Affordable housing advocates find that green building techniques result in higher-quality construction with costs on part with traditional building techniques.

I interviewed Bernie Mazyck on his resolutions and hopes for 2012.  In addition to leading NACEDA, Bernie is President and CEO of the South Carolina Association of Community Development Corporations.

What are your New Year’s resolutions for 2012? I want to work smarter, to collaborate more with other organizations, and to be very optimistic about the future of community economic development in South Carolina and throughout the country. We’re faced with all this news about debt and the deficit and the troubled world market. Sometimes it’s hard to be optimistic about the future. But, at the end of the day, real prosperity -- real success and real change -- happens at the community level. Working collaboratively at the local, regional and national level will enable CDCs to be successful and achieve levels of scale in our work that have phenomenal impact on the economy and on family’s economic security.