By Malachi Rein, Director of the Building Energy Exchange — St. Louis
In St. Louis, you can see and feel our story through our surroundings. Lives and careers, happiness, pain, sadness and hope. That’s why we need to talk honestly about our buildings. It can be said, without exaggeration, that existing buildings are the crux of our climate problems. Yet, we don’t have the luxury of starting from scratch or uprooting our entire built environment to chase some vision of perfection. Our historic buildings also have immense value to our community.
When it comes to impacting the climate crisis, time is something we simply do not have. Material and labor resources are limited. We’ve already spent centuries burning through materials, fuel, and public health to get where we are. The real question is: how do we make what we have work in a way that improves our quality of life and allows our children to live equally well?
Being green is not an award, one and done. It’s something that you do- integrating action and intent. A building isn’t “green” simply because it exists; it’s green because it is designed or adapted AND operated in a genuinely responsible way. Even though they are the offenders, our existing buildings are our greenest option because they make up the path that uses resources responsibly and matches the clock we’re on.
The message is clear: extend the life of the buildings we have, reduce the waste we create, and squeeze every bit of value from the carbon already spent. We can’t afford to manufacture more “disposable” buildings or rely on demolition as a default solution. The greenest building is the one that is actively made part of the solution through efficiency, better materials, smarter ventilation, and technologies that clean rather than harm.
This city understands resilience. We are a region of brick layers, craftspeople, and problem-solvers who rebuild after floods, tornados, and hard economic turns. As we look toward 2026 and the Missouri Gateway Green Building Council’s 25th Anniversary, our message is simple: the future can’t wait. Inaction is far more dangerous than an imperfect path forward.
People who care about St. Louis will choose to adapt, improve, and safeguard the places that define us. Because loving this city means ensuring that it gets better for those after us. The decisions that we make today for the places that we touch have the power to heal or to harm. What do you choose?