Money over Everything

For the past decade, the word “sustainability” has been thrown around left and right by society as this great idea that everyone should follow. Recycling has become more important, solar and wind power is becoming more used, and green building is becoming an alternate option of construction. While LEED has paved a way for buildings to become sustainable, it still has not been enough to really persuade everyone to join this movement. People don’t want to construct sustainability because of the upfront cost of doing it. Even though the long term benefits are better for sustainable construction, people still aren’t budging.

With this being said, Elon Musk, owner of Tesla, is trying to make a bigger difference in sustainable living. SolarCity, a company he also owns, has announced that they plan on creating the first “solar city” which would include all buildings powered by solar energy, ideal design for people to walk and bike to different locations, and when cars are needed, would be self-driving vehicles that are also solar powered. While this idea is incredibly ambitious and would take a lot of money, resources, and interest from people, could this be the way to start pushing people to live and construct in a sustainable way?