Given the severity and extent of the housing market collapse, it may seem overly optimistic to start talking about a silver lining. For the green housing movement, however, the prospect of a bright side is quite tangible. The convergence of the housing, energy and general economic crises has essentially created a perfect storm with the potential to catapult green housing into the mainstream now that Americans’ eyes are opening to the deep flaws in our traditional building practices.

History has seen innumerable instances in which periods of great upheaval, be it economic, social or political, or any combination of the three, have led to periods of great change. This current moment in history is proving no exception. Everything from political leadership to economic policy in the U.S. is undergoing dramatic and unprecedented transformation. Our country is experiencing a unique form of large-scale shock therapy that, if we are wise, will root out old unhealthy behavior and pave the way for more sustainable systems. This ought to be especially true in the housing industry.

For years, inflated housing prices drove the expansion of the housing industry in what has proven to be an unsustainable direction. America’s love affair with oversized homes built without regard for resource efficiency has just received a big reality check. In a world where dwindling oil supplies can cause huge upswings in the price of energy and other essentials, subsequently tipping a household’s monthly expenses to the point of being unaffordable, a McMansion makes about as much financial sense as it does environmental sense.

As the shock of the housing collapse continues to reverberate throughout the economy and in homes across America, it’s time to think about how the industry ought to look on the other side. What can we do to heal and strengthen it so that we never face this sort of catastrophe again? The answer is green building. A home designed to be resource efficient offers greater predictability, manageability and general security in terms of the monthly cost of ownership, which—when you get right down to it—reflects the real price an owner pays for a home as opposed to the sticker price.

A green home is built to conserve energy, water and material inputs throughout its life cycle. Since homeowners must pay a price for all of these resources, they generally pay less in a green home. In fact, when our company conducted a cost comparison between our sustainably designed Sunset Breezehouse home and a comparable conventional home, we found that our green home’s utility savings more than offset its higher monthly mortgage payment. The growing demand for green homes coupled with constant improvements in green building technology will soon eliminate the “green premium,” thereby making green homes unquestionably more affordable.

It’s no coincidence that green building is poised to takeoff at the same time the alternative is looking less and less appealing. We’ve known for a long time that the sources of energy on which we most rely—crude oil, natural gas, coal—are finite resources. Basic economics tells us that the price of these nonrenewables will continue to rise as their supply declines. Conventional homebuilding practices have taken advantage of a period in our history during which oil was cheap, but that period is quickly coming to an end. As a result, the cost of maintaining an oversized, inefficient house will continue to grow in the years and decades to come. Green homes offer homeowners a substantially more secure fiscal future over the long term.

Sunshine is said to be the best disinfectant, and though it may have been applied to the housing industry postmortem, it has finally revealed the disease within. Americans’ newfound insight into the industry’s malpractice is why green housing is positioned to survive and thrive, not in spite of the general housing collapse but because of it. With its benefits—both environmental and financial—now cast in such stark relief, this is the perfect moment for green homes to transition from niche market to mainstream standard.