Trim Tab v. 28 by International Living Future Institute

TR A NSFORM ATION A L IS SUE

CELEBRATING A DECADE OF VISIONARY LEADERSHIP:

JASON F. MCLENNAN

APRIL 2016

EDITOR-IN- CHIEF

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

EDITORI A L DIREC TOR

Joanna Gangi joanna.gangi@living-future.org

M A N AGING EDITOR

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

Gabe Dunsmith, Brad Liljequist, Bill McKibben, Jason F. McLennan, Julian Mocine-McQueen, Bill Reed, 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

DEPARTMENTS 01

LETTER FROM THE CEO

TRANSFORMATIONAL PEOPLE:

TRANSFORMATIONAL DESIGN:

Jason F. McLennan BY A M A NDA S TURGEON

Net Zero Energy Certified Residential Buildings BY BR A D LIL JEQUIS T

A P R I L 2 016 , I S S U E 2 8

Trim Tab is a quarterly publication of the International Living Future Institute, a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization.

TR A NSFORM ATION A L THOUGHT BY BILL REED A ND JA SON F. MCLENN A N

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On Target: The Bullitt Center BY TRIM TA B EDITORI A L TE A M

TRANSFORMATIONAL THOUGHT:

Practicing the Whole BY BILL REED A ND 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 28

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

TR A NSFORM ATION A L DE SIGN BY BR A D LIL JEQUIS T, E T A L .

FEATURES

THE PRINTING

37 49 57

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 humanity’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.

The Case for Fossil Fuel Divestment BY BILL MCK IBBEN

Personal Divestment to a Living Future BY JA SON F. MCLENN A N

Reveal: The Energy Efficiency Label for Products BY TRIM TA B EDITORI A L TE A M E XCERP T FROM: THE P OW ER OF ZERO

Learning from the world’s leading Net Zero Energy Buildings BY BR A D LIL JEQUIS T, E T A L .

To Empower Black Communities, Power our Country with Clean Energy!

Fighting the Flood: Students in Brazil are Using Mobile Bathrooms to Counter Climate Change

BY JULIAN MOCINE-MCQUEEN 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 CEO Over the past few months, ILFI staff and board have finalized a new strategic plan that will guide the organization over the next five years. The opportunity to witness the collaboration between friends and colleagues throughout this process has filled me with energy and optimism for the future. We’re proud of where the organization is heading, and invite you to take a look at the plan. Our work will continue to be guided by the challenges of climate change, energy and resource scarcity, and social inequity. To create this plan, we reflected on our successes and growth points, and arrived at a three key goals: • Growing our roots • Strengthening our core • Widening our circle The organization has reached a tipping point. We are transitioning from a fledgling organization to an established non-profit. As we move into our new role, it is critical that we continue to uphold the same standard of integrity and commitment to measurable results. The past ten years would not have been possible without ILFI’s founder, Jason F. McLennan and his tireless optimism and vision. Jason’s success in transforming the building industry’s paradigm has paved a path for ILFI to continue to make significant positive progress. I am honored to assume the new role as CEO, and look forward to implementing the new five-year strategic plan. Together we have outlined an inspiring pathway to 2020, but we can’t get there without you. Whether you attend our events, inspire change as an Ambassador, partner with us as a sponsor, fund our efforts or engage with one or more of our programs, each one of you plays a vital role in carrying ILFI to the next level. I am grateful for your support as a member of our community of passionate individuals. Thank you for believing in the possibility of a Living Future. I am thrilled to announce the release of Trim Tab v.28 in tandem with the launch of the vision for the next five years. In this issue, we celebrate Jason’s ten years of service; explore homes that exemplify proven performance; underline the importance of holistic design strategies; provide anecdotes that show the urgency of divestment; and more.

AMANDA STURGEON CEO, International Living Future Institute

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GROWING OUR ROOTS

OUR VISION

STRENGTHENING OUR CORE

WIDENING OUR CIRCLE

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Hood River Middle School Music & Science Building Net Zero Energy & LEED Platinum Certified

Pringle Creek Painters Hall

Net Zero Energy, Petal & LEED Platinum Certified

Reed College Performing Arts Building Earth Advantage Gold Certified

Oregon Zoo Education Center

Pursuing LEED Gold Certification & Net Zero Energy

Working together through collaborative visionmaking to regenerate the built and natural environment. 3

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B Y A M A N D A S T U R G E O N | I N T R O B Y T R I M TA B E D I T O R I A L T E A M

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PHOTO JOHAN BERGMARK

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

n the past few decades, nearly every large company has adopted the word “sustainability” into their organizational vernacular. The rise in popularity of sustainable practices is in part a business trend but is also a reaction from business and government to assuage human impact on the environment. As a whole, sustainable practices have largely produced incremental positive change toward preserving the earth’s resources and biodiversity. Jason F. McLennan, creator of the Living Building Challenge (LBC) and founding CEO of the International Living Future Institute (ILFI), was tired of faulty environmental practices and wanted to create greater positive change. In 2006, McLennan was leading as the CEO of the Cascadia Green Building Council, and with the idea of a certification program that far exceeded LEED standards, he took the leap toward social entrepreneurship.

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Ten years later, ILFI has grown to be a leading organization in regenerative design standards, educational tools and related programs: staff numbers are growing, program uptake is exponential, and three sold-out annual conferences demonstrate that McLennan was never alone in his dream to make a real difference in the way humans interact with the built environment. As a result of ILFI’s growing relationships with the design (AEC) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) communities, architects, engineers, manufacturers, and governments are aligning their work with ILFI’s mission: to create a world that is socially just, culturally rich and ecologically restorative. Last fall, ILFI underwent a large transition: Jason F. McLennan stepped down as CEO, and his successor, Amanda Sturgeon, is now leading ILFI down the radical path that McLennan first blazed. ILFI further celebrates his leadership and looks forward to his continued service as a pioneer in ecological design. Current CEO Amanda Sturgeon sat down with McLennan to talk about the transition and reflect upon the goals and challenges of the past ten years.

