Increasingly the reliance on technology to solve problems concerning the built environment has seen the emergence of the High Performance Building (HPB) as a case that seems to exemplify this direction. The term sustainable building has become old hat and the new rebranding exercise now focusses on performance and associated technical challenges that this concept seems to address. However, in unpacking the Technical Fix, the concept also seems to involve an 'Attitudinal Fix' on the part of the owners and occupants concerning the goals of reducing environmental impacts. The Attitudinal Fix focuses on the owners' and occupants' pro-environmental values. A working hypothesis suggests favouring conservation rather than resource consumption. The intrinsic problem is that we live in 'economic times', which means that the 'Attitudinal Fix' is still aspirational. Hence, we need to live in 'ethical times' where the Technical Fix to improve performance is fully embraced. The work of science is to collect evidence of Anthropogenic Climate Change and to use this to reinforce ethical values in society for reducing the intensity of resource efficiency (Cook et al. 2014). The 'Attitudinal' Fix could be directed to the intensity of resource usage. We would need to change our attitude as to how much energy we use and conflate with the Technical Fix.
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