If we build it........

In the business of making grants to improve communities, we often talk about the "theory of change". That's really industry jargon for a "bet". Our bets are that if we do "x", then "y" will happen. One of the things we wanted to do in Berks County is to change the way buildings are built. We know that buildings account for 40% of all energy consumption in the United States and all across the country, people and organizations have been changing the way they construct buildings to make them more energy efficient in their construction and operations and to lessen their overall environmental impact. There are already 1,705 buildings with LEED certification and another 13,741 in the planning process. This is not a small movement.

So, why not here? Why was Berks County so slow to change the way it builds buildings?

This is where Theory of Change thinking starts to formulate. After talking to lots of people, we concluded that nobody had ever built a LEED certified building because........nobody had ever built a LEED certified building. When we talked with folks in the local design and construction community, we heard all the old (wrong) stuff: "You can't do it around here....the codes won't permit it"; "It costs 'more'/it's too expensive"; "It's harder to build that way".

So, our theory of change simply was: If we build the first one, others will follow. So we did. And others are following: Opportunity House has committed to a green expansion for their facility. Albright College's new science building will seek LEED certification. Alvernia College, while not seeking LEED certification is changing the way it undertakes its next construction project to be more environmentally friendly. And we've talked with at least four other groups who have asked for information on how we're doing it, including at least one organization planning a series of very large buildings.

It looks like we're winning our bet.