The Original Green

Originally, before the Thermostat Age, the places we built and buildings we built had no choice but to be green, otherwise people would freeze to death in the winter, die of heat strokes by summer, starve to death, or other really bad things would happen to them. Today, as we are working to re-learn how to live sustainably, much of the focus is on the gadgetry of green: Gizmo Green. This notion that we can simply invent more efficient mechanisms, and throw in some bamboo to boot, is only a small part of real sustainability.

So this is what the Original Green makes... sustainable buildings in sustainable places... but what is it, really? The Original Green is the collective intelligence behind those places. In common terms, it’s the sustainability all our great-grandparents knew by heart.

The operating system of the Original Green is something called a Living Tradition; it spreads the wisdom of sustainability in ways vaguely similar to how nature spreads genetic material. Living Traditions bear about as much resemblance to an historical tradition as a living creature does to a fossil. One is alive, while the other is not. With that having been said, preservation is the act of ongoing sustainability, because how can we live sustainably if we keep throwing places and buildings away?

The best living traditions are held by the public at large, rather than just a few people. And if a living tradition is to produce sustainability, it must involve everyone. Our behavior must improve, or our machines can’t save us. In short, there’s something for everyone to do. And while Gizmo Green solutions are hurt by economic downturns, Original Green measures fare much better, because most of them operate naturally.

Make sure you check out Original Green Stories, which regularly discuss all of these things and their implications in detail. And please make sure to leave your comments… let’s have a discussion!