Why I am Pro-Green....

“The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.”

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer-

Green building, Green energy or just Green ANYTHING... Is more than an economical choice or path that should be taken. It should be thoroughly invested in and put in real focus for the world today, but ultimately the world tomorrow. The effects of our ENORMOUS dependence on fossil fuels can clearly be seen in today's world with the increasing global temperatures and depleting ozone layer. Fossil fuels will not last forever, as we all know, so it is imperative for us as a people to make investments in renewable energy now for well being of younger generations, my generation and the earth as a whole. 

As a young child, I've always loved building things and decided since third grade that I wanted to do just that when I go to study in college. So, I got my undergraduate degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. During my undergraduate career, I did many research projects with various professors, but the research project that I participated in in Kenya with Dr. Esther Obonyo was the most rewarding.  

That project consisted of researching alternative materials to concrete for the use of sand dams in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands of East Africa. A sand dam is basically a concrete wall built across a river bed, during the dry season of East Africa. So during the rainy season, the water will accumulate behind the wall and eventually sand as well. So it creates a reservoir, where the sand acts as a filter and protects it from parasites. As a result, the local villagers have water year round and the water table gets replenished causing the growth of plants within the area. I will have a separate blog on the project in the coming weeks. It was this project that first introduced me to Sustainable Construction and Development.  It ended up being a very eye opening experience as to what can be done through engineering to help the lives of anyone.

After this, I wanted to further my studies and obtain a Master's degree in Construction Management focusing on Sustainability. So, this is why I am here now interested in and focusing on sustainability. Being Pro-Green should, in my opinion, be everyone's mindset because it just is the right thing to do, but for those who don't really care about that then it does produce a economical benefit as well. Being Pro-Green, I believe, has the potential for ingenious innovation in the science fields. The evidence can be seen in the challenges that can be posed when a group of people want achieve a certain LEED rating because it's a new way of looking at the built environment. Or the difficulty of finding a viable replacement to fossil fuels because they have been the standard for so many years that anything that does not produce the same or more power than them is almost not feasible. These challenges only cause us to break new ground and find a solution. 

So for me, being Pro-Green is just a duty we all have for our generation and the generations to come. So we leave them a world that is not on the verge or the brink of being... UN-INHABITABLE...