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Let's see what we can do to mainstream more sustainable building practices -- both the high-tech and extremely low-tech varieties. One way to do this is to promote education and idea exchanges for both DIY folks and the general public, while simultaneously promoting access to the professionals who can help them in their pursuits. But first, the city must develop a plan to take down some of the barriers, either real or perceived, to sustainable building -- and we need to make a bold statement in support of sustainable development.

This means creating community education and project demonstration centers, which could easily be accomplished with the help of public-private-nonprofit partnerships. We can additionally provide/promote discussion forums and informational resources live and online to ensure that best practices are being explored and constantly improved.

This also likely means that we need to educate those involved in permit review processes for the city, include them in educating the public, change permit requirements to allow for and encourage alternative building techniques, and provide easy roadmaps for easily navigating the process.

Such a network of education and principled emphasis on smarter development guidelines not only helps promote this idea of "green building", but it provides other benefits as well. Homeowners and construction professionals will feel empowered to adopt more sustainable building practices; the DIY component will help with volunteer-based targeted redevelopment programs; and perhaps most importantly, we will improve our city and its neighborhoods. If we make this commitment now, our public brand will reflect these benefits and in turn promote them in perpetuity.