Trim Tab v. 27 by International Living Future Institute

TR A NSFORM ATION A L THOUGHT

THE HABITAT OF HUMANITY:

A WILD TO CLINICAL CONTINUUM TR A NSFORM ATION A L DE SIGN

EQUITY AND THE LIVING BUILDING CHALLENGE TR A NSFORM ATION A L ACTION

#OURLIVINGFUTURE TR A NSFORM ATION A L PEOPLE

WITNESS CHANGE WITH ROBIN HAMMOND DECEMBER 2015

EDITOR-IN- CHIEF

Jason F. McLennan jason.mclennan@living-future.org

EDITORI A L DIREC TOR

Joanna Gangi joanna.gangi@living-future.org

A S S I S TA N T E D I T O R

Krista Elvey krista.elvey@living-future.org

C R E AT I V E D I R E C T O R

Erin Gehle erin.gehle@living-future.org

EDITORI A L INTERN

Gabe Dunsmith gabe.dunsmith@living-future.org

C ONTRIBU TING EDITOR

Michael D. Berrisford michael.berrisford@living-future.org

CONTRIBUTORS

Adam Amrhein, Tara J. Barauskas, Brita Carlson, Gabe Dunsmith, Krista Elvey, Joanna Gangi, Francis Janes, Melina Laboucan-Massimo, Jason F. McLennan, Mark Putnam, Amanda Sturgeon

For editorial inquiries, freelance or photography submissions and advertising, contact trimtab@living-future.org. Back issues or reprints, contact trimtab@living-future.org

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Trim Tab is a quarterly publication of the International Living Future Institute, a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization. All rights reserved. Content may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission and is for informational purposes only.

TR A NSFORM ATION A L ACTION BY A M A NDA S TURGEON

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

TRANSFORMATIONAL ACTION:

#OurLivingFuture BY A M A NDA S TURGEON

TRANSFORMATIONAL PEOPLE:

Witness Change with Robin Hammond BY K RIS TA ELV E Y

TRANSFORMATIONAL DESIGN:

Equity and the Living Building Challenge BY TA R A J. BA R AUSK A S + BRITA CA RL SON

TRANSFORMATIONAL THOUGHT:

The Habitat of Humanity: A Wild to Clinical Continuum BY JA SON F. MCLENN A N

THIS ISSUE OF TRIM TAB living-future.org

is printed with soy-based inks on recycled papers, made using 100% post-consumer waste. By choosing this paper, we have saved the following resources:

contents ISSUE 27

TR A NSFORM ATION A L PEOPLE BY K RIS TA ELV E Y

TR A NSFORM ATION A L DE SIGN BY TA R A J BA R AUSK A S + BRITA CA RL SON

FEATURES

THE PRINTING

39 45 50

of Trim Tab is made possible by a generous grant from the Martin-Fabert Foundation. The International Living Future Institute is premised on the belief that providing a compelling vision for the future is a fundamental requirement for reconciling humanityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s relationship with the natural world. We created Trim Tab magazine to advance this vision and provide a source for in-depth information on emerging trends and leading-edge ideas. We believe that printing Trim Tab will strengthen our reach while also providing an added benefit to our members, who are at the core of our mission. We kindly ask you to pass along the printed version to a fellow green building advocate once you have read it.

Canary in the Coal Mine BY JOA NN A GA NGI

The Reality of a Fair Wage BY FR A NCIS JA NE S

Making Homelessness Rare, Brief and One-Time BY M A RK PUTN A M

The Dawn of a New Era: Solar in the Tar Sands

In the Wake of Development: Breaking the Pattern of Displacement

Hope in Hazelwood: Responding to Injustice Through Collaborative, Sustainable Architecture

BY MELIN A L A BOUCA N-M A S SIMO

BY ADAM AMRHEIN

FSC is not responsible for any calculations on saving resources by choosing this paper.

BY GABE DUNSMITH

7,664 LBS of wood, which is equivalent to 24 trees that supply enough oxygen for 12 people annually.

11,191 Gallons of water, which is enough water for 651 eightminute showers.

8mln BTUs of energy, which is enough energy to power the avg. household for 31 days.

679 LBS of solid waste, which would fill 148 garbage cans.

2,324 LBS of emissions, which is the amount of carbon consumed by 27 tree seedlings grown for 10 years.

A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

hen a mother dissuades her young son from going to the store for fear that he may be wrongly accused of shoplifting because of the color of his skin, a layer of innocence is stripped away. Before he learns algebra or goes on his first date, he’ll learn that during his lifetime, his character will often be measured first by his skin color. Inequity is a choice—or a series of choices—that pervades every society, fortified by fear and stigma. But it’s not the only choice. We can choose to work toward equitable communities, and that recipe has many ingredients. In this edition of Trim Tab, we share stories of the activists, the community members, the designers, and the planners who have decided that inequity and injustice are unacceptable. We examine how paying a fair wage and closing the gender income gap are essential in the workplace; how a photojournalist is creating positive change on seldom-addressed human rights abuses; how a First Nations community in Alberta is fighting to uphold the rights to their land; how homelessness can be addressed in the building industry; and more. When women equally share the tech world, when a person of color is no longer the first to become president of a mainstream environmental organization, when an openly gay person is no longer the first to be elected into office—successes such as these will be indicators. When all people decide to care a little more about character, and less about race, gender, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic class, then we’ll know that we’re on our way. The heinous scars of history cannot be rewritten—but together we can choose to learn from those mistakes. As you read the following pages, I ask you to resist any twinges of defensiveness. If those feelings emerge, try to focus your energy on imagining yourself in someone else’s shoes. Think about how you can make the world just a little better—for your family—your community—and for everyone whose life looks a little different than yours.

JOANNA GANGI International Living Future Institute Editorial Director of Trim Tab magazine

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R E D

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F R E E

Visit us at Greenbuild Booth #437

P R O D U C T S

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DIVERSITY DRIVES INNOVATION We believe that inclusion spurs creativity, and that innovation is born from an engaged culture of diverse people and ideas. In this global environment, we are committed to building an organization that reflects the diversity of the communities and clients we serve.

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#OurLivingFuture In the last 20 years, the green building movement has gone mainstream. The pace of change is extraordinary: at the International Living Future Institute we are pushing boundaries we couldn’t have even imagined a decade ago. Setting a high bar, one that many thought unachievable, has proven to be a catalyst for transformative change. And it’s time to do it again.

T RAN S FO RMAT I O N AL ACT I O N

BY A M A NDA STURGEON

This event was a promising launching pad, but it was just the beginning. The good news is that we already have some momentum behind #OurLivingFuture. Each of our programs has an equity component that has resulted in measurable impacts (JustTM, the Equity Petal in each of our Challenges, Living Building Challenge Framework for Affordable Housing). But it’s not enough.

Over the next few years, we will seek to answer this As I begin my transition to CEO, my staff and I are question more fully: What does it take to make commuexploring new strategies that will help us bolster the full- nities inclusive and robust for everyone? The question is ness of our mission: to create a future that is socially just, one that everyone can reflect upon, and the answers will culturally rich and ecologically restorative. We must look different from one community to the next. devote our collective attention to what might be the biggest challenge of all—to create a future that embrac- A Living Future looks different for every person. It is es and empowers everyone. To create a future that is not just a place for the wealthy or privileged; instead, inclusive and robust for all: #OurLivingFuture. If we are it is a diverse collection of habitats that operate in tanto succeed, it’s critical that we have your participation. dem with the natural world and without friction with one another; it is a place where everyone belongs and a With this in mind, we recently hosted a new event, the place that belongs to everyone. Equity Drafting Table, held in cooperation with the Seattle Design Festival. Our aim was to begin a dia- What will you do to make your community inclusive logue about what it means to design a fair and just place and robust for everyone? Please join us in conversation for everyone to live. When we first imagined this event, around #OurLivingFuture, at our events and online. We we knew we needed to include everyone at the table, want to hear your voice. The future is not just yours or all ages, abilities and backgrounds. We quickly real- mine, it’s ours. ized that we won’t get there overnight: first, we have to foster a culture of inclusivity. We designed an interactive installation, a maze of difficult questions AMANDA STURGEON is the incoming that prompted a response from each participant. We CEO of the International Living Future rallied a number of eager partner organizations in Institute. the community, and were delighted by an excellent turnout. Residents from all aspects of Seattle’s rich tapestry were in attendance and provided their input.

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Photos: Participants at the Seattle Equity Drafting Table.

EQUITY DRAFTING TABLE As the latest addition to ILFI events, the Equity Drafting Table (EDT) is an interactive space to share ideas and solutions to make communities more equitable for all people. Each EDT will be tailored to the specific place, but the premise will remain the same. In order to grow the environmental movement, we must listen to everyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s voice. Effective design is also inclusive design that can be tailored for every community. Take a moment to discuss equity with your friends and colleagues. On the next page, use the tearout to draft solutions for how your family or organization can make your city inclusive and robust for all.

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WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO

MAKE WRITE YOUR CITY HERE

INCLUSIVE AND ROBUST FOR ALL? Host a mini Equity Drafting Table with your friends or colleagues. On the reverse side: 1. Think about the systems in your city in terms of equity. Who does your community cater to? Which groups don’t have a fair chance at success? 2. C onsider the question above: “What will it take to make your city inclusive + robust for all?” in terms of each category. 3. Write your thoughts or ideas for each section, then take a photo and submit it to trimtab@living-future.org 4. Share on Twitter using #ourlivingfuture

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TRANSPORTATION

EDUCATION

EMPLOYMENT

HOUSING + UTILITIES

COMMUNITY + PUBLIC SPACES

GOVERNMENT

BUSINESS

EQUITY VS EQUALITY Equity involves trying to understand and give people what they need to enjoy full, healthy lives. Equality, in contrast, aims to ensure that everyone gets the same things in order to enjoy full, healthy lives. Like equity, equality aims to promote fairness and justice, but it can only work if everyone starts from the same place and needs the same things. source: sgba-resource.ca 7

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“Trim Ta b lives up to its nam e. It is a slender vo packed wi lume th good ideas that sh early adop ift the ters who, in turn, ch ange the course of the indust I read ev ry. ery day it arriv issue the es.”

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B Y K R I S TA E LV E Y

All photos courtesy of Robin Hammond | All photo captions and sidebar content courtesy of robinhammond.co.uk and whereloveisillegal.com Photo: The mentally ill men and women in Juba Central Prison are held in separate cells at night but during the day will mingle with the general prison population. Juba, Sudan

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T RAN S FO RMAT I O N AL P E O P L E

WITNESS CHANGE with Robin Hammond

A career in photojournalism has rendered New Zealand native Robin Hammond a seasoned global traveler. Several projects have entailed extended travel in sub-Saharan Africa, and others have required stays in Europe and Asia. With a slate of philanthropic projects that showcase some of the world’s most flagrant and underreported human rights issues, Hammond’s dedication to his career reveals a refreshing sense of empathy and a genuine compassion for the betterment of humanity. The moments captured within each frame are vivid and sometimes haunting, but through this stark imagery, he turns any preconceived disparities between cultures inside out. The more you focus on the differences between yourself and the people in his photos, the more you can see how similar we all are—our smiles, our tears, our hopes, our struggles. The reality of global inequality is irrefutable—a staggering portion of humanity is undernourished and lacks clean drinking water, and many more don’t have simple liberties such as a safe place to lay their head at night or the freedom to give and receive love. Broad gaps in access are pervasive, and they reach far beyond the borders of the developing world. Even so, it is too easy to take any level of affluence for granted, too easy to turn a blind eye to the global human rights violations that rear their ugly heads in plain sight. Hammond’s photos urge you not only to notice these atrocities, but to take action. The images demand that the observers not hide behind their privilege; injustice in any form, be it abject poverty

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or bigotry, will not disappear if we close our eyes. As Nobel Prize winner and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel noted in his classic novel, Night, “Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must—at that moment—become the center of the universe.” Robin Hammond’s work conveys the immediacy that Wiesel knew so well. As a photojournalist the spotlight of Hammond’s work is in front of the lens. However, in his case, the adjacency of subject and artist poses an unequivocal metaphor of the artist’s intention. He has melded the role of activist with that of photographer in a pre-

cise formula to create an effective provision for positive change. Hammond has widened the lens of his work from photojournalist to activist and change maker. In June of 2015, he launched a not-for-profit organization called Witness Change, which advocates for and realizes tangible improvements in the lives of the people whose stories he’s been telling for the last 15 years. In the following interview, Robin shares details about a few of his projects and provides some behind-the-scenes insight into his career.

10 years. When I met a gay man in Northern Nigeria, he’d just been released from prison and was facing the death penalty for committing gay acts. When I heard his story, statistics of homophobia and transphobia became very real for me, very human. I saw the power in those personal stories to shift the narrative. The Nigerian man’s experience is the result of homophobic laws and beliefs, and the result of homophobia is—it’s killing people.

