Over the last 10 years, the con-struction industry has tried to change from being one that disinterestedly exists within – and often negatively impacts – the environment, to being more environmentally sensitive by adopting green building practices.

These are primarily a variety of sustainable de­sign standards such as LEED (U.S.), BREEAM (U.K.) and Green Star (Australia). Although these measures are welcome and a step in the right direction, they only deal with part of a much larger problem.

In 1965, Adlai Stevenson – then U.S. ambassador to the United Nations – said, “We travel together, passengers on a little spaceship, dependent on its vulnerable reserves of air and soil.” In doing so, he alerted the world to the necessity of preserving our valuable natural assets on which we are so heavily dependent.