Scott Adams on Green Building

Dilbert creator Scott Adams writes about his new house in the Wall Street Journal:

The greenest home is the one you don’t build. If you really want to save the Earth, move in with another family and share a house that’s already
built. Better yet, live in the forest and eat whatever the squirrels don’t want. Don’t brag to me about riding your bicycle to work; a lot of energy went into building that bicycle. Stop being a hypocrite like me.

Having got that out of the way, recognizing that to an extent anyone who builds anything new is a bit of a hypocrite, he goes on and makes some very good points.

As a rule, the greener the home, the uglier it will be. I went into the process thinking that green homes were ugly because hippies have bad taste. That turns out to be nothing but a coincidence. The problem is deeper. For example, the greenest sort of roof in a warm climate would be white to reflect the sun. If you
want a beautiful home, a white roof won’t get you there. Sure, you could put a lovely garden on your roof, because you heard someone did that.
But don’t try telling me a garden roof wouldn’t be a maintenance nightmare. And where do you find the expert who knows how to do that sort of thing?

Adams has done a lot of research, consulted with a lot of people and writes about it with humor. Read it all in the Wall Street Journal.