Many people grow up in societies where being gay is considered evil, unholy, abnormal or unnatural. When you’re completely surrounded by that message, you also believe it. Where Love is Illegal seeks to let people know that they’re not alone. Through the project, people from some of the most homophobic countries in the world are reaching out to share their story, demonstrating that people everywhere experience homophoRobin Hammond: Witness Change is about docu- bia. So many people are reaching out to tell others that menting and recording stories from survivors of sel- they aren’t alone. dom-addressed human rights issues. I began working as a photographer to create positive change through When I was taking portraits for the project, I was avmy images, but it took me a long time to discover that eraging one per day. The rest of that day was sitting raising awareness through a magazine or newspaper with people, explaining the project, hearing their story, does not mean that change is sure to follow. Witness working with them to tell that story, and then eventuChange is a nonprofit that formed with a bunch of really taking a picture. I was always working with local ally dedicated volunteers who believe in the power grassroots LGBTI groups that helped me find the peoof storytelling, but also recognize that a story is not ple, and gain trust from the people I was working with. enough—people need a way to take action. We address issues that the media doesn’t cover because we feel that we can have the greatest impact on underreported isWHERE LOVE IS ILLEGAL sues. Witness Change seeks to engage with people who A project to document and share LGBTI stories of have the power to make a significant difference on discrimination and survival from around the world. those issues. Krista Elvey: After years of documenting human rights abuse, you helped to start Witness Change, a nonprofit that uses storytelling as a vehicle to effect change through education, advocacy and policy reform. You said, “I realized that if making a difference is my goal, to witness and hope is not enough; change must be at the center of what I do.”

KE: Where Love is Illegal began as a photo project, and has become a powerful campaign with a resounding message: “Human rights are universal; persecution based on sexuality or gender identity must end.” Can you share more about the evolution of the project? RH: Despite some amazing progress, the majority of the world is still far behind on the issue of equal rights for all genders and sexualities. I work in Africa often, but I didn’t meet anyone who was openly gay for nearly

whereloveisillegal.com

56%

of American LGBTI youth feel unsafe at school

COUNTRIES

Same sex acts are illegal.

COUNTRIES

Same sex acts are punishable by death. SOURCE ILGA, GLSEN 2013

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People must know that inaction means that stories like B’s will happen every day. If we believe in a global human community, then we have to take responsibility for one another.

Photo: B. Read B’s story at whereloveisillegal.com

”

Many of the stories are about people who’ve been attacked, imprisoned, or tortured. The more insidious aspect is that in many parts of the world, people in the LGBTI community are desperately poor because they’re thrown out of school, lose their jobs, or are rejected by their families—they are forced to live on the margins of society.

poor to access medical care when he needed it. Our intervention came too late to save him. People must know that inaction means that stories like B’s will happen every day. If we believe in a global human community, then we have to take responsibility for one another. We have to take responsibility for what happened to B. I really feel that because I met him, and my work is about connecting people so they can see others I was deeply impacted by a young man who we called like B, read their stories and see him the way that I saw B. He eventually died because bigotry made him too him. B’s friend asked, “There’s not much left to remem-

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KE: Could you share an anecdote of the day in the life of a photojournalist? RH: The most important point to make is that there isn’t a typical day. Our world is so diverse. I work a lot in Africa, and a lot of people treat Africa as a single country and a single race of people. Africa contains 54 countries; the continent is hugely diverse. I like working there partly for that reason, but I never ever think that I know a place. I’m there to learn from the people. I come with my prejudices and my stereotypes, but it’s really important for me to stay there for long enough to challenge those ideas.

Photo: “... Malaysia is in the middle of a racial, political, sexual identity crisis… We are not fighting for LGBT issues, we’re fighting for basic human rights – the right to be!” - Shelah! , Malaysia | Read Shelah!’s story at whereloveisillegal.com

In general, when I go to a country I will set up meetings with field experts in advance, and spend the first couple of days talking to people and trying to understand the scenario. I’ll start shooting pretty quickly because photographs are a photojournalist’s notebook. It’s crucial to meet the experts, or the people who have the interest in these fields. If I’m documenting human rights issues, I’ll meet with the people who are the survivors of that abuse. It’s also vital that I see the situation for myself because people have good intentions, but often they have their own agendas, too, in terms of how they want their cause to be perceived by the outside world.

ber B by. Please tell his story so that we have something There are logistical issues—getting around, translatto remember him, even if it’s a sad memory.” ing—but it always depends on the place and what I’m KE: What was your first human rights project, and doing. I almost always begin working before sunrise. The best light is usually in the morning, and that’s how did that experience influence your career? often the safest time to be shooting as well. When I RH: I covered a story in Turkana, Kenya, about some was in Eastern Ukraine a couple months ago, I was of the first people impacted by climate change, people working very closely with Doctors Without Borders. who have been scant of resources for hundreds of years, Movement was restricted because of shelling which and now will be the ones who are the most impacted. began at 5:00 pm. We had to be outside when it was Documenting underreported injustices has always very restricted, and we had to make sure that we given me purpose in my work; the sense of outrage weren’t putting anyone at risk. really motivates me, and also serves as a reminder. When I’m out there on the ground, the little things I spent three weeks working on the Condemned projthat many of us worry about disappear. I know every ect in Nigeria, and photographed for maybe two hours morning why I’m getting up and what I’m doing, and in total because I was trying either to gain access to certain facilities or to find people who were imprisoned that feels good.

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because of their mental illness. In two cases (at least), I was there without the permission from the authorities because they wouldn’t let me photograph. I was able to shoot these so-called psychiatric hospitals, which were effectively prisons. I was in and out within 10 minutes. To have hardly any time to cover an issue is always a struggle because the camera is my notebook, and the more notes taken, the more information absorbed, and the better I can tell the story. KE: With regards to your Condemned project, you said, “After my 12 years of documenting human rights issues, I’ve never come across a greater assault on human dignity.” RH: I saw mentally ill people who were incarcerated or left outside chained to a tree for months, in the countries where it can be really cold at night and there are mosquitos and torrential downpours. I was outraged— if they were in prison because of their religion or political stance, there would be an international outcry. But because they have a mental illness, somehow it was justified. However, you have to take this in the context

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“

My first thought was: ‘This is human rights abuse, and it’s the most important thing. That’s why I’m here, and why I must document this.’

” Photo: Native Doctor Lekwe Deezia claims to heal mental illness through the power of prayer and traditional herbal medicines. While receiving treatment, which can sometimes take months, his patients are chained to trees in his courtyard. The Niger Delta, Nigeria

CONDEMNED Mental Health in African Countries in Crisis Abandoned by governments, forgotten by the aid community, neglected and abused by entire societies. Africans with mental illness in regions in crisis are resigned to the dark corners of churches, chained to rusted hospital beds, locked away to live behind the bars of filthy prisons.

witnesschange.org/condemned

98%

In some countries, percentage of people with mental illness or intellectual disability who don’t receive any treatment.

YEARS

Mental and behavioral problems can reduce a person’s lifespan by as much as 20 years.

14 IN

Around the world, one in four people experiences a mental disorder or psychosocial disability in his or her lifetime.

of the place. The project is called Condemned Mental Health in African Countries in Crisis. I went to refugee camps and places that were post-conflict, where there was mass displacement or corruption. Condemned unofficially began in South Sudan, but I didn’t go there to document mental health. In fact, I went there to work on the South Sudanese referendum for independence. I went into a prison where people with mental health problems were chained to the floor or locked in small cells. I was horrified. There came a turning point where I was photographing people who were in very vulnerable place, whose rights were denied by the prison and by society. Some of them couldn’t give me their consent to take their picture because they didn’t have the capacity to communicate with me. My first thought was, “This is human rights abuse. I’m here to gather evidence, and it’s

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the most important thing. That’s why I’m here, and why I must document this.” I recognized that these are individuals whose rights were already egregiously denied. Was I further denying their rights by taking a photograph? If they were my relative, father, brother, or son, would I be okay with their image appearing on the front page of a newspaper? I came to the conclusion that the only way that the images were justifiable is if they were taken to make a difference in the lives of vulnerable people like them. That was a big shift for me. I went from covering 30 to 40 stories a year for newspapers and magazines to covering one issue—mental health. At that point, I’d been working in Africa for five years and I hadn’t seen this issue, even after working with a number of aid agencies. I realized that I could either say, “It’s not my job…I’m a photographer, not an aid worker or a politician,” or I could say, “I have to take responsibility for being a decent human, and do whatever I can with my abilities.” KE: What are some effective first steps that we could all take to address the global lack of mental health care? RH: There are many reasons for the lack of empathy, but it comes down to the stigma surrounding mental health. The stigma is not restricted to Africa—this is a global problem. The stigma is the biggest barrier to care. The stigma also removes the ability for people with mental health problems to advocate for their own rights. It’s not that they aren’t capable of advocating for their rights, it’s because when they do, they’re dismissed as “crazy.” Aid agencies often don’t receive funding to support mental health issues. It’s much easier to receive funding for work around other issues like HIV, tuberculosis, malaria—they’re all really important, but funders want to know if they put in $100,000 that they’ll have x result by x time. With many other diseases, it’s easier to show progress quickly, but it’s not as simple with mental health. Beyond funders, mental health is simply not a sexy topic. Government assistance for people with mental health problems is

If you’re a morally upstanding person, you don’t have infrequent. Family members are often the primary another choice but to try to help people less fortucaretakers, but they usually don’t have a clear undernate than you. And there’s millions of different ways standing their relative’s illness. that we can do that. If everyone did something, the world could change overnight. We all have to actually One in four people in the world, 25%, will have some stand up. None of these atrocities and abuses need to kind of mental health issue in their lifetime. Mental happen. We absolutely have the resources to stop them health is the biggest disabling factor in the world. It if we wanted to. But, people need to want to. takes more years off of lives than cardiac disease or cancer. People don’t recognize the reality because it’s KE: Oil Rich, Dirt Poor shows stark disparity of excomplicated, and people think it’s happening to sometreme wealth and abject poverty in Angola. Can you one else. And when it’s happening to them, they feel provide some commentary on that project? alone; that’s a part of my job, and a part of the media’s job—to contribute to how the world is seen, which ofRH: We live in a terribly unequal world. It’s really easy ten dictates how people interact with it. There needs to illustrate in countries [like Angola] that are resource to be a lot more coverage around mental health in the media. We need to create a larger conversation. KE: Do you often or ever feel paralyzed by the scale of human rights issues that exist today? And if so, how do you deal with those emotions?

OIL RICH, DIRT POOR

RH: I’m an optimist. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be doing this work. I would fall into a depression if I thought that nothing could be done. When I share my work, I see that people are connected to the people in my stories. That gives me hope. We don’t have to passively watch disasters unfold in front of us. A big part of my job is to remove barriers of distance, race, religion and gender. Personal stories and photographs have that ability to break down barriers, even if it’s only for a fraction of a second. Humans have the capacity for great empathy.

After four decades of conflict in Angola, 1.5 million people were killed and more than four million forced to flee their homes. A whole generation missed their education. Infrastructure, political institutions and social services had to be rebuilt. The pace of development since peace returned has been staggering. Roads, ports, universities—even whole new towns—are rising up out of the bush. None of this would be possible without Angola’s vast oil reserves, estimated at 13 billion barrels. Today, the country pumps 1.9 million barrels a day, making Angola sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest producer after Nigeria.

In my opinion, helping others who are less fortunate is a moral obligation. I’ll give you an analogy; If you saw a child drowning in a swimming pool, and you were the only one there, you would jump in and save them. If there were other people standing around and nobody jumped in, you would still feel a moral obligation to jump in and save them. Now, if you were wearing a gold watch and it would cost $500 because it’s an expensive watch, you’d still jump in and save them. It’s not a matter of money. Now, what’s the difference between if that child is in front of you or 1,000 miles away? There is no difference. But because we can’t see it, we don’t act. My job is to have people see it.

All this, though, has yet to improve ordinary Angolan lives. On paper, Angola’s GDP has more than doubled since 2002. But the UN’s human development index put Angola near the bottom in almost every category: life expectancy is 46 years; infant mortality is 180 per 1,000 live births; one-third of adults are illiterate. Two-thirds of the 17 million Angolans survive on less than $2 a day. The gap between rich and poor is most evident in Luanda, Angola’s capital, which has earned the dubious title of the world’s most expensive city.

robinhammond.co.uk/oil-rich-dirt-poor

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rich but the government feels very little obligation to That dream may be unlikely, but that doesn’t mean support all people through social policies. Inequality is that we shouldn’t strive for equality. I really believe that storytelling can contribute toward bringing us one of the greatest injustices. closer together if we feel like we know and understand There are people obviously out there who have im- people, and if we started looking for what connects us mense wealth, way more than they need, and people rather than what divides us. who are desperately poor. People die because of that. I’ve had the great fortune of seeing the connections all But this is a global problem as well; it’s really clear to see of the time when I travel. You go to a new place assumit even in [the United States]. There have been many ing that it will be different, but then you realize that studies to show that more equal societies are happier, the important things are the same. People speak differand their economies are more prosperous, and they ent languages and enjoy different foods, but they have have less crime. But, you have to convince the people love for family, a desire for companionship and friendat the top that they have to give something up, and that ship. Do we pray on Friday or a Sunday, or do we have a can be a tough argument to have because those people beard or wear a skullcap? Those are small differences. The basic human elements are way more common are, not by coincidence, the people with the power. than our separations. KE: As an optimist, do you think it’s possible to achieve basic human rights for everyone on earth, as defined by KRISTA ELVEY is the Assistant Editor the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? And if so, of Trim Tab. how do we begin? RH: There has to be recognition that we’re all in this together—none of us are truly free until we’re all free.

