Green Buildings, Greenbacks

A Santa Fe architect has a plan that combines investments in green tech and new spending priorities for federal stimulus spending. All he needs now is for someone to give it a shot.

Michael Mechanic writes in Mother Jones:

"Sounds like a fantasy, but Santa Fe-based architect Edward Mazria has done the math, and his "14x" plan,
which he calculates will generate $14 in private spending for every
stimulus buck spent, is creating major buzz in city halls and
statehouses across the country.

"Mazria was in Washington, D.C., last week pitching his plan to
senators, administration officials, and perhaps more importantly, to a
luncheon crowd of about 250 mayors, council members, and county
commissioners at a national climate change summit hosted by the
International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI)."

According to Mazria, the building sector consumes more energy than any other sector of the American economy. In 2002, he founded Architecture 2030 with a mission to turn the sector into "a central part of the solution to the global-warming crisis" by "changing the way buildings and
developments are planned, designed and constructed."