AMANDA STURGEON: What were some of the great-

JM: We decided to make the transition slowly so that

AS: How did you know that the time was right to make a

JM: We’ve achieved the proof of concept and can now

est initial hurdles in introducing the Living Building the timing was just right. I decided that I wanted to start Challenge to the architecture community? transitioning in 2012 when we hired a new executive director. I wanted to make sure that ILFI was financially JASON F. MCLENNAN: I think initially people thought whole before I left. I set a goal to have ample resources that the [Living Building Challenge] Standard was too in the bank and to broaden the leadership team, and I hard, and nobody would be able to achieve it. There wasn’t going to leave before the organization could stand were a number of non-believers out there. It was illegal on its own legs. By 2012, there was a bunch of great peoto implement many of the strategies and technologies ple who could represent ILFI beyond myself. nearly everywhere in North America due to water and waste regulations. At that point, I was ready to leave personally, too. I wanted to leave cleanly and without a power struggle. I also AS: What drove you to start the Living Building didn’t want to leave the organization at a point where Challenge? it would fall into disrepair, which happens with a lot of founders at their departure JM: I was impatient with the rate of change. I knew that the industry could do much better than what it was The organization could have a life of its own. I crafted currently doing, but I was not seeing the initiative or the DNA, the framework, the vision, and the path. I the spark needed to push people to go through with it. wanted to get out of the way and move on to the next LEED did a great job in introducing the industry to a thing, while still supporting ILFI when it needed me. I wide range of issues, but the LBC was needed to really felt great about leaving ILFI in your capable hands. put a stake in the ground far afield so that the needed direction of the industry was clear. AS: What is your proudest accomplishment from your time in ILFI? AS: Why is the Living Building Challenge so critical at this moment in time? How do you see it continuing JM: The growth of the Living Building Challenge. The to scale? changes in the market that have been a direct result of the program are really wonderful to see. People no lonJM: The LBC provides a tangible solution to the major- ger just imagine living buildings—they are actually ity of the ways that the built environment contributes to building them and providing inspirational models for environmental degradation. Countering climate change others to follow. I remember how many people thought is not just about identifying the atmospheric carbon the concept was impossible; except for a few real leaders number that we can’t exceed—we have to begin to re- like Sim Van Der Ryn, Bob Berkebile, Pliny Fisk. The verse the damage that’s been done. The program forces LBC is the first framework and set of tools that shows project teams to ask, “What do we actually do that has how regenerative building is possible. Not everyone is impact? How do we change our footprints so that we ready to create living buildings, but they can see others eliminate negative unintended consequences and create doing it and can imagine the shift more readily. So my good in the world?” We can create more habitat, clean biggest achievement was removing the doubt. the air and water, and create places of great beauty and elegance. The LBC is living proof of a way of life We are AS: How will projects like the Bullitt Center serve as building solutions for the future now replicable models around the world? transition from CEO of ILFI?

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begin to scale. We still need to create Bullitt Center–like

PHOTO JOHAN BERGMARK

projects in every climate zone and every building type. Even in the Northwest, we need four or five Bullitt Centers that are office buildings to really sort through the numbers and flesh out the data points to show trends. Each Living Building is a little different aesthetically and uses different materials and technologies. Each project solves the same problem in ways that are applicable to each site. AS: At ILFI, you worked on removing a lot of barriers to

living buildings. Which critical barriers are left to remove? JM: There are still a lot of materials-related issues, espe-

cially at scale. Small projects are really tough on the materials side because you don’t have much leverage with

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manufacturers when you’re talking about a couple thousand square feet. In reality, all of the barriers still exist, but they’ve just reduced in magnitude, and now there are good examples to follow. AS: The ILFI now administers the Living Product Chal-

lenge (LPC) and Living Community Challenge (LCC), in addition to other programs. Why is it important to expand the scope of the Living Building Challenge beyond buildings? JM: The world needs holistic solutions to the complex issues surrounding climate change and other environmental challenges. We create living products to help

What do we actually do that has impact? How do we change our footprints so that we eliminate negative unintended consequences and create good in the world? We can create more habitat, clean the air and water, and create places of great beauty and elegance. make the process of creating living buildings more achievable. It creates a halo effect where one industry pulls the other industry forward in different ways, and it attracts interest. We hope that the LPC will have a similar impact on the manufacturing sector as the LBC has made for the construction sector. AS: What drives you now that you’ve made the steps to

start your own firm, McLennan Design?

JM: My motivation hasn’t changed. I am driven by the same fundamental driver to create positive change as before, but just using a different framework. On a personal level, I want to keep learning new things. And I think it’s good to reinvent yourself every decade or so.

When you bring an organization to a certain point, it’s good to then let a fresh set of eyes and a fresh set of hands take it further. On one hand, it’s good for you as a person

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to learn new things. On the other hand, it’s good for the “material” to have new people who bring their energy and ideas. So for me it was time to hand over the reins and return to what I love, design, and to create living buildings more directly for people. Now I’m building an architecture and planning firm that I think will do a lot of good in the world. The firm has a special focus on helping people in need. AS: What’s the most pressing issue facing society today? JM: It’s multiple issues. Population, climate change,

economic inequality, social injustice, the threat of war, pandemic disease; and they’re all interrelated.