Photo Top Left: New Years Eve Party at Miami Beach Night club owned by the daughter of the president of Angola. Tickets to the party started at US$250. | Photo Bottom Left: The UN human development index put Angola near the bottom in almost every category. | Photo Bottom Right: Robin Hammond © Mads Nørgaard

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WITNESS CHANGE Witness Change produces highly visual storytelling that opens minds and changes policies on seldom-addressed human rights abuses. Ways to engage:

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Donate to Witness Change and/or our partners.

VOLUNTEER Use your skills.

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BY TA R A J BA R AUSK A S + BRITA CA RL SON

EQUITY AND THE LIVING BUILDING CHALLENGE

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T RAN S FO RMAT I O N AL D E S I GN

Robert Jones once lived on the streets, struggling with substance abuse, mental illness and a criminal background. But Robert is no a longer a statistic—he now lives in one of A Community of Friends’ (ACOF) supportive affordable housing communities in South Los Angeles. Since moving into his new home, he has found employment and been reunited with family. Robert feels very fortunate, and for good reason—Los Angeles, CA, is in the midst of a housing crisis. Each night, more than 40,000 people sleep on the street, in a car or tent, or without a permanent roof over their head. Many people struggling with access to permanent housing also suffer from some form of mental illness, which is often a major barrier to maintaining a stable and safe life. The situation does not seem to be improving. Homelessness is up 12% from just two years prior1—a figure so staggering that the mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, recently announced that the city would declare a state of emergency due to the homeless crisis.2 Providing affordable rental housing in conjunction with supportive services is one of the most effective ways to keep people off of the street. For more than 27 years, ACOF, a non-profit affordable housing developer based in Los Angeles, has been working to provide housing to underserved populations. Today, the organization owns and operates 39 properties that provide homes to more than 2,000 people throughout Los Angeles and Orange Counties. ACOF’s work is fueled by a powerful mission: to end homelessness through the provision of quality permanent supportive housing for people with

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http://www.lahsa.org/homelesscount_results

http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-84487171/

mental illness. ACOF goes beyond providing homes by including the necessary on-site support services to help residents to maintain stability and lead productive lives. ACOF’s Vibrant Living program is one avenue used to create a healthy environment in every building. The program focuses on creating healthy habits through exercise, nutrition, creative expression and gardening. Resident health is a primary focus for ACOF buildings, as people who have been homeless or living in other substandard situations often have health issues. Sustainable “ACOF seeks to reduce their design is an integral component of this health-minded philosophy because healthy environments help to buildings’ carbon footprints through achieve improved health outcomes and allow tenants to renewable energy, and to respond thrive. Design principles that promote indoor air qualto the severe California drought ity, urban agriculture, and energy and water efficiency Flickr user: Roberto Taddeo provide a direct benefit for both tenants and building by implementing more aggressive owners. For owners, lower operating costs result in more sustainability strategies.” money that is reallocated into services programming, and in buildings where tenants pay rent, the efficient units allow for lower costs of living. project for homeless, transitional-aged youth and lowincome families. The project is being developed in ACOF seeks to reduce their buildings’ carbon foot- partnership with David & Margaret Youth and Famprints through renewable energy, and to respond to ily Services—an organization serving foster and orthe severe California drought by implementing more phaned youth for more than 100 years in La Verne, CA. aggressive sustainability strategies. Several of ACOF’s projects are LEED Platinum Certified, but the Living The team of designers, engineers, contractors and conBuilding Challenge philosophy piqued their interest as sultants were initially tasked with exploring the steps a likely next step. The Challenge encompasses a holisnecessary to reach full Living Building Certification, a tic ideology that goes beyond projected outcomes for process that involved extensive technical conversation, energy and water, and includes Equity, Beauty, Health particularly around the feasibility of achieving net pos& Happiness, and Place—issues that are paramount itive energy and water. However, the project was nearly to ACOF’s mission. The tenants are the greatest conready to break ground, and the cost of implementing sideration for ACOF because tenants are most directly many of the material changes necessary to achieve full impacted by the decisions that are made. ACOF recogLiving Certification surpassed the project’s limited nizes that beyond creating residences, they are estabfinancial resources. Instead, the team focused its atlishing the foundations for healthy homes. tention on achieving Petal Certification. The Energy Petal presented numerous challenges, including the Cedar Springs Apartments – In Pursuit of allocation of adequate space for photovoltaics without Petal Certification exceeding the limited budget; however, after a number of amendments, the project is on track to satisfy ACOF’s first foray into the Living Building Challenge requirements. In addition, the team chose to pursue is Cedar Springs Apartments—a 36-unit integrated the Health and Equity Petals, which were well suited

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for ACOF’s organizational mission and core values of dignity, excellence and community. The Equity Petal for LBC version 2.1 (an earlier iteration of the Challenge), incorporates three Imperatives: Human Scale + Humane Places, Democracy + Social Justice, and Rights to Nature. These broad Imperatives have relatively minimal requirements for implementation compared to other Petals, and most of the team felt that these were readily attainable. Few physical design changes were needed to meet the requirements for this Petal, and they did not impact the overall cost, scope or work involved. The project was already fairly well situated at a density and location where the buildings would not block access to light or views for any surrounding buildings, and the open, campus-style layout provided access to nature and created gathering opportunities for

tenants and visitors—both requirements of the Petal. Perhaps the greatest impact the Equity Petal has had on this project, and on ACOF’s work, resulted from the decision to apply Universal Design standards to all units, not just the required minimums for codes and funding, in response to the Democracy + Social Justice Imperative. In addition to overall Universal Design, all ground-floor units are designed to be adaptable to become fully accessible, should the need arise. The customizable nature of design provides a level of housing security for tenants to age in place and to accommodate disabilities during their tenancy. The seemingly simple philosophy—accessible housing for all—is now embedded into the scope of all of ACOF’s projects. Although ensuring that the requirements of Universal Design are met in all units presents an added challenge to architects, but this extra initiative provides a sense of security for ACOF’s residents. For tenants like Robert Jones, who is in his sixties, aging in place will

The Evolution of the Living Building Challenge Equity Petal

EQUITY PETAL IMPERATIVES

ITERATION OF THE CHALLENGE

LIVING BUILDING CHALLENGE 3.0

LIVING BUILDING CHALLENGE 2.1

LIVING BUILDING CHALLENGE 3.0

Framework for Affordable Housing

Imperative 16: Human Scale + Humane Places

Imperative 15: Human Scale + Humane Places

Imperative 17: Democracy + Social Justice

Imperative 16: Universal Access to Nature + Place

Imperative 18: Rights to Nature

Imperative 17: Equitable Investments

Imperative 18: JUSTTM Organizations

Imperative 18: JUSTTM Organizations v.3.0 Equity Petal: I17 Equitable Investment (pg. 17 of the Equity Petal Handbook)

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be key to remaining stably housed in the home he calls his “sanctuary.”

address the needs of homeless and disabled veterans, including:

Liberty Lane – Living Building Challenge Framework for Affordable Housing Pilot Project

• A community garden with meditation area;

In August, ACOF’s Liberty Lane project was accepted into the Pilot Program for Affordable Housing (LBC version 3.0). The project will include 80 units of oneand two-bedroom apartments for homeless and lowincome veterans. Through a partnership with U.S. VETS, an organization serving at-risk and homeless veterans across the country, tenants will have access to services within easy reach, eliminating the barrier of distance and increasing the opportunity for success.

• A community room with a kitchen spacious enough for teaching cooking classes; • Fitness facilities (one of the biggest requests from the veterans served by U.S. VETS); • A quarter-mile outdoor walking path. Acceptance into the Pilot Program will provide additional resources for ACOF to explore new ways to incorporate the Equity Petal. Currently, ACOF is exploring some important new questions:

• Does providing ADA-accessible, quality affordable housing mean that ACOF provides equitable The collaboration with U.S. VETS has also informed housing? the design decisions and amenities going into Liberty Lane Apartments. In addition to on-site case manage- • Or does it mean they have to look beyond the ment services and universally designed units, the projscope of the project, to consider other community ect will incorporate many features that specifically benefits that their housing can bring?

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• Might commercial components be included such as childcare, gardens or fitness areas that are open to the community, cleaning up blighted properties, providing community gathering places, or even providing a public art piece for others to enjoy?

“Achieving equity is not as simple as decreasing energy use; a comparable framework does not exist.”

As ACOF begins to view projects in this new light, they are able to reflect on the project’s impact and its relationship to the surrounding community: Liberty Lane is not merely a stand-alone project, but a part of the larger public realm. Carving out the time to have these discussions of connectivity is often difficult for developers, but within the framework of the Pilot Program, they are able to devote a portion of their focus to important discussions.

is not a topic typically introduced in a construction meeting or design charrette. Rarely, if ever, is there an expert on equitable development present. Achieving equity is not as simple as decreasing energy use; a comparable framework does not exist. In order to examine equity in development, it is essential to consider how projects can contribute to a more equitable world. This evaluation challenges the concept of equity in the same way that the Challenge approaches water or energy—not solely minimizing negative impact, but striving to achieve regenerative, positive systems. With that mindset, we ask, what does Net Positive Equity looks like? The environmental cause, after all, is also humanitarian. If we want to be champions of sustainability, we must also include the social environment in the same conversation as the built environment. We must consider the Equity Petal with the same rigor as Energy, Water and Materials— maybe then we will truly be working toward a future that is “socially just, culturally rich and ecologically restorative.”

The concept of Equity extends beyond physical components of the project. In pursuit of the Challenge with Liberty Lane Apartments, ACOF will consider their role as an equitable and just employer using the JUST Employer Imperative in version 3.0 of the Challenge, which requires at least one member of the project team to be JUST Certified. They are still in the nascent stage of investigating this requirement, but the process has already caused them to consider their own roles and responsibilities to the community—not just with the end product and future tenants, but for all of those involved in the production of a building. If the end result is achieved at the expense of the laborers, contractors and staff, is the *A special thanks to Gina Ciganik, Sunshine Mathon, Hilary Noll, Tim Kohut and Travis Michael Sage for their process equitable? work, insight, and contributions to the discussion of the Equity Petal in affordable housing.

Net Positive Equity

Affordable housing units are not inherently equitable. Good intentions and inclusive processes do not negate the responsibility to examine the contribution to a more equitable and just society. ACOF is a building industry practitioner, and the language of water, energy and materials—the “big three” of the Challenge—are familiar. Some technologies for net positive energy and water are new for ACOF, but they still fit within the current system of building. Equity, on the other hand,

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BRITA CARLSON AND TARA BARAUSKAS, A Community of Friends

B Y J A S O N F. M C L E N N A N

THE HABITAT OF HUMANITY A WILD TO CLINICAL CONTINUUM 25

ISSUE 27

T RAN S FO RMAT I O N AL T H O U GH T

Every generation has a tendency to consider its way of living to be normal— the way it always was, how it will continue and how it should be. We are selfcentered that way, which makes some sense because our patterns of behavior make up our entire direct context. History lessons sometimes seem abstract, and the future hasn’t happened yet. We know that things have changed greatly in the last few centuries—especially in the last few several decades with regards to. This is particularly true when we consider the human habitat—the environment we have created to provide ourselves with security and shelter. In the span of just a handful of generations, we humans have radically altered our surroundings. We’ve transitioned out of the natural habitat where we spent our first 200,000 years and hurled ourselves into one that is increasingly artificial, and there’s no way that the pace of natural human evolution can keep up with the environmental changes we’ve

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created. In our relentless march forward, we haven’t stopped long enough to consider how the radical change in our homes, offices and cities are affecting us. It’s time for us to ask what short- and long-term effects our new habitat is imposing on our species and the environment.

FROM OUTSIDE TO INSIDE

1945.1 Modern-day humans in these habitats have too few opportunities to interact with the natural environThink about the vast difference between how people ment as they go about their days; many children never live in the industrialized world today versus where the have the opportunity to climb a tree or experience true, majority of their ancestors dwelled; â&#x20AC;&#x153;creature com- untouched nature. With light pollution, dark skies are fortsâ&#x20AC;? are almost exclusively focused on the interior of a thing of the past. buildings and homes, while not-so-distant predecessors lived the majority of life outside. This is a simple Will this rapid variation in human habitat unleash observation loaded with profound implications. What rapid evolutionary change, and is that change already are the biological implications of transitioning a spe- underway? Will we experience a type of punctuated cies that evolved under the stars for over two million equilibrium similar to the sudden modifications seen years to one that rarely ever sees a star? in species that are abruptly isolated by natural phenomena? Will the humans of tomorrow begin to dePlaces such as Shanghai, Tokyo and Mexico City velop different attributes in response to a separation offer extreme examples of densely urbanized mega- from the natural world? Will our new manufactured cities, human communities that have literally environments weaken us in some critical way? become unnatural in an alarmingly short period of time, with more concrete than trees. Too many people Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll begin with the understanding that modern are crowded into overbuilt, artificial landscapes that humans are at least 200,000 years old; however, given have cropped up in just the past two centuries with the majority of the population growth happening since 1 https://www.nae.edu/Publications/Bridge/UrbanizationEngineering/MegacitiesandtheDevelopingWorld.aspx

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Most of human existence has occurred under the direct illumination of the sky”

“ WHAT ARE THE BIOLOGIC IMPLICATIONS OF TRANSITIONING A SPECIES THAT EVOLVED UNDER THE STARS FOR OVER TWO MILLION YEARS TO RARELY EVER SEEING A STAR?” They drank only water and ate an omnivore’s diet of nuts, grubs, vegetables, fruit, meat and fish. The normal routine provided constant exercise, since following the herds and moving with the seasons meant that everyone walked an estimated average of five to nine miles each day.2 There were short periods of intense stress (adrenaline flowed when large carnivores were approaching, for example) and longer periods of idle time as hunter-gatherers, likely without the chronic longFor several million years, our humanoid ancestors term stress that we know today. They stood, squatted or lived almost completely outdoors, using only caves, sat on hard objects for much of the time,3 and ate dirt trees and crude shelters for respite from the elements. and bugs while coexisting intimately with other organHumans rose with the sun and slept when it was dark. isms—that sometimes tormented them and sometimes They were guided by moonlight and starlight and, later, by firelight. They breathed pristine air that was free of chemicals (except perhaps in caves with fire). the drastic changes introduced by industrialization and technology, it is not an exaggeration to say that our species created wholesale changes to our environment only within the last 100 years, or 1/2000 of our history—a mere blip. Factoring in archaic humans (that share 99% of our DNA) dating back two million years, our “new habitat” represents only 1/20,000 of our current environmental context.

