Green is Not a Color

Green is not a color. What is electromagnetically green to you may not look so to others. An incongruous reference immediately skews what a place does and for whom. The wooded meadows of the Global North bear little resemblance to the realities of the lived landscape. Gold is the new Green.

 Green is not a design theory nor a financial system. Washing a space until verdant cannot mask the embodied cost of irresponsible construction. Checking arbitrary boxes on a document does not magically make a project more sustainable. Promoting an overdue shift in cultural values allows for real urbanism and true abundance. Buzzwords may sell in the short-term but do so at the cost of the cradle. Green is profitable.

Green is not natural. Leaving the Earth alone may be as natural as it gets insofar as we believe humankind is not natural. If we cannot reconnect to the natural world, we will continue exclude ourselves from it. Green is logical.

Green is not a caste. Green is inclusive and accessible. Green is for all and cannot be commodified. Public space is not public until napping is decriminalized. Green is human.

Green is not a party. Green recognizes tokenism and feigned allyship while orchestrating a system that fosters growth, change, and prosperity. Green does not make you choose one or the other – it is simply another. Green is electable.

Green is not agrarian. The pastoral image of industrialized landscape resources is at odds with the requirements of modern society yet is categorically identical to the exploitation and colonization of placeless spaces. Green celebrates the stories of the people that inhabit the landscapes that make our technologies possible. Green is cool.

Green is real. Laissez faire spatial management is far less resource intensive than the forced sterilization of landscapes that are maligned with intangible cultural values. Those who do not belong are gerrymandered out of existence by ancient snapshots of the English, French, and American elite. Green does not discriminate.

Green is nurturing. Green sees you, feels you, and provides what you need on a spiritual level. Green is love.

Written by Kevin Finch. Submitted to the 2021 Archhive Competition ‘What is Sustainable Architecture?’