There are so many things that could put us into trouble, and it’s hard to predict which one is going to impose the real catastrophe. Our work at ILFI addresses some of these by going to the source—how we build society and the pieces that make up civilization. Big stuff! AS: Why do you think ILFI and Living Building Chal-

lenge have been successful?

JM: An entire community of people signed up for the

vision. If they didn’t join me, it would’ve been a pretty lonely party. It would’ve been over. The people make the party. I feel lucky to have sent the invitation. ILFI’s network of people and partners has done amazing things. Fundamentally, our programs have been successful because they offer actionable hope and new models and new ways of thinking built on inspiration rather than guilt and gloom and doom. We don’t spend our time merely pointing out the problems, but instead we focus on identifying the solutions and removing the barriers.

AMANDA STURGEON FAIA, LEED Fellow is CEO of the International Living Future Institute. Intro by Trim Tab editorial team

Sustainable Building Solutions for the Living Building Challenge When the teams at Williams College and Integrated Eco Strategy set out to construct the Class of 1966 Environmental Center, they relied on ASSA ABLOY products to help contribute to the stringent guidelines of the Living Building Challenge.

NG FU TU LIVI

P M AT I V E S

2016 SF

R•

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INTERNA TIO

We’ve done our homework and proudly share many valuable Environmental Product Declarations, Declare labels, and Health Product Declarations across our product lines.

BY BR A D LIL JEQUIS T, E T A L .

NET ZERO ENERGY Net zero energy is quickly becoming a sought-after goal for many buildings worldwide. The media focuses primarily on commercial buildings, but there are number of innovative homeowners who seek to reduce demand on the earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s natural resources. Residential net zero energy buildings are examples of what is possible when homeowners and designers look at how to reduce energy demands of buildings. The following stories showcase innovative projects and explore the steps that each project took to become one of the most efficient buildings in North America.

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CERTIFIED RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS

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zHOME ISSAQUAH, WA, USA

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SIZE: 10 homes / 13,401 sf total

EUI: zHOME TOTAL SAVINGS 62%

TOTAL ENERGY USAGE

17.5 EUI

BUILDING FOOTPRINT: 5,812 sf SITE: 17,179 sf TYPE: Residential, Educational (one unit used as education center) LIVING TRANSECT: L4, General Urban Zone WEBSITE: z-home.org/outline.php LOCATION: Issaquah, WA, USA EUI: 17.5 - 20.6 kBtu/sf/year for homes, 17.5 kBtu/sf/year for Stewardship Center (education, event, office space). PV SIZE: 3 kW

62%

SAVINGS FROM BASELINE

KBTU/SF/YEAR BASELINE EUI*

OTHER RENEWABLES: None * RECS 2009, single family detached general climate category

CLIMATE ZONE: Marine ANNUAL ENERGY USE: ACTUAL: 3,012 kWh SIMULATED/DESIGNED: N/A CONSTRUCTION COST: $226/sf

Launched in 2006, the zHome project has been a market catalyst for deeply sustainable, climate-neutral homes for everyday people. Born out of years of small improvements in green building performance, the creators sought to revolutionize the paradigm for residential construction. The project was conceived in 2005 by Brad Liljequist, while on sabbatical from his role as green building and urban design consultant. Liljequist was inspired by the groundbreaking British restorative communities of BedZED and the Hockerton Housing Project, as well as the University of Nottingham Jubilee campus. The City of Issaquah, where zHome is located, has long been a regional leader in sustainability.

CERTIFICATION: ILFI-certified Net Zero Energy Building for five of ten homes as well as community energy uses DATES CERTIFIED: May 2013; September 2015

WILLOWBROOK HOUSE AUSTIN, TX, USA

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SIZE: 2 floors / 2,100 sf

EUI: WILLOWBROOK HOUSE TOTAL SAVINGS 78%

TOTAL ENERGY USAGE

BUILDING FOOTPRINT: 2,100 sf SITE: 9,044 sf TYPE: Residential Building LIVING TRANSECT: L3, Village or Campus Zone

8.59

WEBSITE: living-future.org/case-study/ willowbrook-house

EUI

LOCATION: Austin, TX, USA EUI: 8.59 kBtu/ft/yr PV SIZE: 4.5kW DC (18 250W panels + micro inverters)

78%

SAVINGS FROM BASELINE

OTHER RENEWABLES: Solar thermal hot water (2 roof panels + 80 gallon storage)

39.1

KBTU/SF/YEAR BASELINE EUI*

CLIMATE ZONE: Hot-Humid * RECS 2009, Hot humid residential single family category

ANNUAL ENERGY USE: ACTUAL: 5,310 kWh CONSTRUCTION COST: $186/sf CERTIFICATION: ILFI-certified Net Zero Energy Building DATE CERTIFIED: May 2014

Set on a slope above the street, the Willowbrook House in Austin, Texas, is one of the most energy-efficient residential structures in the United States. Originally built in 1948 in a post-WWII neighborhood with mid-century flair, this 2,100-square-foot Net Zero Energy-certified building is the residence of a family of four. Owners Sunshine and Emily Mathon sought a larger home for their growing family that could produce enough energy to sustain itself. They undertook an extensive retrofitting of the building, using reclaimed wood and focusing on water efficiency.