2 3

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http://thepaleodiet.com/run-hunt-workouts-compare/#.VmDDP2SrRGF

It is fair to say that we evolved being slightly uncomfortable to very uncomfortable nearly all the time.

“ AS WITH ANYTHING, THERE IS AN IDEAL BALANCE—A PLACE WHERE THINGS ARE IN HARMONY AND OPTIMAL CONDITIONS ARE ACHIEVED; A SWEET SPOT BETWEEN THE PRE-INDUSTRIAL PAST AND OVER-INDUSTRIALIZED PRESENT; AN INTERNAL ‘BOUNDARY OF DISCONNECT’ THAT WE CROSS AT OUR PERIL.”

shaped how long they lived in a particular place.4 They adapted to varying degrees of temperature fluctuations, and relied on all five of the senses for survival. I could go on, but the picture is clear. Now consider current conditions for affluent humans in the developed world—most people in this segment spend about 90% of their time indoors.5 They breathe air that contains a veritable soup of chemicals and pollutants (especially in crowded cities), and those who are smokers intentionally inhale approximately 7,000 toxic chemicals. During those hours indoors, where the temperature is often set at a constantly comfortable 72 degrees Fahrenheit, they typically sit in chairs or lie in beds—few stand for long periods anymore. There is habituated sedation, which led to a lack of sufficient exercise and an obesity epidemic.

On average, they do not get enough natural light during the day but instead bathe themselves in too much artificial light at night—something researchers are finding is terrible for the circadian system that regulates the digestive and immune systems. Their bodies and indoor environments are sterilized, destroying the beneficial microbial communities that have evolved with the species. Many work and live in a state of constant background stress due to the pace of life and the work environment. And they stare at computer screens for hours (which is hardly natural), but spend only minutes looking at trees and other life beyond their pets. The developed world has unconsciously dotted the built landscape with natural placeholders to sate a missing desire: hanging images of nature on interior walls; building parks into cities’ plans; caging animals in zoos to observe them from a safe distance. In so doing, we have trapped ourselves in a cage of our own making. All of these attempts to surround ourselves with stand-ins for the natural world stem from a collective sense of loss.

The urban living trend is driving the new normal for human habitats, and unleashing a grand experiment on the human condition. What happens when you completely change the environment of the majority of a species? Many modern cities do not provide humans with the elements necessary to thrive in the natural manner with which they evolved, yet migration to urban dwellings is rapidly increasing.6 While approximately half of the global population lives in cities today, a much larger percentage of humans will flock to urban areas by the turn of the next century. This urbanization of our habitat becomes an experiment on a Their diets don’t serve them well either. Most people majority of our kind. It is important to note that even in industrialized nations consume copious quantities our “rural” environments bear little resemblance to the of foods that are high in sugar, fat and salt. They ingest way humans used to live. an overabundance of calories and multiple chemical preservatives with every meal. They drink far too little WHEN EVERYTHING WE WANT IS THE water, usually replacing it with beverages laden again OPPOSITE OF WHAT WE NEED with chemicals, sugar and often alcohol.

Humans would often move dwelling units as soon as pests became too numerous in any location.

5 http://greenguard.org/en/consumers/consumers_iaq.aspx

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2015 marks the approximate year that the majority of the world’s population will live in cities. instead of rural

conditions. Currently, 50% of humanity now lives in urbanized communities.

RURAL TO URBAN MIGRATION 1950 – 2100

RURAL

29% 71%

1950

62%

1975

38%

53%

47%

URBAN

16%

24% 42%

2000

2025

58%

33%

2050

2075

67%

76%

2100

84%

Source: http://ensia.com/infographics/the-global-population-in-2100/

I want to be very clear that I don’t pine for the “way things were” or romanticize our hunter-gatherer past. Pre-modern life was not always idyllic, and current ways of life are not always apocalyptic. On the contrary, life for our ancestors was short and brutish. Technological advancements in the developed world have delivered some undeniable benefits to humanity. It’s hard to deny progress on so many fronts, but there needs to be a limit, beyond which too much separation begins to lead us down a path of regression. I’m afraid we’ve passed that point.

There has to be a human-created environment where humanity is truly at its best and healthiest. Surely there is a set of conditions that best supports human wellness, culture, safety and life expectancy. Instead of spending so much money and time on technological and mechanized efficiencies, we need to focus resources on a much more critical analysis, one that examines the causes of many of the chronic problems that compromise human health, community and culture.

What would the ideal human environment look like? Let’s consider the key elements of the pre-industrial As with anything, there is an ideal balance—a place past (pre-agricultural age),7 the present affluent, develwhere things are in harmony and optimal conditions oped world, and the ideal future. How far from ideal are achieved; a sweet spot between the pre-industri- are we in each category?8 al past and over-industrialized present; an internal “Boundary of Disconnect” that we cross at our peril. Returning to all of the ways of the past is clearly not (For more on the Boundary of Disconnect concept, re- an option nor would it be desirable, but nor can we alfer to the January 2013 issue of Trim Tab.) Of course, low certain current conditions to remain unchanged. this theoretical boundary is never static. There has al- The direction we are headed towards even greater ways been a dynamic interplay of forces. We are a durable and adaptable species, and many of our innovations have helped us immensely. But that doesn’t discount the need for reflection and analysis. 7

It is important to point out that I am leaving out humanity’s initial transition to cities and villages after the rise

of agriculture, when living conditions for much of humanity became considerably worse before they improved. The average hunter/gatherer lived a healthier life than early city-dwellers. 8

I’ll be the first to admit that the scale shown is not scientific and is a generalized hypothesis—conditions would

obviously vary greatly dependingonlocation,era, climate, andyear-to-year fluctuations. Yet thegraphics areusefulto illustrate a general point of where we have made progress and where we have gone too far.

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WATER

AIR QUALITY Air was once pristine, uncontaminated by human-made chemicals and pollutants, although pollens, airborne particles and fires diminished local air quality from time to time. PAST:

PRESENT: Chemicals, auto exhaust, smoke and

particulates choke the air around the world. Our lungs have not evolved to be resilient to particles of certain sizes.

SUGGESTED IDEAL: Clean air should be available everywhereâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;in, around and beyond even our busiest and most productive cities. Clearly, we have slid backwards relative to the air we breathe in substantial ways. . The past was the ideal for air quality, with the exception of fires within caves or confined areas.

PAST: Water was derived from lakes, rivers, wells and springs. Water for the most part was pure, clean and in much of the world, abundant. PRESENT: The developed world pipes and pumps water throughout cities and towns, heavily treat it due to pollutants, chemicals, , prescription drugs and impacts directly from agriculture, industry and automobiles. SUGGESTED IDEAL: We need the predict-

ability of clean water that is free of chemicals, hormones, pharmaceuticals and other pollutants. In the built environment, we have the technology and the experience to use net zero (or even net positive) water strategies in every structure and to rely primarily on rainwater that is distilled and naturally cleaner. Knowing what we know, we can test water more frequently and treat with UV and other filtration techniques without the use of chemicals.

PARADIGM SCALE IDEAL BALANCE

PRE-CIVILIZATION

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LIGHT PAST: Candles, streetlights and municipal electrical grids gradually allowed us to shine light on virtually any corner of our communities, both indoors and outdoors. Artificial lighting and light cycles that ignore our natural circadian rhythm have become the norm. In general people now live with too little light during the day—and too much light at night, upsetting our circadian systems. The counterpoint is of course that the access to light on our terms greatly enhanced our economic productivity and, creativity and ability to get done what needed to get done. SUGGESTED IDEAL: There is scientific evi-

dence that light plays a significant role in our physical and emotional wellness. Specifically, the hypothalamic SCN, which is the master circadian pacemaker in mammals and drives diurnal rhythms in behavior, physiology, endocrinology and metabolism, is directly affected by light. The ideal human habitat would feature circadian-supportive lighting systems and much less light at night, with people sleeping in truly dark conditions and significantly less access to electronically generated light at night. Again, spending more time outside would greatly benefit us.

Much of what I have learned about the health implications of light comes from the work I have done with The WELL Building Standard®, the world’s first building standard that prioritizes human health and wellness. Light is one of the Standard’s seven performance categories, and structures aspiring to WELL Certification must meet certain targets to help maximize the advantageous properties of natural light for the benefit of occupants and visitors. More information about the WELL Building Standard is available at http://delos.com/about/well-building-standard/.

FOOD Hunters and gatherers had access to all of nature’s bounty that was within regional reach. Diets were obviously organic and local, although there were often nutritional deficiencies to contend with, and starvation was a real possibility. Spoiled food and foodborne illness were often a reality. PAST:

PRESENT: The modern diet in the developed

world has become mechanized and overly chemical at the same time that it has also become generally safer. Consumers use convenience and price to justify the demand for packaged, modified foods. Too many calories from an overabundance of sugar, fat and salt make up our diets. SUGGESTED IDEAL: We need organic, bal-

anced diets that offer an abundance of nutrition and flavor while supporting our physical health. Significantly less fat, sugar and salt and processed foods and dairy with less meat consumption is the ideal. The ideal is likely somewhere between where we’ve come from and where we are today.

MODERN AGE

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MATERIALS ENERGY

We once built only from place, using supplies and materials that could be harvested locally. There were no embedded chemicals, no toxic formulations, and no shipments of goods from across the globe.

PAST:

There was a time when humans relied only on the sun, fire, wind and moving water to deliver power. PAST:

PRESENT: Today, we turn to coal, fossil fuels and nuclear technologies for most of our energy, with disastrous consequences. SUGGESTED IDEAL: It’s time to return to the

fundamentals while harnessing our innovations. Renewable energy sources, while on the rise, must once again become our primary means of power. The time of dangerous, polluting forms of energy must come to an end.

PRESENT: Too many goods and supplies contain harmful toxic ingredients that threaten the immediate health of the human species and the long-term health of the planet. Many materials that are used to build habitats are imported from far away—requiring copious energy to ship and discounting the value of regional assets. The extraction of materials has had a significant negative impact on the environment. SUGGESTED IDEAL: Buildings and communi-

ties—along with the products that fill them— must be constructed from healthy, locally sourced, non-toxic materials. We must learn from nature and create materials with the same processes the natural world uses (biomimicry), use materials longer, and ensure closed-loop cycles for some durable materials and biodegradable nutrient cycles for others.

PARADIGM SCALE IDEAL BALANCE

PRE-CIVILIZATION

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SAFETY Humans used to be a great food source for many predators. Internal warfare and strife also plagued our entire history. Natural formations (caves, trees and hills) were used for protection and began to develop arms and to build more defensible structures for safety. PAST:

Humans have killed nearly all natural predators, and our life expectancies have increased dramatically. While war and strife afflict much of humanity, it can be argued that we are safer than humans were in the past. Today, fellow humans are more of a threat than predatory animals are, but due to the potential destructive powers of weapons and climate change, safety and security is on the decline.

PRESENT:

SUGGESTED IDEAL: Clearly we need to soften

our violent tendencies, improve cross-cultural human relations, and eliminate poverty in order to improve our overall safety, particularly in urban settings. The world needs to significantly de-escalate arms and make a global commitment to fighting the climate change and habitat and species loss that threaten long-term security.

SHELTER & THERMAL COMFORT PAST: We were climate-dependent, and lived within diurnal and seasonal temperature shifts. We were often hot or cold, and many people died due to heat exhaustion or hypothermia. The discovery of fire was one of the first solutions in our timeless quest for thermal comfort. PRESENT: We spend our time in a narrow temperature band, rarely venturing beyond our climate-controlled interiors. This sameness, regardless of place or season, dulls us to the fluctuations in nature. SUGGESTED IDEAL: We should pursue passive

temperature controls and shelter in our built environment to keep us safe but still connect us to tempered rises and falls as dictated by natural thermal gradients. In short we should dress and live more seasonally and spend much more time outdoors. If we spent more time outsideâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; perhaps two to three times as much as we do nowâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;we would become more resilient to and in tune with the elements and with the natural circadian cycle.

