One cannot resist observing that clear cutting as opposed to sustainable forestry is still standard practice in the American lumber industry and that as long as our current pattern of gasoline driven suburban commutation prevails, energy efficient construction will not sufficiently reduce our overall consumption of energy even though buildings are said to account for half the annual energy consumption. There remains the possibility that in the long run a world shortage of oil will render our current patterns of automotive commutation inviable. In the interim smog will continue to be the order of the day and automotive congestion will increase. But oil is not the only foreseeable scarcity in the future, for an intractable looming problem is the relatively imminent shortage or water. Yet buildings continue to use and pollute vast amounts of water.
Green buildings conserve and recycle water in a variety of ways.
The second basic choice is to maintaina distance from the techno-scientific whirlwind without denying the potential capacity of advanced technology and the unavoidable effects of its influence. The idea of reflective practice leads to a demystification of professional expertise. If technical expertise is value-laden, and technical experts have interests of their own which shape their understandings and judgments, then we will recognize the need for social constraints on professional freedom.