Counting Carbon like Calories

Good intentions or wishful thinking?

How can we measure our industry's dramatic shift to all things green? LEED has put the ball into play but most recognize that we will need a major overhaul to have any chance of reaching Zero Carbon goals by 2030.

Michael Specter, (recently interviewed on NPR's Fresh Air, helps to clarify the conversation around Zero Carbon strategies. He also injects needed realism into the complexity companies face attempting to provide their customers with real and relevant information on Carbon use.

Google plans to reach zero carbon this year through reductions, leveraging technology, better design, off-sets, setting standards and developing valid metrics.

The Speed of Trust - Stephen R. Covey

Integrated Project Delivery describes a framework with different techniques to achieve smoother, lower cost and higher quality construction.

Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Lean Construction approaches will become the path of least resistance for those looking for a short-cut in the emerging world of Integration. These are hard to resist because BIM and Lean can seem like magic at first glance.

They will improve the process without any major change of values or behavior.

However, the real pay-off for these new technologies is when they live in a context of TRUST.

Trust is the revolutionizing mindshift for future project delivery.

If you think TRUST is a squishy concept, something you either have or don't or nothing a CFO can add up at the bottom of a spread sheet - read Covey's book The Speed of Trust.

Here are a few quotes:

"Nothing is as fast as the speed of trust. Speed happens when people...truly trust each other" Edward Marshall

"Contrary to what most people believe, trust is not some soft, illusive quality that you either have or you don't; rather, trust is a pragmatic, tangible, actionable asset that you can create - much faster than you probably think possible."

Implementing one segment of Sarbanes Oxley is estimated at $35 billion - exceeding the original SEC estimate by 28 times.

"When you break the big laws, you do not get liberty; you do not even get anarchy. You get the small laws." G.K. Chesterson, British Author

When Warren Buffet bought McLane distribution from Walmart for $23 billion - their annual report stated that they did no due diligence. In fact the entire negotiation took less than two hours. Trust pays off.

"Mistrust doubles the cost of doing business." Professor John Whitney, Columbia School of Business.

It is interesting to note that the Construction Industry Institute estimates that up to 57% of the cost of designing and delivering a building is waste.

Trust - is the mindshift.

Howard Rheingold - TED Conference