Conference pushes builders to consider ‘green’ construction

Michael Patton said he’s noticed that “being green” has become quite popular, even patriotic.

“It’s the new red, white and blue,” he said.

Patton, director of the Metropolitan Environmental Trust, was the moderator of the 24th annual Resource Management Conference at the Tulsa Garden Center on Wednesday. The focus of the conference was on going green with low-impact development.

The seminar focused on buildings and construction because those industries use lots of electricity, water and wood and create carbon monoxide and construction debris.

“Just like the saying ‘You are what you eat,’ we are what we build,” said Miles Tolbert, Oklahoma’s secretary of the environment. “What I would call you to do is to build it right.”
Building right is not just dictated by how you construct buildings but also where you build them, said Jeff Speck, a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design city planner and urban designer.

Speck said it is increasingly common in newer neighborhoods to have “suburban sprawl,” which creates traffic and pedestrian problems between large housing-only and business-only districts. Larger streets

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in suburbs and business districts, as opposed to neighborhoods with both businesses and homes, lead to dangerous intersections and walking areas, he said.

“It’s uniquely American to drive our cars to get to the gym to walk on a treadmill, but it’s not our fault,” he said. “It’s a result of the environment we’re in.”

With better-planned neighborhoods can come more low-impact development, such as green roofs on homes and rain garden landscaping, said Michelle Barnett, a senior engineer for URS Corp.

By  Althea Peterson

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