In certain quarters, blame and scorn has been placed on greedy homeowners — those flawed souls who bought more house than they could afford. In the Cul-de-Sac Syndrome, I take a more sympathetic view — millions took advantage of cheap money and easy terms. It was the rational economic action to take. Then there were those who were trying to do the right thing and simply got burned by the horrendous market downturn. Architect Michelle Kaufmann, whom I featured in chapter 7, was on her way to becoming the Henry Ford of homebuilders. She wanted to build green, sustainable homes in factories. Her modular home designs would have revolutionized the industry and brought down costs for everyone over time. If you don’t waste time and materials on antiquated stick building (2 by fours), you lower your production and material costs. She still has her green architecture practice, but has scaled back her modular building operation. I hope she’ll resurface and find new capital in the future. Another casualty of the housing crisis was Walden Reserve, a development in Eastern Tennessee that would have featured zero-energy homes. Built on technology from Oak Ridge National Lab, this development would have produced its own energy. Unfortunately, the developer went bankrupt as my book went to press. I talked to the company that bought the Walden Reserve property at auction, but they are unsure what they’re going to do with the property. In this kind of economy, even the brave and smart get hammered. We still need green building, although now it will have to make supreme economic sense, which I think it does.