website. See http://www.architecture2030.org/current_situation/
hist_opportunity.html.
12 Due to the nature of the statistical model and data available, Portfolio Manager only works
for certain facility types. These include banks/financial institutions, courthouses, hospitals, hotels
and motels, K–12 schools, medical offices, offices, residence halls, retail stores, supermarkets,
warehouses, and wastewater treatment plants. For more information on Energy Star and Port-
folio Manager, go to www.energystar.gov.
13 Storm Cunningham, The Restoration Economy: The Greatest New Growth Frontier; Imme-
diate and Emerging Opportunities for Businesses, Communities, and Investors (San Francisco:
Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2002), pp. 133, 156, 166, 257.
14 Ibid., p. 253.