Sustainability is a Lifestyle, Not an Accessory

He calls out LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) as being a major cause for this mindset because of its emphasis on simple checklists to determine whether environmental standards are being met.

"The problem in the sustainability campaign is that a basic truth has been lost, or at least concealed. Rather than trying to change behavior to actually reduce carbon emissions, politicians and entrepreneurs have sold greening to the public as a kind of accessorizing. Keep doing what you’re doing, goes the message. Just add a solar panel, a wind turbine, a hybrid engine, whatever. But a solar-heated house in the burbs is still a house in the burbs, and if you have to drive to it, even in a Prius, it’s hardly green."