MODERN AGE

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HYGIENE AND WASTE PAST: Humans lived intimately with one another and other species. We had an extremely healthy microbiome and likely had hardy immune systems. Human waste was localized and, with low population densities and mobile populations, never concentrated. We actively participated in the nutrient cycle like all other species. Yet poor hygiene, illness and disease were often the death of us when we did not move away from our waste supplies.

TRANSPORT PAST: When we had no engines

PRESENT: Antibacterial cleaning products and antibiot-

and or wheels, we were more connected to our local resources. Regional boundaries determined where we could travel and what we could bring home. People travelled on foot, and all of us were healthier for it.

ics have made us more vulnerable to germs by weakening our immune systems and destroying the beneficial communities we evolved with. Modern sanitation and sewage systems in the affluent communities of the developed world funnel trash and waste away, offering convenience and cleanliness at the expense of underprivileged neighborhoods and communities. Clearly, modern understanding of disease and pathogens has helped humanity immensely, even while many of our strategies to avoid them have been ill considered. Too often we send our “waste” away—resulting in health impacts to poor communities or other unintended consequences downstream.

PRESENT: These days, the

developed world is far too sedentary, relying on the automobile. Habitats have been designed to favor the automobile over the pedestrian, consuming too much energy.

SUGGESTED IDEAL: If we spent more time outside, we would re-engage with the soil—and all the bugs that reside in it—in a healthy way. People who spend more time growing up with animals are often shown to be healthier as adults. A modern understanding of hygiene coupled with an emerging understanding of the benefits of living in a healthy ecological community without over-sanitation would help people out immensely. Composting our waste rather than creating a larger problem by “shitting in water” would benefit us significantly, as well as the environment.

SUGGESTED IDEAL: Returning to modes of transport powered by primarily by human power would help us greatly. A secondary system using renewable sources would help us reconnect with life and nature as we move ourselves and our goods around our communities.

PARADIGM SCALE IDEAL BALANCE

PRE-CIVILIZATION

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INFORMATION, KNOWLEDGE AND COMMUNICATION PAST: Oral traditions were once the only way

to pass stories and wisdom from one generation to the next. Human knowledge was intensely local and deep. Technological and cultural innovation was slow, hard-won, and easily lost. It wasn’t until key technological advances like writing that humanity’s information and knowledge moved dramatically forward.

PRESENT: Information is accessible to virtually anyone from virtually anywhere. Technology allows us to share and communicate with the world. This freedom of knowledge comes with advantages and disadvantages, but it is hard to argue with more knowledge as anything but good. What we seem to be lacking is wisdom, which is the productive application of knowledge. And we have also lost much of that knowledge that was intensely local and deep. We have, to our detriment, replaced knowledge of place and ecology with a broad veneer of trivial information. SUGGESTED IDEAL: Humanity’s quest for

greater discovery and innovation is one of our better traits, and the democratization of good information that is now possible with modern technology is also significant progress. Yet much would be gained by remembering the wisdom of our elders, the wisdom of other species, and the important lessons from our long collective past.

HEALTH AND DISEASE Although our diet was more organic, our lack of understanding about human pathology made us virtually powerless against the effects of infection and disease. Healers relied on traditional medicine, magic, voodoo and sacrifice in an effort to cure. Without medicines to treat injury or illness, lifespans were shorter, but natural health remedies successfully dealt with some ailments. PAST:

PRESENT: Modern medical technologies and

innovations have enabled us to live longer (although many of the diseases requiring treatment are directly tied to our unhealthy ways of living) and enjoy a generally improved quality of life. SUGGESTED IDEAL: We are very close to where we need to be in this category with constant medical advances, but our species could be measurably healthier if we took a more holistic view of health and treated the causes of poor health rather than just the symptoms. A society that focused on prevention and healthy living and treated all citizens with quality care would be considerably better, as would recognition of natural health paradigms when possible.

MODERN AGE

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“ WE HAVE TO TEMPER OUR DESIRE TO CONTROL AND TAME NATURE, AND CHOOSE INSTEAD TO LIVE IN CONCERT WITH IT. WE HAVE TO GO BACK TO SEEING OURSELVES AS AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE NATURAL WORLD, NOT SEPARATE FROM OR SUPERIOR TO IT.” separation with the natural world is disconcerting. We have to temper our desire to control and tame nature, and choose instead to live in concert with it. We have to go back to seeing ourselves as an important part of the natural world, not separate from or superior to it. There are ways to apply our acquired knowledge that will benefit us, and our environment. We have to use technology as a tool—with discernment—to get our cities, our homes and our bodies back on the right track—to build communities that have a net positive impact on the world.

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The habitat we crave is the one we need. We evolved in natural, biophilic settings, and it is incumbent upon us to recapture and preserve those same qualities within our modern habitat. Surrounding ourselves with life, spending considerable time outdoors and sharing our spaces with living things nurtures our kinship with nature. Our love of life is what makes us human. So let’s allow ourselves to get a little wilder and, where smart, to readjust our scales in the right direction.

JASON F. MCLENNAN is the CEO of the International Living Future Institute. He is the creator of the Living Building Challenge, as well as the author of five books, including his latest: Transformational Thought.

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CANARY IN THE COAL MINE Surrounded by the majestic mountains of Appalachia, the area of Welch, West Virginia, located in McDowell County, was once a bustling working-class town completely dependent on the extraction economy of coal. Deeply connected to the dirty energy, Welch was the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest producer of coal. As a child, my mother-in-law would wave goodbye to her father each day as he went into the mines. He earned only a meager daily wage to support his growing family. Miners like him took collective action to secure improved living and working conditions through union strikes, but were nevertheless unable to eliminate the dangers of their profession. Some dangers of the job presented themselves daily, as explosions and mine collapses took life and limb. The more insidious dangers presented themselves only over time, as seasoned miners succumbed to a variety of respiratory ailments commonly known as black lung. Workers and their families were universally aware of these hazards, but every morning men entered the mines. Even if they were to reemerge at dayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s end, they were trapped in the mines, not by rockfall, but by an economic dependency on this polluting resource.

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Coal mining has left a legacy of inescapable poverty; entire regions are bereft of anything resembling a healthy economy. Having exhausted many of the more accessible veins to the dirty wealth, coal companies have resorted to mountaintop removal; a process that literally tears open the earth with violent and irreparable blasts to expose the coal within. This cheaper model of extraction pollutes streams, poisons air, shatters culture and renders the once beautiful ecosystem into a bleak moonscape. When the coal companies have extracted the last bits of their wealth, they move to a new area, leaving a trail of poverty and pollution in their wake. The level of distress suffered by the population, alongside the vast wealth that continues to be extracted, stand as testament to the string of negative impacts by the coal companies on local communities like McDowell County—today, the county ranks among the poorest in the country. The coal industry is just one tier of the fossil fuel industry empire, which has developed more methods of extraction since my mother-in-law was a child, such as culling crude oil from bituminous sand and sending fractures deep into the earth to harvest natural gas deposits. While methods of extraction have evolved over the past several decades, some things haven’t changed: as the industry extracts from the earth, it also extracts from nearby communities. From mountaintop coal removal in West Virginia to the tar sands in Alberta, the communities in the wake of this extraction model are exposed to negative and toxic health impacts while the environmental conditions of the place continue to erode. Far too often the people most adversely affected are low-income, minority communities battling the health impacts of the fossil fuel industry’s looting; respiratory issues are common and cancers are epidemic. The numbers are sobering: 71% of black Americans live in counties in violation of federal air pollution standards, compared to 58% of white Americans.1 My mother-in-law continues to battle with asthma after living in Welch for the majority of her life. 1

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American Lung Association

This isn’t a future problem for just a few vulnerable people—it is today’s problem and everyone’s problem.

The tar sands of Alberta, Canad,a have become a destination for oil companies. This extremely dirty and energy-intensive model destroys every living system in its path. Each barrel of oil produced from the tar sands takes from 110 to 350 gallons of water (or two to six barrels) of water, and the resulting greenhouse gas emissions are 3.2 to 4.5 times as intensive per barrel than conventional crude oil. But the First Nations people that are deeply impacted by this ravenous natural resource extraction model are standing in resistance and fighting for their cultural heritage, rights to their land and its ecosystems, and the health of their communities. The people mostly affected are fighting back and making progress. The rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline expansion was a major success in this epic battle between good and evil. The negative ecological and economic impacts that are imposed at the source of extraction are also mirrored at the terminus where the oil is refined.

THE NUMBERS DON’T LIE

50%

higher cancer risk from air toxins at all income levels for African Americans, Latinos, and Asians, despite risk declining as income rises.

71%

of African Americans live in counties in violation of federal air pollution standards, compared to 58% of white Americans.

56%

more likely to develop acute lymphocytic leukemia for children living in East Houston, an area near oil refineries.

4.1x

greater chance for asthma-related emergency room visits among African American youth from birth to age 17 than non-Hispanic whites.

SOURCE: http://www.societyhealth.vcu.edu/media/societyhealth/pdf/HousingReDev-Practices-Asthma-4.1.15.pdf

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Manchester, Texas, is a low-income, minority community just outside of Houston that is at the mercy of the extraction economy—many crude oil refineries are located in the area. Processing crude oil from tar sands is especially dirty, causing more environmental damage and very real health impacts on the people of Manchester. 2 According to a study by the City of Houston, children living within the area are 56% more likely to develop acute lymphocytic leukemia, and air quality tests positive for at least eight different carcinogens.3 This negative downstream effect further disenfranchises the community and the rich oil companies are not held accountable. Just as the First Nations communities in Alberta are working together to save their community, the people of Manchester, TX, are uniting to fight against extractors like Vallero, a company that has committed to refine as much as 75% of the tar sands from Alberta. In the form of protests, educational “toxic tours” of East Houston, and the Tar Sands Blockade,4 the residents and activists of Manchester are engaging in the fight of their lives. 2 http://environmentalintegrity.org/pdf/publications/Tar_Sand_Report.pdf 3 http://www.houstontx.gov/health/UT-executive.html 4 http://www.tarsandsblockade.org/

Inequality continues to morph in other forms throughout the world, where impacts of climate change adversely affect vulnerable communities. Communities that lack the most resources tend to be the greatest affected. Many Pacific Islands are facing the real impacts of climate change where projections of sea level rise are dire, and leaders are being forced to contemplate what to do if their nation disappears. In 2009, in an effort to bring attention to this urgent matter and send a message to world leaders, the president of the Maldives, Mohammed Nasheed, held a government cabinet meeting underwater. As the Maldives government signed a document calling on all countries to cut emissions, they also showcased the very real threat that climate change poses to their people and the world.

lose our islands.” 5 She also called “for a radical change of course” in the fight against climate change. Climate change isn’t a future problem for just a few vulnerable people—it is today’s problem, and it is everyone’s problem.

Vulnerable communities are on the frontlines in this colossal fight against human induced climate change. Climate change disproportionately affects minority and low-income communities, and the mainstream environmental movement needs to broaden its current scope. Many demographic studies show that employees in mainstream environmental organizations are mostly white people from middle-class upbringings. The lack of diversity in the environmental movement stunts its capability and adroitness to help vulnerable At present, the region of Oceania is bearing the brunt communities. How can a homogenous group that is of the effects of climate change. Due to frequent floods sheltered from many impacts of climate change possiand the doomsday forecast of their sinking nation, bly decide the needs of the people most impacted? many people in the Marshall Islands have already made the painful decision to leave their country and There needs to be a paradigm shift toward inclusivecommunity. Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, Civil Society Repre- ness within the green community and environmental sentative from the Marshall Islands, said in a compel- movement so that voices from the most affected comling speech at the United Nation’s Climate Summit in munities are sought and heard. And resources from the New York City, “We’ve seen waves crashing into our mainstream need to be shared. The people who are homes and our breadfruit trees wither from salt and droughts. We look at our children and wonder how 5 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJuRjy9k7GA&feature=iv&s they will know themselves or their culture should they rc_vid=L4fdxXo4tnY&annotation_id=annotation_3537214139

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the most affected are frequently from disenfranchised, low-income, minority communities that lack sufficient resources to fight back. These people are the very real human face of the environmental movement. We all must stand in solidarity, and environmental organizations need to first recognize the frontline activists’ sacrifices and then use their broad platform and resources to tell the activists’ stories.

margin, the environmental movement needs everyone. Without the inclusion of everyone, the movement simply won’t progress and the negative effects of climate change will continue to unfold. We must abandon exploitative resource extraction altogether. Every community and every demographic must be represented, heard and respected. The defining challenge of our time is to overcome divisiveness, to be united by our humanity; to stand as one in order to support a I can’t help but wonder if the impacts that low-income brighter future for us all. communities of color are facing should have been the canary in the coalmine several decades ago of the current extraction model and reliance on fossil fuels. Are we are facing a future that all communities are stricken by extractive natural resource models where air quality is poor, rivers are poisoned and the very JOANNA GANGI is the Communications health and livelihood of the people are compromised? + Editorial Director for the International Living Future Institute.

With the most intense El Niño year ever observed brewing in the Pacific, and projections indicating that 2015 will be the warmest year on record by a large

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IMAGINE if communities were inclusive + robust for everyone. DONATE: GIVE US A HAND LETâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S CREATE A LIVING FUTURE.

www.living-future.org/donate

IMAGINE if your roof could generate enough electricity for the entire building.

