Returning from the U.K. after another week of glorious weather (Global warming will make Merry Olde England quite more habitable, of course), I’d like to think I’ve seen the future of the debate in the U.S. over a low-carbon or zero-carbon future, and it’s as confusing as one could ever imagine.

As we round the bend and head for home in 2007, I want to recap how the business case for green buildings has unfolded this year and to forecast how it is likely to develop in 2008. To sum up 2007 in a nutshell: the business community has totally bought into green buildings. That’s it, end of discussion.

It was a second inspiring GreenBuild for me, in Chicago. Many folks – and I – had not been familiar with the city. Coming from Toronto, I noticed wistfully the great and beautiful variety of architecture; the public accessibility to the waterfront; the publicized civic pride in sustainable buildings; and the broad expanses of native plantings on sidewalks – not just medians - that allowed trees’ roots enough room to take up water. Not at all like the sometimes square-foot, or concrete ‘box’ tree-allowances in T.O.