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ZERO ENERGY HOUSE AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND

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SIZE: 2 floors / 2,361 sf

EUI: ZERO ENERGY HOUSE

BUILDING FOOTPRINT: 1,400 sf TOTAL ENERGY USAGE

TOTAL SAVINGS 90.4%

SITE: 4,348 sf TYPE: Residential Building LIVING TRANSECT: L4, General Urban Zone

3.74

WEBSITE: zeroenergyhouse.co.nz LOCATION: Auckland, New Zealand

EUI

EUI: 3.74 kBtu/sf/year PV SIZE: 4.16kWp Photovoltaic array consisting of 88 x C21 roof tiles by SolarCity

90.4% SAVINGS FROM BASELINE

39.1

KBTU/SF/YEAR BASELINE EUI*

OTHER RENEWABLES: Eight Artline solar hot water collectors CLIMATE ZONE: Mixed Humid *RECS 2009, Hot humid residential single family category

The Zero Energy House (ZEH) is a 2,361-square-foot certified Net Zero Energy Building in Auckland, New Zealandâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the first of its kind in the country. Located on a brownfield site, the two-story structure features passive housing design. It was designed for comfort based on room use and building orientation. Design professionals Shay Brazier and Jo Woods are the owners of the house. The bedrooms and living area are positioned on the north side of the house for

ANNUAL ENERGY USE: ACTUAL: 2,361 kWh SIMULATED/DESIGNED: 3,217 kWh CONSTRUCTION COST: $193/sf CERTIFICATION: ILFI-certified Net Zero Energy Building DATE CERTIFIED: April 2014

better solar exposure, whereas the kitchen and bathrooms occupy the south side of the lot. Adjacent to the living block is the play and work block, which are connected by an entryway featuring a workshop and garage. The pitched-roof house takes a simple form, evoking coastal California bungalows and the old state houses of New Zealand. The exterior is made of unfinished Macrocarpa weatherboards, which give the structure a rustic sensibility. Reclaimed catamaran boat beams are used for the interior.

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MISSION ZERO HOUSE ANN ARBOR, MI, USA

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SIZE: 2 floors / 1,500 sf*

EUI: MISSION ZERO HOUSE TOTAL SAVINGS 61.1%

BUILDING FOOTPRINT: 870 sf SITE: 8,712 sf TYPE: Single Family Home

TOTAL ENERGY USAGE

19.7 EUI

LIVING TRANSECT: L3, Village or Campus Zone WEBSITE: happyhome.how/tour-my-home LOCATION: Ann Arbor, MI, USA EUI: 19.72 kBtu/sf/year PV SIZE: 8.1 kW DC** CLIMATE ZONE: Cold

61.1%

SAVINGS FROM BASELINE

50.7

KBTU/SF/YEAR BASELINE EUI*

*RECS 2009, Very cold/cold residential single family category

ANNUAL ENERGY PRODUCTION: ACTUAL: 8,939 kWh/yr NET ENERGY GENERATED: 295 kWh/yr ANNUAL ENERGY USE: ACTUAL: 8,676 kWh SIMULATED/DESIGNED: 8,535 kWh CONSTRUCTION COST: $84/sf CERTIFICATION: ILFI-certified Net Zero Energy Building

Located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Mission Zero House is a historic preservation of a 1,500-square-foot 1901 folk-Victorian residence, and one of the first homes to receive ILFI’s Net Zero Energy Building Certification. The two-story house features reclaimed materials, restored wood clapboard siding, a full-width front porch, spindle posts, and a cut-stone foundation. Owners Matt and Kelly Grocoff set out

DATE CERTIFIED: January 2015 *The total conditioned area within the thermal envelope is 2600 sf, including the unvented attic and basement. The total living space is 1500 sf. **36 225W Sunpower SPR-225-BLK solar panels and 36 individual Enphase microinverters.

to create a space that met the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Historic Preservation, and to reimagine the character of a “green” house. The Ann Arbor Historic District Commission approved the home’s solar array, which did not affect or damage the building. The visible PV panels add a clear contrast to the traditional house frame.

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ZERO COTTAGE SAN FRANCISCO, CA, USA

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SIZE: 3 floors / 1,140.97 sf

EUI: ZERO COTTAGE

BUILDING FOOTPRINT: 500 sf TOTAL SAVINGS 78%

TOTAL ENERGY USAGE

SITE: 3,046.19 sf TYPE: Single Family Residence and Workshop LIVING TRANSECT: L5, Urban Center Zone

8.67

WEBSITE: dbarchitect.com/ZeroCottage

EUI

LOCATION: San Francisco, CA, USA EUI: 8.67 kBtu/sf/year PV SIZE: 3 kW OTHER RENEWABLES: None

78%

SAVINGS FROM BASELINE

39.7

KBTU/SF/YEAR BASELINE EUI*

CLIMATE ZONE: Marine *RECS 2009, Marine residential single family category

ANNUAL ENERGY USE: ACTUAL: 3,012 kWh SIMULATED/DESIGNED: N/A CONSTRUCTION COST: $600/sf CERTIFICATION: ILFI-certified Net Zero Energy Building DATE CERTIFIED: May 2014

Zero Cottage is the result of a deep-green study of compact, sustainable urban design. Composed of an 1,141-square-foot loft residence and wood-shop, Zero Cottage is a fits a renovated, historic, Edwardian-style townhouse into an active, mixed-use neighborhood. The Zero Cottage started as a passive house project and contributes to the ongoing vitality of San Franciscoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mission District neighborhood; blending work-space with a compact, highly functional studio. The cottage is capped by a rooftop deck replete with solar panels and space for gardening and relaxing.

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ON TARGET: THE BULLITT CENTER The Bullitt Centerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s proven energy performance proves that innovative energy-saving strategies are possible for large-scale projects. In the first year of occupancy, the building produced significantly more energy than it used. During the summer, when Seattle receives many consecutive days of sunlight, the buildingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s solar electricity production soars, contributing a substantial surplus to the utility company. The Bullitt Center is doing exactly what it is intended to do: giving back to the surrounding environment while simultaneously generating revenue.