IMAGINE if spending time indoors was as refreshing as being in nature.

IMAGINE if your stormwater could clean local waterways.

IMAGINE if all products were healthy for all living systems.

IMAGINE if the built environment lifted your spirits.

IMAGINE if every community could cultivate enough food for its inhabitants.

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BY FR A NCIS JA NES

THE REALITY

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OF A FAIR WAGE Social justice and equity in the workplace are high on the agenda in an array of important platforms, ranging from the media, political landscapes, to both nonand for profit boardrooms. President Obama has been a strong advocate for gender pay equity and for an increase in the federal minimum wage. Pope Francis has made the issue of income and wealth inequality one of his central concerns. While the U.S. economy continues to see steady economic growth and expansion, wages have been flat or falling for much of the labor force. This dynamic has spurred the most significant wave of action to raise the minimum wage in fifty years, with momentum for considerable increases at the federal, state and local levels. The growing momentum for raising the minimum wage has been fuelled by social movements such as Occupy Wall Street, social justice advocates, union organizations and front line employees. In the United States, the minimum wage was established in 1938 as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). In addition to mandating the 40-hour workweek, the FLSA established the federal minimum wage to help ensure that all work would be fairly rewarded and that regular employment would provide a decent quality of life. Moreover, regular increases in the minimum wage were meant to ensure that even the lowestpaid workers benefited from broader improvements in wages and living standards.

buying power. In 2015, the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour is worth 10% less than when it was last raised in 2009, after adjusting for inflation. In fact, the real inflation adjusted value of the federal minimum wage in 2015 was 25% below its peak value in 1968. In practice, this means that lifting the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour to $10.10 per hour, as championed by some elected officials throughout the United States, would only give low-wage workers the same purchasing power available to them some 50 years ago. Over that time, the United States has achieved tremendous improvements in labor productivity that could have allowed workers at all pay levels to enjoy a significantly improved quality of life. Instead, because of policymakersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; failure to improve and enhance the Fair Labor Standards Act, a worker earning the current minimum wage does not earn enough through fulltime work to be above the federal poverty line.

In the past few years, thousands of workers have taken Due to decades of infrequent and inadequate adjust- to the streets to protest low wages, with fast food workments, the federal minimum wage no longer serves as ers now being joined by retail, home health care and an adequate wage floor. Every year that the minimum other professionals in their fight for a liveable miniwage is left unchanged, rising prices slowly erode its mum wage. Spurred by this growing and vocal move-

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On April 15, 2015 high school students, union activists & fast food workers marched in Manhattan’s Upper West Side to demand a $15 per hour federal minimum wage. Photo: a katz / Shutterstock.com

The United States is one of only three countries left in the world that does not guarantee paid maternity leave. The others are Papua New Guinea and Suriname.

passed laws that will phase in a $15 minimum wage. Cities such as Chicago, Kansas City and Richmond will phase in a $13 minimum wage by 2020.

Professor Zeynep Ton, at MIT’s Sloan School of Business, notes that “Highly successful retail chains—such as QuikTrip convenience stores, Trader Joe’s supermarkets and Costco wholesale clubs—not only invest heavment, more than 40 states, cities and counties have ily in employees with higher wages but also have the passed minimum wage increases via legislation or ballot. lowest prices in their industries, solid financial performance and better customer service than their competiAs a result, 29 states plus the District of Columbia now tors. These companies have demonstrated that, even in have a minimum wage above the current federal minithe lowest-price segment of the retail sector, minimum mum of $7.25. By 2017, 13 states and the District of Cowage jobs are not a cost driven necessity but a choice.” lumbia—representing nearly one-third of the U.S. workforce—will have a minimum wage of $9 or more, and When looking at the overall issue of equity in the workseven states will be above the $10 mark. At the local level, place, it remains important to spotlight the issue of genSeattle, Los Angeles, Emeryville and San Francisco have

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der pay equity. In 1963, Congress passed the Equal Pay Act, which requires employers to give men and women employees “equal pay for equal work.” A year later, in 1964, the Civil Rights Act was passed. Title VII of that act bars all discrimination in employment, including discrimination in hiring, firing, promotion and wages on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Yet these legal protections have not ensured equal pay for women and men.

The Institute invites all organizations across all industries and sectors to examine their performance in key social justice and equity indicators by submitting an application for a JUST Label. Within the

In 2014, women working full time in the United States were paid just 79 percent of what men were paid, a gap of 21%. The gap has narrowed since the 1960s, due largely to women’s progress in education and workforce participation and to men’s wages rising at a slower rate. Based on the progress in reducing the pay gap over the past 50 years, researchers were projecting that we would see pay equity in the year 2058. But progress has stalled in the last decade and the pay gap is not projected to close until the year 2139 based on extrapolation of the data from 2003-2013. The pay gap affects women from all backgrounds, at all ages, and of all levels of educational achievement, although earnings and the size of the gap vary depending on a woman’s individual situation. Using a single benchmark provides a more informative picture of income disparities when it comes to women from various racial and ethnic groups. Because non-Hispanic white men are the largest demographic group in the labor force, they are often used for this benchmarking purpose.

equity category of the JUST Program, we ask for disclosure on an organization’s performance in areas discussed in this article. Through this process, businesses will be able to confirm where they are already performing well and where they can make improvements in their efforts toward certification as a JUST organization.

guarantee paid maternity leave. The others are Papua New Guinea and Suriname.

In 1993, Congress authorized the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which allows covered employees to take 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for specific family and medical reasons. Taking time off from work to care for a newborn child or caring for an adopted child falls under this category. FMLA only covers 59% of US workers. The 12 weeks of unpaid family Compared with salary information for white male leave offered by this program is for women who have workers, Asian American women’s salaries show the worked 1,250 hours during a year for a company that smallest gender pay gap, at 90 percent of white men’s employs 50 or more people. Two in five women do not earnings. The median earnings of African American qualify for leave under FMLA, according to the Center women were at 63% of white men’s earnings. The gap for Economic and Policy Research. That’s at any level was largest for Hispanic and Latina women, who were of job—low-wage or high. paid only 54% of what white men were paid in 2014. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 12% When we explore other significant issues related to of Americans have access to paid parental leave, which equity in the workplace, the availability of paid fam- is considered a benefit by employers. Only 5% of lowily leave is high on the list. The United States is one wage earners receive paid maternity leave. Unless emof only three countries left in the world that does not ployees happen to live in five states that offer some

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executives and the undervaluation of work performed by employees in the lowest job classifications.

According to a 2011 study by California’s Center for Economic and Policy Research after the state implemented paid leave, 91% of businesses said it had either a positive effect on profitability or no effect at all—that is, it didn’t show any disadvantages whatsoever. Research also shows that women who have access to paid maternity leave have a higher chance of returning to work. This, in turn, reduces employer’s overall cost to recruit and train new employees.

CEO compensation grew strongly throughout the 1980s but exploded in the 1990s and peaked in 2000 at around $20 million, an increase of more than 200% just from 1995 and 1,271% from 1978. This latter increase even exceeded the rapid growth of the stock market—513% for the S&P 500 and 439% for the Dow. In stark contrast to both the stock market and CEO compensation, average private-sector worker compensation increased just 1.4% over the same period.

Companies that are showcasing their leadership in this realm are finding positive results in their progressive policies. Google’s evolving policy on paid parental leave provides compelling evidence that this practice is both good for the employer and the employee. In 2007, Google increased paid maternity leave from 12 weeks to 18 weeks, and as a result, the rate at which new moms left Google fell by 50%. Google also increased paternity leave to 12 weeks.

Using a comprehensive measure of pay that includes base salary, bonuses and the value of stock options exercised in a given year, average CEO compensation for the top 350 U.S. firms ranked by revenue was $16.3 million in 2014. Based on research developed by the Economic Policy Institute, the CEO-to-average-worker compensation ratio, which was 20-to-1 in 1965, peaked at 376-to-1 in 2000 and was 303-to-1 in 2014.

Over the past year, a number of prominent businesses have improved or enhanced their paid family leave programs. Microsoft expanded their paid maternity leave program from 12 weeks to 20 weeks. New parents at Facebook can take up to 16 paid weeks. New moms at Apple can take 14 weeks of paid maternity leave, and their partners can take 6 weeks of paid leave. Amazon is the latest prominent business to expand family leave benefits by offering 20 weeks of paid leave to new moms, and new dads can take 6 weeks of paid leave. No conversation about equity in the workplace would be complete without a closer look at the huge discrepancies in employee compensation that relate to the traditional overvaluation of work performed by senior

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Creating an equitable workplace that fosters fairness, diversity and safety is an important endeavour and a key responsibility for companies to undertake. Extensive research suggests that organizations who excel in creating an equitable and inclusive workplace are able to attract top talent and retain high-performing, longterm employees. In an increasingly competitive global business landscape, the ability to recruit and retain engaged, happy and productive employees will serve as a significant competitive differentiator. FRANCIS JANES is the Just Manager for the International Living Future Institute.

BY MARK PUTNAM

King County is the economic engine of the Pacific Northwest. Some of the world’s most prosperous companies, abundant natural beauty and influential hubs of creativity and entrepreneurship lie within the county’s borders. King County encompasses booming places like Seattle and Bellevue, and the county’s cities and towns are among the most diverse and populous in the state of Washington.

But for all of the prosperity within the region, the county is experiencing a homelessness crisis. In 2015 alone, nearly 10,000 people are experiencing homelessness on any given day (up from about 8,000 people in 2005), and nearly 40% of those people are unsheltered. On average, people are homeless for more than 100 days, and they return to homelessness after being housed almost 20% of the time.

than whites, and African Americans five times more likely. These disheartening statistics help us to quantify the size of the problem, but what shouldn’t be lost is the human component of the crisis. These people are our neighbors, our families, our youth, our veterans— and they deserve better. We can and we must do better.

What are some of the root causes behind this increase in homelessness? Regional and national issues of housRacial disparities are stark, with Native Americans ing affordability, growing economic inequality, a diseven times more likely to experience homelessness minishing state and federal safety net, and even pop-

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ulation growth, have vastly expanded the problem. A HOMELESSNESS recent national study showed that in urban areas like DISPROPORTIONATELY IMPACTS Seattle, every $100 increase in average monthly rents raises the homeless population by 15% in urban areas, and 39% in suburban and rural areas. With rents skyrocketing locally in recent years, about 5,000 people become newly homeless in King County every year. However, significant steps have been taken to combat homelessness in King County. Ten years ago, All Home (formerly the Committee to End Homelessness [CEH]), along with other stakeholders, came together to alleviate homelessness. Since then nearly 40,000 people have moved into stable housing, with 85% of those remaining housed for at least two years. All Home created 6,300 homes for the homeless; Seattle and King County now rank among the best cities and counties in the country for number of housing units dedicated for the homeless. But despite these efforts, the problem persists. There are even more people on the streets than there were 10 years ago. That is why All Home embarked on a nearly yearlong period of re-evaluating and refocusing the work, mission and brand of this unprecedented coalition. They’ve taken stock of the lessons learned over the last decade, considered the changes at the local and national levels in proven effective strategies, and used new methods of data collection to develop a four-year strategic plan that is dedicated to an ambitious but attainable goal: making the experience of homelessness in King County rare, brief, and one-time.

and engaged citizens, all in a coordinated effort that both responds to the immediate crisis of homeless individuals and addresses the root causes of the problem..

The good news is that the homelessness crisis is solvable. After years of effort, we know the solutions, and we can make a real difference if we adopt the proven strategies outlined in the All Home plan. Housing is a much smarter investment than the alternatives— emergency room visits, jail stays, emergency shelter. A focus on individualized approaches and implementaAll Home—as CEH is now called—has redoubled tion of a robust housing-first strategy can make hometheir commitment to forging a community-wide partlessness a brief and one-time experience. nership that brings together: local governments; religious institutions; non-profits; philanthropic organizations; shelter and housing providers; the private sector;

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Through a focus on homelessness prevention and a commitment to creating more permanent supportive housing for the disabled, and other data-driven strategies, we can make homelessness rare. The smartest approach is to stop homelessness before it starts. Providing housing assistance to those who are at greatest risk for entering homelessness before the crisis occurs makes a huge difference in keeping people from spiral-

WHO’S HOMELESS IN KING COUNTY

ing into the type of housing catastrophe that leads to homelessness. All Home is working closely with community initiatives to target their investments toward those communities where the need—and the opportunity—is the greatest.

