Constructing Green: The Social Structures of Sustainability
Rebecca L. Henn and Andrew J. Hoffman
Abstract
Buildings are the nation's greatest energy consumers. Forty percent of all our energy is used for heating, cooling, lighting, or powering machines and devices in buildings. Despite decades of investment in green construction technologies, residential and commercial buildings remain stubbornly energy inefficient. This book looks beyond the technological and material aspects of green construction to examine the cultural, social, and organizational shifts that sustainable building requires, examining the fundamental challenge to centuries-long traditions in design and construction that green buil ... More
Buildings are the nation's greatest energy consumers. Forty percent of all our energy is used for heating, cooling, lighting, or powering machines and devices in buildings. Despite decades of investment in green construction technologies, residential and commercial buildings remain stubbornly energy inefficient. This book looks beyond the technological and material aspects of green construction to examine the cultural, social, and organizational shifts that sustainable building requires, examining the fundamental challenge to centuries-long traditions in design and construction that green building represents. The chapters consider the changes associated with green building through a sociological and organizational lens. They discuss shifts in professional expertise created by new social concerns about green building, including evolving boundaries of professional jurisdictions; changing industry strategies and structures, including the roles of ownership, supply firms, and market niches; new operational, organizational, and cultural arrangements, including the mainstreaming of environmental concerns; narratives and frames that influence the perception of green building; and future directions for the theory and practice of sustainable construction.
Keywords:
buildings,
energy,
green construction technologies,
energy inefficient,
environmental concerns,
green building,
sustainable construction
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2013 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780262019415 |
| Published to MIT Press Scholarship Online: January 2014 |
DOI:10.7551/mitpress/9780262019415.001.0001 |
