The Cosgrove Effect

When I was teaching at the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa, my students loved to vigorously quote infamous authors in their argumentation to impress whoever was listening at the time. I teased them gently, nodding quietly, warning them not to become so obsessed with counter-culture and social pretensions, that they would lose the ability to think by suppressing any originality even if they did not have any in the first place. I warned them ever so gently that by repressing their personal identity, they would be so hip that they would be just tragic. Secretly, I harbored my own fears. I was afraid this would happen to me by becoming green when building our new abode.

In preparation to building our last house, as we called it, Pierre and I painstakingly attended home shows to source out new housing construction trends. We attended several seminars held by highly specialized representatives in the field of sustainable ecobuilding. One seminar stood out in particular given by a passionate individual who really knew what he was talking about. It was definitely not a sales pitch or marketing mantra. Emmanuel Cosgrove is a green building contractor, co-founder, CEO and spokesman of Ecohome (Écohabitation), a non-profit organization in construction and ecological renovation. Emmanuel has not only impressed us, but he has inspired us as well. This young visionary stands out for his good common sense in the purest form of the how-to. In other words, he practices what he preaches personally and that credibility is important for neophytes like us.

By browsing Ecohome's  web site, the ultimate in Canadian eco-housing resources, we registered for two courses on the principles of green building and environmentally friendly interiors. The quandary is that I'm suspicious in nature and this was not a done deal. As for my spouse, Pierre is quite enthusiastic. Despite Emmanuel's excellent presentation at the Montréal Home Show, I was skeptical. I was convinced that we would spend all day in an ultra organic environment, munching on alfalfa sprouts, being lulled into a slight coma listening to a litany of anti-consumerism, energy crimes and anything green. I really wanted Emmanuel to prove me wrong. Time would tell. Course day was fast approaching and I was brushing up on everything pertaining to green sustainable building.

 

Finally, the day came and while looking for a parking space near the  Ecohome offices, I was already on the lookout. The Bohemian chic neighbourhood had the pre-requisite  organic-vegetarian restaurant. Yet, I still had to watch my cynicism. The neighborhood, the building and the office were so unpretentious that this was becoming antipretentious. It was green branding wall to wall. I immediately began to regret my choice of spending two days of training when I could have browsed for information on the Internet. Seeing Pierre’s enthusiasm, I silently resigned myself muttering something vague about Green Peace picking me up for my dissent. Fortunately I was wrong. Green Peace never came.

Both all-day classes were not only valid for content and for distributed material, but there was a great synergy in the group of entrepreneurs, designers, students, and people like us who were plunging into green building in addition to a rare bird, a real estate broker who was completing her training as a  green realtor.

 Emmanuel knows his business. It's even in his genes, as he quotes his father who is still building eco to this day. The experience of these two men is worth its weight in gold. It is more credible than browsing the Internet or watching YouTube. To learn more, I invite you to check links in this blog. You will not be disappointed.

When lunchtime came, eating my veggie burger with course colleagues, we were still under the Cosgrove Effect. He had delivered the goods. Emmanuel became our guru in green building. It was the same experience during the second training we had with him. My skepticism had evaporated. There remained not even an iota of doubt. Pandora's box was opened. Pierre and I had plunged into it wholeheartedly. It became the basis of our new creed in green building and the source of a serious questioning on the strategies and practices to be followed on our construction site and the final result our ecohome.

The moral of this story: far from being counter-culture or a social pretension when the main players are accountable, ecoresponsible building is not a mere trend. There is a transparency in sustainable construction housing that is refreshing. It has a color and it's green. Green is the new black, the new ready-to-wear ecochic.