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All Home is also engaging in advocacy to drive a community-wide effort to push for federal, state and local policies and funding to increase the affordable housing stock for very low-income households. Because of King County’s incredibly competitive housing market, we

need to do more to help the formerly homeless obtain and retain homes. All Home’s innovative OneHome campaign, launched earlier this year, is a groundbreaking alliance with landlords who have agreed to open up units to prospective tenants with rental barriers who might normally be passed over in the screening process in exchange for certain incentives, such as covering the cost of an eviction, to landlords.

used effectively all across the country, and the model has shown impressive outcomes. In King County, All Home’s program is designed to quickly transition individuals and families experiencing homelessness into permanent housing by offering housing search and stabilization services, short term rental and move-in assistance, and individualized employment assistance. Solidifying the rationale for this approach is that it has been shown over and over that housing people expeThe faster we can get homeless people into housing, riencing homeless is actually less expensive than not the better, for them and for the taxpayer. The traumat- housing them, due to decreased emergency room, poic experience of homelessness makes a person’s other lice, and jail costs. problems—like mental illness or substance abuse— worse. That’s why strategies like rapid rehousing are so The thread that binds all of this work together is that important: they dramatically shorten each individual’s homelessness is not somebody else’s problem. It’s evexperience of homelessness and reduce the chance eryone’s problem. One of the key lessons learned over that the person will return to homelessness after be- the last decade is that tackling the problem of homeing housed. Rapid rehousing approaches are being lessness must be a community-wide effort. There are

HOMELESSNESS IN THE PUGET SOUND REGION

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2014 EXITS TO PERMANENT HOUSING

LENGTH OF STAY

RETURNS TO HOMELESSNESS

many things you can do to help, whether that is volunteering at a local shelter or homeless service organization, using web development skills or other professional expertise to support a nonprofit, or Just Saying Hello to those living outside. The more people who believe that all people should have a home, the more likely it will become a reality. All Home is an inclusive movement that seeks to activate, engage and connect people in compassionate and thoughtful action, in ways both large and small, all of which will make a difference in addressing the crisis of homelessness.

Homelessness is solvable, and by acting together as a community, all people can have a home.

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To learn more about the strategies included in All Homeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new plan, please visit www.allhomekc.org. MARK PUTNAM is the Executive Director of All Home, a broad coalition of government, business, faith communities, nonprofits, and homeless advocates working together to make homelessness rare, brief, and one-time.

BY MELIN A L A BOUCA N-M A S SIMO

In the northern Alberta community of Little Buffalo, population 500, a 20.8 kW solar installation has been set up to power the First Nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s health center, and to send additional energy back to the grid. In 2011, this community grappled with one of the largest oil spills in Albertaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s history. Today, the community deals with contaminated water, polluted air and a compromised landscape, but the people of Little Buffalo have chosen to forge a new future and to become powered by the sun.

THE DAWN OF A NEW ERA: SOLAR IN THE TAR SANDS 55

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The traditional territory of my ancestors and my Nation of the Lubicon Cree covers approximately 10,000 square kilometers of low-lying trees, forests, rivers, plains, and wetlands—which we call muskeg—in northern Alberta. My parents’ and grandparents’ generations survived by living off the land—hunting, fishing, and trapping throughout the region. I remember going out on the trapline when the water was still good to drink. But as oil and gas have come through the territory, all of this has changed. For three decades, our territory has undergone massive oil and gas development without the consent of the people and without recognition of our treaty & Indigenous rights, which are protected under Section 35 of the Canadian Constitution.

scapes, polluted and drained watersheds, and contaminated air—it’s very much a crisis situation.

Currently there are more than 2,600 oil and gas wells in our traditional territories. Over 1,400 square kilometers of leases have been granted for tar sands development in Lubicon territory, and almost 70% of the remaining land has been leased for future development. Our way of life is being replaced by industrial land-

UNCEDED TERRITORY

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Where there once was self-sufficiency, we are experiencing increased dependency on social services, as families are no longer able to sustain themselves in what was once a healthy environment with clean air, clean water, medicines, berries, and plants from the Boreal. We are seeing elevated rates of cancers and respiratory illnesses as a consequence of the toxic gases in the air and water. And while over $14 billion in oil and gas revenues have been taken from our traditional territory, our community lives in extreme poverty and still lacks basic medical services and running water.

In 1899, when Treaty 8 was officially signed in northern Alberta, treaty commissioners overlooked the Lubicon Cree due to their remote and hard-to-reach territory. The Lubicon people therefore never ceded their traditional territory to the Crown. This has led

“ We are seeing elevated rates of cancers and respiratory illnesses as a consequence of the toxic gases in the air and water. And while over $14 billion in oil and gas revenues have been taken from our traditional territory, our community lives in extreme poverty and still lacks basic medical services and running water.”

to a precarious and unstable relationship with both the provincial and federal governments as both have continuously undermined the sovereignty of the Lubicon people. For decades the Lubicon have tried to settle these outstanding land disputes, but unfortunately it serves the government’s interests to keep the Lubicon land claim outstanding due to the territory’s rich oil and gas deposits. When the construction of an all-weather road began in the early 1970s, the Lubicon people started to contest the encroachment of their traditional territory as multinational corporations began to exploit the land. For the 14 years that followed, the Lubicon attempted to assert their rights through various court proceedings at both the provincial and federal levels. By 1988, the Lubicon concluded that it was necessary to use other means of direct action so their voices and message would be heard.

did Alberta Premier Don Getty meet with the Lubicon chief and agree to a 243-kilometer reserve under the Grimshaw Accord. Despite this agreement, the Canadian government offered the Lubicon substandard conditions in the land settlement agreement. Even Premier Getty described the offer as “deficient in the area of providing economic stability for the future.” Unfortunately, due to the take-it-or-leave-it approach of the federal government, the land claim negotiations continued from 1989 until 2003, when the talks broke down completely and both parties walked away from the table. To this day, the Lubicon Cree have been unable to settle a land claim, which has drastically hindered their ability to protect themselves and their traditional territory from further exploitation and destruction.

On October 15, 1988, the Lubicon people erected a Canada’s treatment of the Lubicon has been repeatedly peaceful blockade, which was successful in stopping condemned by the United Nations, and UN Special oil exploitation of the territory for six days. Only then Rapporteur Miloon Kothari has called for a moratorium

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“ Canada’s treatment of the Lubicon has been repeatedly condemned by the United Nations, and UN Special Rapporteur Miloon Kothari has called for a moratorium on oil and gas in Lubicon territory.” on oil and gas in Lubicon territory. On March 26, 1990, the United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled that Canada’s failure to recognize and protect Lubicon land rights violated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In 2006, the United Nations Human Rights Committee again called on Canada to address outstanding land claims in Lubicon territory before granting further licences for economic exploitation, yet this resource extraction is still happening. THE RAINBOW PIPELINE RUPTURE

what they should do and whether pregnant women and small children should even be in the community. At the very least, the government that grants permits for oil and gas development, often without the consent of the people, has an obligation to take care of those whom they are directly putting at risk. THE FUTURE OF EXTRACTION The Rainbow Pipeline spill is now 45 years old. When it broke in 2006, the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board stated that stress and corrosion in the pipeline’s infrastructure contributed to the spill. Five years later, 5 million liters spilled in our traditional territory again. We’re also seeing pipeline breaks like this in other parts of North America, from Kalamazoo, Michigan, to the Kinder-Morgan spill along the West Coast. Will it ever end?

On April 29, 2011, a rupture in the Rainbow Pipeline resulted in a spill of about 4.5 million liters (1.2 million gallons) of oil in the Cree Lubicon territory—one of the biggest oil spills in Alberta’s history. When the pipeline broke, oil flowed into the forest, but the majority of it was soaked up into the muskeg, which is like peatland moss and takes thousands of years to be generated. The muskeg is not an isolated system. It’s How many more communities have to be put at risk not “stagnant water,” as the government claims. It’s ac- because of this type of development, and who is really tually a living, breathing ecosystem that supports life benefiting? What are we leaving to future generations? and is connected to all the water in the region. For over a century now, the Lubicon Cree’s rights have On the first day of the spill, the nearby school was not been neither protected nor respected. For decades, the notified. When students started to feel sick, they were Lubicon have led local, national, and international lobevacuated from the school under the assumption that bying efforts to fight for what is inherently theirs and it was a propane leak. When they got outside into the to protect their right to their land and to clean air and field, they realized that the problem was throughout water. Despite years of raising awareness and increasthe community. ing exposure, the Lubicon people still wait for justice. However, over the past decade of speaking out and deDuring the first week of the spill, community members manding justice, I have seen a great shift in how our experienced physical symptoms: their eyes burned; struggles are perceived. Now people from all walks of they had headaches; they felt nauseated. We were told life are beginning to stand together and seek justice that air quality was not a problem. Alberta Environ- for those first and foremost impacted on the frontlines ment didn’t actually come into the community until of environmental destruction. Now more than ever, six days after the spill, so people were left to wonder people are working together as we know that the fate

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of humanity is wrapped up in our collective fight for a better, more just world for all.

change, and solar is huge part of making that change happen— but we need to demand this change. A just transition needs to happen not only in communities that can afford renewable technology but it must happen and begin in communities facing the brunt of the environmental, social, and health implications from the extractive industry and climate change. I think it is time for this change to be made across the planet, especially in places like the Alberta tar sands.

First Nation communities have been on the front lines of resource extraction for far too long, and we have paid dearly for the price of humanity’s addiction to oil, but we also see a way out of the crisis we are currently facing in Alberta and around the world. We need to shift away from a fossil-fuel-based system and to push for renewable energy systems that enable us to be selfMost of this solar installation was done by community sufficient and self-sustaining. members who have never installed a solar project beCommunities like Little Buffalo are refusing to be vic- fore. Now they can use these new skills to install more timized by the game of fossil fuel roulette and are lead- solar projects around Alberta. However, these types of ing the way toward energy independence—making renewable energy projects shouldn’t rest on the shoulThe Leap toward a new future that some of the world’s ders of communities to implement alone; instead, they should be supported by governments around the leading thinkers say everyone else must follow. world that have chosen to subsidize the aging fossil fuel industry for decades. Countries like Canada need THE CLEAN ENERGY REVOLUTION to accelerate the transition from destructive, climateAlthough Alberta is the oil capital of Canada, solar en- polluting energy sources like the tar sands toward the ergy is taking off in the province. Albertans want to see green, just energy economy that so many of our com-

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munities so desperately want and need to see. Canada should set a goal and commit to generating 100% of its power through renewable energy, as outlined in the recent report of 100% Renewables. Energy democracy can be built through the decentralization of our energy grid so that people are no longer subject to the woes of the boom-and-bust economies of fossil fuels and so that the oil and gas lobby no longer runs our governments. The fossil fuel regime makes us think that we need to remain dependent, but when we decentralize our power we create energy independence in our communities and countries.

this globe. We must do it now, without waiting for governments to decide to do this for us. We must separate oil and state, which is driving us to the brink of climate catastrophe. Every person and every roof can be a part of the solar solution.

The solar panels in my community will still be standing even when the last oil project is finished. Panel by panel, communities will show politicians what true leadership looks like. We’ve been looking down for far too long and digging at the bottom of the barrel for dirty fossil fuels. We must now turn our gaze toward the sun and realize the true energy potential that is available to us here and now. We must choose to build Even in the heart of the tar sands, we can build a differ- healthy and vibrant communities before it is too late. ent kind of economy with clean energy and green jobs without compromising our families and communities. But a just transition needs to prioritize communities like First Nations that are already impacted by dirty MELINA LABOUCAN-MASSIMO is from Northern Alberta and a fossil fuels. A just transition means our communities member of the Lubicon Cree First will no longer be sacrifice zones. We are seeing Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples alike galvanized by the sun. Please stand with us—and help build a positive, solution-based economy across

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Nation. She has worked as an advocate for Indigenous rights for the past 12 years and has worked against unabated tar sands expansion in Alberta.

B U I L D I N G EQUITY & SOCIAL JUSTICE KING COUNTY CAN’T BUILD EQUITY ALONE. LEARN MORE AT KINGCOUNTY.GOV/EQUITY

What does pro-equity development mean? Join the conversation. Participate in a collaborative session at Living Future ‘16 unconference. Equity and Social Justice Resources • Equity Impact Review Tool • Community Engagement Guide • Language Access • Implicit Bias Toolkit • Demographic maps

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In the Wake of Development: Breaking the Pattern of Displacement

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It is no surprise that the standard development model in the United States is deeply flawed. The narrow maximization of economic profit that drives much development often results in the broad diminishment of human, environmental, and aesthetic values. This pattern of extracting value from people and the land is not new; even ancient Rome was known to have slumlords.1 Yet, there is a distinctly American version of development fueled by the myth of the frontier, migration, real-estate speculation, and creative building technologies that have all converged into a wildly efficient extractive development model, which is not a good long-term strategy for anyone, and often results in the displacement of people who live in the development sites. It does not have to be this way.2 The area around Seattle’s First Hill neighborhood illustrates this extractive model in a particular context. For the past year, a team led by the Institute and including many community partners has been working to create a Living Community vision for the neighborhood. This vision reverses the trend of degradation and displacement and creates a people-centered model that adds value to the many ecosystem services that are vital to building healthy, resilient and inclusive communities. Through this process, we have found that there are various opportunities to realize environmental and 1

Juvenal, Satire 3.190-197

Affordable Housing is a Moral Choice (and the Numbers Prove it).” http://www.citylab.com/

housing/2015/10/affordable-housing-is-a-moral-choice-and-the-numbers-prove-it/411235/

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social equity goals using the Living Community Challenge as a framework. The lessons learned through the work in Seattle are not unique to this place and can be replicated elsewhere in support of truly sustainable communities around the globe.