Triple-pane windows automatically open to regulate indoor temperature.

Exterior blinds reduce glare and prevent incoming solar radiation from heating the space. 244 kW rooftop solar array produces more electricity than the building uses per year.

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PHOTO NIC LEHOUX

Adjusted Baseline Energy

78,571 kWh

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Utility Meter

11,260 kWh

kWh Yield

67,311 kWh

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

Practicing the Whole MOVING FROM EGO-SYSTEMS TO ECOSYSTEMS

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PHOTO ISTOCK

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“YOU CAN’T WORK ON ECOSYSTEMS IF YOU ARE WORKING WITHIN AN EGO-SYSTEM.” CAROL FRANKLIN ANDROPOGON

EDITOR’S NOTE. IN PAST ISSUES OF TRIM TAB, JASON F. MCLENNAN AND BILL REED HAVE COLLABORATED ON TWO ARTICLES THAT FOCUSED ON THE SUBJECT OF REGENERATIVE DESIGN (REGENERATING THE WHOLE AND FALLING IN LOVE WITH LIFE) INTRODUCTION

In our past articles we introduced aspects of the different thinking required to engage in the practice of living system development or regeneration; how this thinking is different from the left-brain, piecemeal, technical efficiency approach to sustainability; and why this shift in thinking is essential to achieve a sustainable condition. Many green projects are generative in nature: people get very excited about the techniques, technologies, and new ways of thinking that result in positive contributions to the health of ecosystems and a reduction of human impact. The big question is how this work can continue in the face of societal inertia and the surprises of evolutionary change. Certainly, a single developer, institution, architect, or planner cannot determine or dictate an effective, long-term result. All living systems of a community and watershed are the only organisms that can influence wholesale, long-lasting and purposeful engagement, and so design should be thought of as a framework or vessel that is supportive of this engagement.

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PHOTO UNSPLASH

The first article focused on Living System Design Truths, emphasizing five principles inextricably connected to living system regenerative design and development. The second article emphasized the necessary shift in our state of being—the right-brain, heart, and consciousness aspect of human being. The greatest source of leverage for this needed shift is within a human being’s inner development: developing the understanding of why, and the practice of how, to be in the right relationship with the world and each other.

BROAD ASPECTS OF THE PRACTICE

Regenerative development and design is a living systems approach to design and construction processes, inviting us to consider our full potential as human beings, understanding that we can be in a co-creative role within nature, helping to nourish and be nourished by all of life.

Holding the complexity of the whole of living entities (a person, the land, a community, an organization) is accomplished by working from the core identity (essence This article addresses some processes to practice living or uniqueness) of that entity. Carol Sanford, an expert system design and development and ways to bridge the in regenerative business, describes this as “working esworld of things and relationships into re-engaging in sence to essence.“ This is a design process that engages the wholeness of life. The re (which means to do again, and focuses on the evolution of the whole of the system afresh, anew) in regenerative is the ultimate focus. How of which we are part. Logically, our place—community, do we build the desire, the capacity, and the capability of watershed, and bio-region—is the sphere in which we a group of people to continually engage in a process of can participate. By engaging all the key stakeholders and rebirthing their relationship with the evolutionary pro- processes of the place—humans, other biotic systems, cesses of life so that, overall, all life benefits? What does earth systems, and the consciousness that connects practicing regeneration look like? What are the leverage them—the design process builds the capability of peopoints that can serve as entry points to practice this way of doing and being?

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ple and the ‘more than human’ participants to engage in continuous and healthy co-evolutionary relationship.1

are several schools of thought and practice to support the learning curve and help the practitioner engage in the process of socio-ecologic development along with Much like yoga, or any body-and-mind practice, a re- the development of their own lives. For example, the generative approach works at multiple levels in the indi- two of us belong to different yet synergistic schools vidual and in the collaborative space. And it works much of thought relative to regenerative design. Working like a developing relationship between two people or a with actual projects in this way is one of the most efgroup. It is not a mechanistic or “cookie cutter” method- fective ways to engage in large-scale transformation ology. The practice responds to what is real and live in processes toward deeply sustainable, resilient, and rethe here and now, not through reading words and manu- generative systems. als, but through action and experience. So, as a way of working, a regenerative approach calls for the kind of There are many ways to structure whole, regenerareciprocity and engagement between the participants, tive or integral practices. The important point of this other people and the living system of a place. It is an on- work is to shift your client’s approach and assumpgoing tending, aligning, developing, and deepening of tions as well as your own (even if you think you have relationships—to bring the (birth, life, death, rebirth) all the right answers) and to start from what is core process alive in a meaningful and fiercely pragmatic way to the life of that client and to the place and culture that benefits life in each unique place.2 in which you are working. This is the shift from doing things to developing the being relationships discussed in the second article. This discovery process of relatedness—between each other, and the whole Regeneration is a practice; it is ongoing, just as living organism of the place we are addressing—is with evolution. the source of compassion and care and therefore of the will to create tremendous change. It is real work. Just like life, one can’t go on automatic and expect to accomplish much. To be most effective in life, every step we take, asks us to be conscious of taking the next step.

From practical experience, we have found that there are some basic aspects and distinctions that are useful to shift a project into this “becoming state.” This state of being generates the will to significantly change the way we do things. A master plan, building, or project emerges as a synchronous outcome of these deeper relationships.

