What we build, where we build and how we build have social repercussions, economic impacts and, as we are now beginning to realize, profound ecological effects.
Reduction is the primary method of conservation.
If the scale of demand for energy, materials and other resources is not managed, strategies such as reuse and recycling will ultimately prove irrelevant. Buildings must also last longer. Longevity can relate to a building as a whole by adaptive reuse rather than building new, or to its components through increased recycling and use of salvaged materials. Ray Cole Ph.D. is a Professor at the University of British Columbia, School of Architecture. He is currently president of the Canadian Green Building Information Council and chair of the forthcoming Green Building Challenge '98 to be held in Vancouver in October 1998.