Entrepreneur produces satirical laughter with green mansion

Want to find the epitome of ironic and hypocritical? Look no further than the highly publicized real-estate entrepreneur Frank McKinney who recently developed a green mansion. In a world turning green, the pressure is mounting for everyone to take their own steps towards sustainability. But a green mansion? Seriously?

McKinney is a haughty real-estate developer who takes Atlantic beach front properties and turns them into lavish multi-million dollar estates. On his web site, he calls himself the “Maverick Daredevil Real Estate Artist” and the title fits him perfectly.

Any person who has the guts to make a property that has more than 70 rooms, 32,000 square feet and a 14 car garage without a potential buyer, and not to mention put it on the market for $50 million dollars, is certainly a thrill seeker. From looking at his estates, it is also pretty obvious that he puts an artistic touch into all of his properties. Maverick, however, is the title that might fit him best after his recent attempt in the green market.

Maverick, according to Webster, is “an independent individual who does not go along with a group or party.” By making a green mansion, McKinney is slapping sustainability and conservation in the face by creating a completely excessive home and advertising it to the public as setting the “standard for environmentally responsible, luxury construction.” It is my hope that he would stand alone as an independent thinker and maverick for believing that the new $29 million dollar Acqua Liana mansion is “environmentally responsible.”

The mansion fits the mold as a well constructed home that certainly meets the majority of green standards, but the only way it is environmentally responsible is if all 15,000+ square feet of space are filled by what would have to be a small community. It seems McKinney did not take into account that carbon footprints often include the size of the space and the number of people living in it.

For him to get certified by three different organizations (the U.S. Green Building Council, the Florida Green Building Coalition and Energy Star for Homes) only shows how flawed many of the green certifications actually are. Majority of them have standards that do not take into account the full equation, which makes it fairly easy to slap on a green certification to pretty much any building or structure.

I think its time for the maverick to face a community that has higher standards than green certifications and green mansions.