ASPECTS AND DISTINCTION OF THIS DEVELOPMENTAL SYSTEMS PRACTICE

Regenerative design is not a cookie-cutter, step-bystep, or linear process. As in any holistic practice, it is important to simply begin, and then you are in a position to practice and learn. This may seem to be an intimidating way of launching into this work, yet there 1 (Regenesis Group. ‘Our Manifesto’. 2015. http://www.regenesisgroup. com/manifesto/) 2 (conversation with Caroline Robinson of Cabal in New Zealand)

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REGENERATIVE DESIGN IS NOT A COOKIE-CUTTER OR STEP-BY-STEP OR LINEAR PROCESS.

THESE ASPECTS AND DISTINCTIONS CAN BE LOOSELY IDENTIFIED AS THE FIVE Ps OF REGENERATIVE DEVELOPMENT I. POTENTIAL (co-discovering the new relationships, adaptation, and harmonization possible as people and place evolve) • Permission (getting buy in and endorsement to begin a different kind process by those involved) II. PROCESS (building a web of relationships using Integrative Design, Lean Construction or similar processes) • Five Capitals and Value-adding Processes (integrating continuously accruing value into a place) III. PLACE AND PEOPLE (Place and People are linked in a dance – understand what makes this dance unique, its essence) • Pattern (the consistent and repeating way a living system adds value to itself and other systems) • Purpose and Role (understanding and becoming aligned around the unique role people have within this ecology and the role of this place in its larger ecological context) IV. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT (practicing and developing a self that can minimize attachment V. PERPETUAL CAPABILITY BUILDING (developing whole systems understanding, participating in feedback systems and opportunities for improvement and discovery as a living process over time). IMPORTANT NOTE : These aspects and distinctions are experi-

enced as concurrent and parallel threads. They are woven together in a way that is most appropriate for each project and the client’s level of focus and understanding as a foundation for the physical realization of the project. In other words, these aspects of the work of engaging a whole living system are all done at the beginning of the project and are deepened and iterated throughout. A continual birth, life, death, and rebirth occurs in the project and within the team and each individual at almost every step of the project when working this way.

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POTENTIAL Even seemingly cataclysmic events are not problems. Nature can only address the present and work toward a future wherein life in that place organizes and collaborates to bring a higher order of diversity and resilience. It is a human perspective that looks at these events as problems; instead, it is more fruitful to think of them as rebirths. For example, a stream is in a continual process of making itself.

by Rflor

further the ongoing renewing of quality of life. This regeneration includes our own relationship to self. This work is built on the concept of autopoiesis4, or auto-creation, wherein living beings such as bacteria, guilds of animals, plants, and soil, watersheds, and so on are seen as systems that produce themselves in a ceaseless way. Similarly, we need to take the abilities of the organisms we call human beings, help them see the potential of how life wants to work in the places they live, and then give them basic organizational frameworks and principles for how the whole socioecological system can be collaborative and healing. With the catalyzing of this co-creative process, whole ecosystems can begin organizing toward a dynamic resiliency in a matter of months and certainly within only a very few years.

Since humans are nature, this means there is a lot to look forward to: the most exciting, powerful, and effective dimension of the practice of regeneration centers on working with the concept of potential; that is, the PERMISSION – Finding the client who is ready inherent ability or capacity for growth, development, to engage in exploring potential—to move beyond exor coming into being 3 pected outcomes Sylvain Amatoury, AU

The idea of potential may seem to be stating the obvious: life is emergent, it is becoming, it is always evolving; we are part of an inevitable dynamic process. Yet, in general, our design culture has been trained to • From residential construction to whole cities and solve problems and provide “deliverables”—things, cultural groups within nations, the size of the projmaster plans, restored ecosystems, and reports—as if ect doesn’t matter. It is important to identify the the thinking and ideas delivered at the end of a conclient’s motivating factors in order to deepen the retract will somehow outlast the myriad evolutionary generative design process. In our experience, there pressures of life. We can easily lose sight of the whole are a few reasons that clients are inspired to engage in pursuit of the part. in this different nature of design process: • A desire to leave a legacy compared to their previous What is most fun and satisfying about the practice of work; regeneration is that we are helping people experience • An aspiration toward higher levels of sustainability and become excited about the processes of life and and restoration; how any ecological system—all of life, humans and • Need to address large-scale, human-caused ecologi“nature”—can continually organize to bring back a cal system damage; tremendous diversity of healthy relationships and

3 (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/potential, October 31, 2015).

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4 (This word appeared for the first time in the international literature in 1974, in an article published by Varela, Maturana, and Uribe, https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopoiesis, November 1, 2015)

• Fear of community backlash and lack of support; • An awareness of the benefits of systems thinking and integrative processes; • Collaboration and alignment with multi-stakeholder constituencies and/or large design teams; • A desire to add value to the system they are working within; • A desire to systematically address multiple and concurrent issues. Despite the client’s motivation, the general approach to the regenerative design and development process is intended to help them recognize and understand the core of their reason for considering engaging a practice that explores new thinking. The basic way of starting a cocreative relationship is to help clients see themselves and recognize the (likely unspoken) core purpose for their work. This occurs through asking them gently destabilizing questions for which you (and them) do not have an immediate answer. These questions may be entered on identifying the client’s distinct purpose for doing this work. The important point to remember is that this is all about them, not about your expertise. One thing is certain: you cannot force this way of being on a client; it is something they recognize when they engage with it.

