The Greening of Southie

There was a very good film documentary at the Princeton Environmental Film Festival that convinced me the green movement has a long way to go before it is mainstreamed in the construction trades and on the streets of blue-collar America.

http://www.greeningofsouthie.com/

"The Greening of Southie" is about the Macallen Building, a LEED certified luxury condo development in South Boston, and what happens when cultures collide in the process of building it. In this case, the cultures are the Irish-American working class neighborhood of South Boston, from which many of the construction workers are drawn, and the elite developers, apostles of a new paradigm of green architecture.

Separated by class, education and age (the developer and members of the design team are in their twenties), the construction crews often seem confused about or resent the implications of what they're doing, whether installing potted plants on the roof or double-flush toilets in the bathroom.

The documentary is fascinating for this central story line and tension, but it also makes a great teaching tool by taking the viewer through the point-scoring that goes on in order to get LEED certification.

You end up wondering if the LEED movement (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and the U.S. Green Building Council that promotes it should tamp down the elitism and begin immediate outreach programs to the building trades.