The new rouge of contemporary urban planners is double-coated in green. On one cheek gleams the dogma of environmentalists, and on the other the sober reality of economics.

Politics are always the bulbous nose in the middle of this urban planning facade, but let’s put the donkey and the mule aside for a moment. In light of the recent conference in Copenhagen, where sound minds debated the effects of global warming and world leaders said they will try to commit to mitigation strategies for the 21st century, we must examine our local responsibility to global warming.

A steady stream of developers and planners has made it into newsprint lately, as downtown Buffalo struggles to find its own face. The ambitious plans for the long-dormant AM&A’s buildings and the possible readaption of the Statler Hotel signify a movement for adaptive reuse of existing building stock.

Recent successful examples of renovation at the Larkin Building, East Village Lofts and the former Dulski Federal Office Building, and some reuse of the Central Terminal, establish feasibility in this form of development. This is fundamental sustainability in practice: The greenest building is the one you do not build.

In the “Built Environment,” a catch-all umbrella for architects, engineers, planners and contractors, the recent trend has been to embrace LEED-rated projects. LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a rating system established by the U. S. Green Buildings Council in 1998. This rage has resulted in genuine advances in mechanical, electrical and plumbing design, indoor air quality, local materials sourcing, improved tenant comfort and general best practice construction principles.

Gray water for our toilets and PVC panels for the roofs were obvious advances. The untold story is that most of these advances were incorporated into new building design. New construction has long been the landmark of progress and success, and so we submitted our LEED buildings as proof of our evolved conscience for the environment. New building also was easily defensible on a balance sheet. New construction costs often outweigh renovations and purpose-built design is easier to manage.

Now pay-back analysis for energy use and capital assets has turned the tide, not to mention the social prerogative. LEED adaption is a positive step we need not criticize, but let’s further advance the basic premise of adaptive reuse. This concept has long thrived in Europe and, to some extent, in our dense Eastern megalopolis.

In Bern or Bonn it is no surprise to see a medieval castle morph into a hospital or school or take on new life as a business center. In Philadelphia, Urban Outfitters has won a score of awards for its new headquarters in the old Navy Yard. And it need not always be reuse of what we perceive as historical architecture.

An interesting adaptive reuse project took place in Cheektowaga over the past year. In the early 1970s, Malecki Foods built a food processing warehouse near the intersection of Interstates 90 and 190. This became Sorrento Cheese, and the sign became an icon to Southtowns commuters.

Now the ambitious Neville Lumber Co. has reclaimed the space for its yard and distribution center. The wood stock is stacked in refrigerators; pine has replaced Parmesan. Economics were favorable, and by default green building succeeded.

Over the last 30 years, office parks have sprung up in the suburbs as downtown emptied out. Is this a sustainable trend? It is not for the City of Buffalo, as jobs and tax dollars have migrated to the suburbs. To quote Richard Moe, retiring president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, “Demolition is no longer the first option when redeveloping an area; rather, adaptive reuse is increasingly a viable, and profitable, choice.”

Green building does not have to be limited to structures. Frederick Law Olmsted left his mark more than a century ago with sound urban landscape planning. The rotaries that we have come to love all over the city will never see an electric traffic light. At Richmond Avenue and Bidwell Parkway, automobile traffic flows freely and without incident — no lights, no electricity.

Was he prescient, or just lucky? I would say a little of both, as the automobile was a long way off, but it is an example of sustainable urban design the city can be proud of on several counts.

The massive H. H. Richardson structure that housed the Buffalo Psychiatric Hospital is an adaptive reuse project in design. With 450,000 square feet of space, the opportunities are unlimited. The city, the state and the business and neighborhood communities have been in full support as the nascent project takes shape. The public hearing process has benefited parties on both sides of the aisle. All factions concerned should make every effort to continue on the path of planning and execution in concert. Exploring alternative energy models and sustainable design is imperative. Buffalo has an opportunity to bring the green dogma of this generation into the fold with favorable economic sustainability.

To a greater extent, Buffalo has that rare chance in all its districts to become an inspiring face of sustainable urban planning. In the argot of our times, Buffalo can go green. The architectural heritage we proudly extol should be reinvented. The new face of Buffalo can be a model for the pols who visited Copenhagen and the urban planners of tomorrow.

Peter J. Atkinson is capital projects manager for the Harvard Art Museum and a Richardson-Olmsted Architecture Center national board member.