PROCESS Building a web of relationships

Anton Noskov

At its most basic level, practicing regenerative development is about the process of inviting and helping the stakeholders in an ecological system to be in a continually enriching relationship around a unifying purpose. People, in general, are social beings who want to be in healthy relationships with each other. Fragmented issues and groups of people working in silos and managing their own fiefdoms will only exacerbate the

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problems in a living system. The most practical and well-developed practice modes come from the world of System Integration. Your “gateway practice” may be built on one of a number of different modalities of group process alignment: community organizing techniques, organizational development, lean construction, integrative process, integrated project delivery. Each of these management technologies has strengths and weaknesses. The most important attribute to be embraced is the idea of organizing around a co-creative or integrated process and avoiding the command-andcontrol mentality that sponsors the tyranny of the expert. The integrative process is an absolute and basic foundation to realize regenerative development. A core group of people in an organization or community must be able to contribute to a process of creativity in order for them to eventually take responsibility for the health-giving evolution of the place. If the team that the core group is working with is not integrated, there is not much hope or practicality in thinking that a bad example will somehow inspire the opposite. A diverse community is a resilient community, capable of adapting to changing situations. However, diversity is a strategic advantage only if there is a truly vibrant community, sustained by a web of relationships. If the community is fragmented into isolated groups and individuals, diversity can easily become a source of prejudice and friction. But if the community is aware of the interdependence of all its members, diversity will enrich all the relationships and thus enrich the community as a whole, as well as each individual member. In such a community information and ideas flow freely through the entire network, and the diversity of interpretations and learning styles-even the diversity of mistakeswill enrich the entire community. —Maturana and Varela (1987) The Tree of Knowledge as cited in: Fritjof Capra (1996) The Web of Life. p. 330

A unified team is much more intelligent and effective than any individual.

FIVE CAPITALS AND VALUE-ADDING PROCESSES – Building a web of relationships also means we are building capital, or adding value, to the system in all the essential domains of life. The Forum for the Future, an independent non-profit specializing in solutions for sustainability challenges, identifies at least five domains that require value to be added on a continuous basis: Natural Systems, Human Development (spiritual/intellectual), Social Development, Economic Development, and Built Environment. Engaging with and developing all five capitals as the design process progresses is why it is vital to “design the design process.” If we do not intentionally hold multiple places in the schedule to continually iterate around these domains many opportunities for synergy will be lost.

sustain itself. Thus, we need to enlarge the system with which we are working:

PLACE – enlarge the project. “Place” is the smallest unit of effective living development. A living system self organizes most effectively when it comprehensively encompasses as many aspects of evolving life as possible: a watershed, agricultural land, relatively undamaged habitat, and urban and rural human habitation. ECO-REGION WATERSHED DEVELOPMENT

PLACE AND PEOPLE Expand the opportunity in order to understand the PEOPLE – Interestingly this work also ‘expands’ ecosystem at its core; in other words, the core living into the inner human dimension of self – our own patterns of place and people are observable in their evolving development. larger context. COMMUNITY TEAM

byKrisada

An object seen in isolation from the whole is not the real thing. —Masanobu Fukuoka, The One Straw Revolution

Start with universe. —Buckminster Fuller

If you can’t solve a problem, enlarge it. —Dwight Eisenhower

We cannot reduce a problem to the point at which it can no longer stay alive. Once a problem is disassociated from its living and supportive context, it cannot

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SELF

Regeneration is foremost a developmental practice, a process of internal becoming, a process of relationship-building between peopleto-people and people-to-nature. The “deliverable” of a project emerges out of this new and deeper exploration and understanding of necessary interrelationship, the unique relationships between the people and the environment, and the unique ecosystem in each place. . . .The future is not just about firefighting and tinkering with the surface of structural change. It’s not just about replacing one mindset that no longer

serves us with another . . . It’s a future that requires us to tap into a deeper level of humanity, of who we really are and who we want to be as a society. It is a future that we can sense, feel, and actualize by shifting the inner place from which we operate . . . This inner shift . . . is at the core of all deep leadership work today. It’s a shift that requires us to expand our thinking from the head to the heart. It is a shift from an ego-system awareness that cares about the well-being of oneself to an eco-system awareness that cares about the well-being of all, including oneself . . . When operating with eco-system awareness we are driven by concerns and intentions of our emerging and essential self – that is, by a concern that is informed by the well-being of the whole. —Leading from the Emerging Future, Otto Scharmer, Katrina Kaufer, 2013

PATTERN – Story of Place© When the uniqueness of a place sings to us like a melody, then we will know, at last, what it means to be at home. —Paul Gruchow Patterning is how we hold any complex idea. It identifies the consistent and repeating way a living system or living entity adds value to itself and to other systems and entities. “The world around us can be understood as structures, or as patterns. We can see objects or we can see the exchanges between those beings. Both are valid and useful views, but as a culture, we tend to the myopic view of a formal world. We are highly literate in the languages of symbols like letters, numbers, codes, and icons, and largely illiterate in the language of patterns. Life is process, and processes are patterned. This shortsightedness is why we damage the living world and cannot seem to stop it. We stumble

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without the balancing view of the pattern perspective.” 5 This pattern work is done through a process of working from pattern understanding to identify key leverage points: “We are looking for what Gregory Bateson called “the difference that makes a difference.” That difference is not a thing: it is a place and time— a relationship—a small change that changes everything. To play a song well, tune your instrument . . . To topple the arch, remove the keystone . . . Bread rises from adding a timely pinch of leaven . . .It is not a new technique or technology that is called for, but understanding when and where efforts can be effective . . . To be effective, shift the underlying patterns. This is the key to systemic change . . . The trick lies in seeing it.’ 6 The Story of Place® is a process developed by the Regenesis Group to engage communities in an essence understanding of how the core patterns of life work in the system they live within. Understanding the essence of the place inspires people to work with the system by harmonizing their actions with its core nature. This process builds ‘will’ in people by helping them relate to, understand, and love the unique way life works in their place. The Story of Place® is not just a narrative of history; it is a narrative that identifies the key nodes of exchange and transformation and the collection of patterns that make a place unique, as all places are. The story is really about the essence of the place and its people. The power of working with a community comes when people are asked to think into the patterns that are being discovered. When they feel the resonance (that “sings to us like a melody”), you know that their heart is being spoken to. Now, the reconciling work can begin between people and the place they know as home. 5 Joel Glanzberg, Pattern Mind, p.3 6 Joel Glanzberg, Pattern Mind

