We need to be smarter about our resources, we can and should do better.
Whilst on my morning run in the forest, I began to think about how we as a species, and now as a developed society, have understood growth and prosperity. The answer that came up is: for the most part, such prosperity is brought about by the creation of “stuff” that goes far beyond our basic needs. Such “stuff” (clothes, coffee makers, cars, and saunas) has an almost infinite heritage of other “stuff” (machinery, tools), energy, and human ingenuity that was needed for its production. If we go way back to the inception of our ability to create, it most certainly started with a need, an idea, and a resource consuming fire.
Ever since, however wonderful our ability to create is, the entire fabric of a productive society was woven on the principle that we could draw indiscriminately from the resources at our disposal. Not until some years ago did we realize that we were actually drawing on the natural principal (not the interest) at our disposal, exponentially much faster than it can be replenished, if it can be at all in some cases. The reaction is tepid at best. At the peril of falling into the much-talked-about concepts of sustainability, climate change, net carbon neutral/negative, etc. (of which I am no expert, but a keen listener), we are called to arms to rethink our relationship with “stuff,” use less of it, repurpose what already exists, and improve and make efficient what we can.
By way of repurposing, the phrase by Prof. Valery Legasov in HBO’s “Chernobyl” came to mind: “Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later, that debt is paid.” I’ll use it to fit this context: “Every thing we create incurs a debt to our resources. Sooner or later, that debt is paid.” There is little doubt that Earth’s collection agency will continue to charge a usury interest rate on the incurred debt, as it has proven lately.
Reining these ideas into the real estate arena, most human activities, productive and otherwise, will at some point have the need to fall back on a piece of real estate. Let’s be intelligent about how we solve our real estate needs and challenge ourselves: How can we extract more value with less impact from the assets already in existence? How can the development of new properties have the least impact during construction and their operating lifetime?
I acknowledge that much is being done, but there is so much room for improvement, and the solutions are far from easy. By no means is there a silver bullet. I’d probably suggest starting with a shift in mindset, changing the paradigm, being more frugal, and spreading the word that there is room for improvement. We can all certainly do better.