A LEGACY OF DISPLACEMENT Shortly after landing in the present day Pioneer Square neighborhood of Seattle, early settlers set up a sawmill to process the lumber dragged down the densely forested hills. The first of the hills to be logged, First Hill, became the premier high-end residential neighborhood in the burgeoning city. Just south of this hill was the path used to drag the logs to the mill, which became known as “Skid Road” and is now known as Yesler Way. In the mid-1800s, Seattle was a remote outpost, and along its skid road grew public houses, hotels, places of worship, businesses of all varieties, and even the City Hall—all catering to the swelling numbers of loggers, trappers, and families that were enticed by the opportunity in the region. This neighborhood became a dense and vibrant settlement with people from a variety of backgrounds living and working together. By the early 20th century, the people native to the place had largely been forced off of their land and into reservations, though the Duwamish people continued to use the tidal flats of Elliot Bay as their traditional fishing and gathering grounds. In 1901, the hill under Skid Road was substantially regraded, by as much as 85

opment, known as Yesler Terrace. Since its inception, Yesler Terrace has been a place where low-income and working-class people from a variety of backgrounds could find affordable housing. Different resident groups have moved in and out of the Yesler Terrace community over the years, but it remains diverse and vibrant to this day.

PRESENT-DAY GROWTH Development pressures again threaten to displace people who have called the area home. Builders and developers are buying property in the First Hill neighborhood at an alarming rate, replacing housing long filled by people of color and people with low incomes with new, prohibitively expensive development. Yesler Terrace itself is in the midst of a major redesign, which is intended to transform the site into a mixed-use and mixed-income neighborhood while expanding the number of affordable units on site. In previous eras of development in the community, people without political power and voice were repeatedly displaced as the city grew and changed. As the neighborhood again faces what appears to be another significant period of redevelopment, it is crucially imfeet in some places, to allow for infrastructure developportant to avoid the pitfalls of injustice, displacement, ment. This regrade displaced many of the people who and ecological destruction that have been the pattern had built their lives along the road. It also filled in the thus far. tidal flats of the bay, a fatal blow to the way of life for the remainder of the Duwamish who were subsisting A VISION FOR VALUE-DRIVEN on this land.3

DEVELOPMENT

The regrading of Seattle destabilized and displaced people while dramatically altering the land as well. Newly regraded land slid, resulting in decreased land values immediately above and below the slides while land values increased in the flatter areas with newly installed municipal infrastructure. One such area that lost market value due to these slides was later developed as Washington Stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first public housing devel3

This history is significantly simplified and compressed to make a general point rather than to

make a detailed historic argument. It is pieced together from a variety of sources including Emerald City by Matthew Klingle, the blogs of David Williams found at geologywrite.com, and Tradition and Change on Seattleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s First Hill edited by Lawrence Kreisman.

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The Living Community Challenge offers ideas to break this pattern. In Seattle, we have worked alongside community leaders to apply this framework to achieve regenerative, resilient communities. Below are the highlights of these ideas presented according to the structure of the Challenge. A full selection of the equity implications of this Living Community vision can be found in the recently released report Toward a Living Community: A Vision for Seattleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s First Hill and Central District (Nov 2015)

The Facts:

FOOD

— Traffic fatalities disproportionately impact pedestrians and cyclists, especially vulnerable users and minorities.4

— Streets are paid for by all of society but produce The vision calls for significant food production in the disproportionate benefits for vehicle owners and right-of-way, parks, institutional campuses, private operators. lots, and rooftops to produce an estimated 2.7 million — On-street parking subsidizes vehicular ownerpounds of food, enough to feed more than 1,800 people ship by reducing or eliminating the cost to store a per year. vehicle.

The facts:

— Streets are the largest portion of publicly owned land in the city and should be designed to meet the — Access to fresh, healthy food is often worst in areas needs of all people, not just car owners/users. of low-income residents. — There is only one grocery store that sells fresh food within the community boundaries. — Wild and cultivated edible plants provide essential beauty and greenery while giving people a means to provide for themselves and their families.

WATER

— This vision creates job opportunities for cultiva- The vision calls for a net positive water management tion, harvest, preparation, storage, and distribu- approach that prioritizes equitable and resilient water provision and treatment. These systems help the City tion of locally grown produce. prepare for emergency events. Net positive water sys— Opportunities abound to distribute food that is tems can also provide basic sanitary and potable water harvested in the community and provide greater to those most in need; new community rainwater colfood security for the benefit of the entire City. lection and filtration kiosks could provide clean drinking water to anyone who needs access to a safe water source at that moment. As the number of people experiencing homelessness in Seattle continues to increase, it is essential that our community infrastructure is designed for all.

ACCESS + MOBILITY

The vision calls for a radical repurposing of the rightof-way to include more space for people, food production, water collection and infiltration, energy generation, green space, and habitat, and less land for large, single occupancy vehicle circulation and storage.

The Facts: — The State of Washington experienced a statewide drought emergency in 2015, and preparations are now underway for a second year of drought as record low snowpack is forecast in 2016.

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http://walkinginseattle.org/?p=3549

— Recent events in California and Detroit demonThe Facts: strate that climate change5 and failing municipal infrastructure6 disproportionately impact minori- — A net positive energy model reduces the negative ties and people with low incomes. impacts and externalities such as heavy transmission lines and distribution stations, which tend to — An interconnected web of decentralized systems be located in low-income neighborhoods. supports community resiliency since they cannot be shut off or taken down by a single event, such as — Renewably generated energy does not need to be extreme weather or natural disaster. tied to the grid. This provides an opportunity to extend energy service to populations in need with— Decentralized water infrastructure can act as a out heavy infrastructure investment. neighborhood amenity, providing open space to areas with little access. — A distributed energy system is more resilient, which most benefits those who cannot leave the — A net positive water model allows individuals and neighborhood in an emergency event. communities to freely access those resources that come naturally to their site. As technology develops, costs for potable filtration and black water processing continue to decrease. — Since they do not require construction and maintenance of extensive pipe networks, which are essential components of larger centralized systems, net positive water services can be extended more easily to various housing options.

ENERGY

BIOPHILIC NEIGHBORHOODS The vision calls for more equitable distribution of nature and natual systems throughout the community. Simply by converting excess street width to habitat corridors we can provide more access to open spaces and natural systems.

The vision calls for a net positive energy model imple- The Facts: mented over the next decade through building code — The least wealthy are often the least mobile. Many updates, collective purchase agreements, and renewwithin this area (and the surrounding city) lack able energy generation on most rooftops. Net positive the means to leave their neighborhood and thus and net zero energy buildings provide significant opto enjoy the benefits of nature. Bringing nature to portunities to reduce or eliminate energy bills, which the city and this community helps to restore this can aid in affordability for low-income residents. They balance. also serve the greater good by acting as a network of safe locations for people to shelter in times of service — The natural world is beautiful. Distributing nature disruption and emergency. throughout the neighborhood makes the city more beautiful for all people. 5 https://cdn.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/17102704/Ortiz-CAdrought-report.pdf 6 http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=49127#.VjAC566rTOQ

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— Nature provides the benefits of quiet and clean air, which are often critically needed in low-income communities. The broken development model of maximizing economic profit at the expense creating real value is not inevitable. In communities around the globe, the Living Community Challenge offers a framework for achieving value-driven development. The work in First Hill demonstrates that it is possible to leverage development to provide for people and the land rather than to merely displace and degrade. In Seattle, the Institute will continue our work to expand our vision and methodology into surrounding neighborhoods and develop replicable models for Living Communities. Wherever we call home, we can all support a new era of development that encourages holistic growth and resiliency. The lessons learned in

Seattle can be tailored to many development contexts in order to build highly valued, thriving places for all.

“THE BROKEN DEVELOPMENT MODEL OF MAXIMIZING ECONOMIC PROFIT AT THE EXPENSE CREATING REAL VALUE IS NOT INEVITABLE.“ ADAM AMRHEIN is the Living Community Challenge Manager at the International Living Future Institute.

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Hope in Hazelwood Responding to Injustice Through Collaborative, Sustainable Architecture (CMU). For the past several years, Baird has been studying the Hazelwood neighborhood and trying to understand its plight from a variety of perspectives: racial segregation, urban blight and gentrification among them. She frequently visits Hazelwood with her students to discuss the pernicious combination of shortsighted development and governmental neglect that have hampered the neighborhood. Dr. Baird and her students are now working with the Hazelwood community to create a case study for a radical new kind of development. The students are learning how to listen to the community first, and then using an amalgamation of sustainable architecture, affordable housing, gatherings and workshops, they recommend Enter into the setting Dr. Nina Baird, Assistant Pro- design solutions to meet the resident’s needs. Baird is fessor of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon University hopeful that the fusion of her students’ passion with Pittsburgh’s Hazelwood neighborhood has suffered in recent decades as American manufacturers have sent operations overseas and shuttered their U.S. factories. Pittsburgh, once known for its steel production, has transformed itself in the 21st century into a mecca for technology companies, with Google, Intel, Apple, and IBM siting facilities in the city—but by and large, Hazelwood has been left behind by the boom. As jobs burgeoned in wealthier, whiter areas of the city, jobs in Hazelwood—where 45% of residents are black and one in every four people lives in poverty—have trickled out. Pittsburgh’s last steel mill, based in Hazelwood, shut its doors in 1998.

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Hazelwood is a case study for a radical new kind of development: one that addresses the community’s current needs though an amalgamation of sustainable architecture, affordable housing and community gatherings. that of the residents of Hazelwood will yield positive results for the community.

thereby displacing those people who call Hazelwood home.

The Carnegie Mellon crew, though, quickly learned that helping residents revive their neighborhood would be no small undertaking. Hazelwood’s last grocery store folded in early 2009, and the community quickly became a food desert. In recent years, food deserts have become emblematic of the injustice of America’s food economy: as grocery stores and markets vacate a neighborhood, the only food left is processed food found in convenience stores. Hazelwood residents have had to travel miles from home to purchase groceries, and residents with little mobility have been forced to eat unhealthy food. Food deserts often hit minority communities the hardest.

So CMU students began sitting down with Hazelwood residents and learning the neighborhood’s story. What struggles do people face? What memories of the community did they hold dear? What do they want to see in the future? Racial divides in the neighborhood are still prominent, and residents are frustrated with many nonprofits that come into the neighborhood to help without consulting the residents first. Regardless of good intention, incoming staff members who cannot relate to the community demographics will not be able to grasp the neighborhood’s plight.

In 2013, using lessons learned in listening and community development, the students partnered with ACTION Housing, Inc., a local affordable housing group, and the Pittsburgh Food Bank in order to reopen the defunct grocery store. Together they reached the common goal to sell fresh food at prices people can afford, and also offer classes on catering and food preparation. Both students and residents And blind development is still a problem: in 2002, a view the store as a success. “It’s more than a profitdeveloper transformed a 178-acre riverfront brown- able business,” people say, it’s a community gathering field site into a commercial center with two million space that takes the interests of locals to heart. square feet of office space and 2,000 housing units. Christened Almono (an acronym culled from Pitts- Today, Dr. Baird and her students are taking the moburgh’s neighboring Allegheny, Monongahela and mentum of their first completed project and looking Ohio Rivers), the development was long marketed as for next steps. One of the first lessons of working in a project that would revive the area. But Dr. Baird and Hazelwood, though, has been the understanding that her students believe that Almono is part of the prob- the community’s largest concerns aren’t necessarily lem: its expensive housing units run the risk of pric- what Baird and her students had on their agenda. The ing current residents out of their own neighborhood, CMU students began their work in Hazelwood with a What’s more, aging industrial zones (termed “brownfields”)—such as those where steel mills were once located—are often heavily polluted. The coke ovens, furnaces and rail yards of Hazelwood were never clean operations, and even abandoned, may still threaten public health.

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workshop on how to weatherize one’s home for monthly utility savings, but they soon came to realize that home renovation was the least of Hazelwood residents’ concerns. “People are trying to make ends meet,” explains Dr. Baird; their priorities center around putting food on the table and paying next month’s rent. Any up-front costs associated with weatherization were cost prohibitive. Residents are also tired of outside groups coming into the community to help, as oftentimes such groups set about their work without consulting anyone about Hazelwood’s needs.

donated bikes for shared use. More recently, CMU students have launched Operation Better Block—a community gathering to clean up debris, plant trees and bushes and reroute stormwater—as well as a digital fabrication trailer, where students will work with a group of veterans to train people in architecture and construction.

Today, Hazelwood residents are expressing concerns over the rate at which old houses are being demolished by the city of Pittsburgh. The CMU architecture crew doesn’t see their job as pushing for new deSo Dr. Baird and her students scrapped their next velopment, but rather as safeguarding the structures weatherization workshop and set about talking to and community that already exist. Hazelwood residents and getting to know the local landscape. What arose were collaborations with “It’s a work in progress,” admits Baird. But to echo locals instead of impositions upon them—a lesson, the words of one Hazelwood resident, “This sudden surely, for all architects interested in sustainable de- burst of creative energy around sustainable living sign. The CMU crew offered classes on how to use proffers hope.” the internet, equipping residents with marketable online skills. They also taught Geographic Information GABE DUNESMITH was born and raised in Southern Appalachia. A System (GIS) software, which is used in many profesgraduate of Vassar College, he lives sional environments, and offered map-reading classes in Seattle and interns with the for children. CMU students also offered a bike repair International Living Future Instiworkshop for kids in the community, and local police tute.

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