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The International Living Future Institute began pioneering some work to create both “child-centered patterns” and ecological patterns that are based loosely on Christopher Alexander’s Pattern Language. PURPOSE AND ROLE - understanding and becoming aligned around the unique role people have within this ecology When exploring a working relationship with a client or consultant, it is useful to shift the conversation from the normal telling and teaching to helping them experience the additional dimensions that need to be considered when working with living socio-ecological systems. By participating and experiencing the work required to move the conversation beyond the normal “what we are going to do for you” or what is wanted, new insights emerge, and the participants are excited about new areas of discovery. Typically we work with what we are going to do. This is the checklist approach. When we add the dimension of how it is going to be done, and what the purpose is, the conversation and learning are more relevant at a deeper level.

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One framework that is used to explore and experience these additional dimensions is the Five Whys. Edwards Deming7 used this problem-solving tool in his work with the Japanese auto industry. Any decision made should be questioned to at least five levels of why. This framework demands that we examine levels of understanding and relationships. “What,” “How” and “Why” are the questions all journalists are expected to address to create a whole story. Patterning, the Story of Place®, essence understanding, and identifying purpose are ways that help us to get to the core of the issues. This is a kind of tracking process. Trackers are expert at recognizing related and repeated essential patterns at different scales. This kind of training helps us move past all the extraneous white noise and get at what is truly important and repeated over time. By getting to the core, we then have the flexibility to move beyond fragmented wishes and expectations. This is a very effective way to discover new potential.

7 https://deming.org/

HARMONIZE

Potential (evolution)

Existence

(problem solving) ACTIVATING

RESTRAINING

COMPROMISE

All life can be seen as an activating force and a receiving or restraining force. For example, a developer wants to build a building, and the receiving force may be the reduced health of the social and natural systems of a community and its habitat. If we compromise, the building may cost a little more, but the local system of nature may still be damaged with a mechanical approach to the problem. By taking the time to find out what is core to the developer and core to the community, we can find multiple ways to identify new potential rather than compromise around what we think we need or the answers we have used in the past.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Practicing personal leadership begins with the “self ” rather than the “other.” —“Personal Leadership,” Schaetti, Ramsey, Watanabe, pg. 14 How do we develop caring relationships with others in our organizations, communities, and of course, with our inner selves? This work is holistic, and the practice of regeneration asks us to engage ourselves, our clients, and the communities we are involved with in the challenging work of human development in order to effectively work with the collaborative nature of nature. When we work this way with any group of people, the way of being and becoming will naturally unfold as we challenge ourselves to think in new ways with the places we inhabit. The discipline of sustainable design requires this of us. This is why the term regenerative development is used: as long as life evolves, we will need to evolve with it. This is a conscious process, and working on projects with a diversity of people is one of the best ways to develop new capacity and capability as individuals. It is up to each of us to find a way to intentionally bring this practice into the projects we are working within. Doing so will allow us to be inspiring and powerfully effective with those who hunger for greater meaning in the work of sustaining life. “External regeneration cannot occur without internal regeneration. Find a way, or an ecology of ways, to heal your inner self. This could include traditional therapy, peer-to-peer counseling, group work, or a commitment to one of the many schools of human potential and personal development. A spiritual practice can be included, but is not enough to fully heal the wounds that each person carries from the current oppressive society”8 —“Regenerative Enterprise,” Roland and Landua

Wilson Joseph

Let him who would move the world first move himself. —Socrates

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8 “Regenerative Enterprise,” Roland and Landua

PERPETUAL CAPABILITY BUILDING

Ryan Beck

Sustaining ourselves and the living systems that support us is a dance of reciprocity, very much like a permaculture food system, or how a gardener engages with her backyard vegetable patch. This attitude and relationship are built upon in order to “garden” the whole system that we live within, and the attitude and practice expand to all living entities. Regeneration is about engaging in a process of continual adjustment and change based on how natural systems are responding—as well as engaging our willingness to change and adapt by consciously working on our individual selves and the larger social system.

take extensive time; it is a matter of consistency, with coaching visits every six to eight weeks to keep the plates spinning and the depth of understanding developing. In other situations, we have seen the process of feedback systems actually teach the community about right relationships. If you have stormwater runoff pollutants draining into the lake your children swim in, the motivation and constant awareness of cause and effect are obvious and compelling. FINALLY:

Regeneration is another term for rebirth in all its dimensions. After all, a whole is composed of everything. Regeneration can start with anyone hoping to make a change for good in the world. Whether we are engaging with a human, a building, a stream, or a whole ecosystem, the relationships are equally complex and always evolving. No matter where we begin, it always comes down to human development; humans are both the source of degradation and the conduit for the greatest expressions of love and co-creation.

One final word on this work as a practice comes from The ultimate deliverable for a regenerative develop- Wahiduddin, a website with a variety of resources for ment project is to leave the place, the community, and inner exploration and inspiration. the ecosystem with a core group of people who have . . . simply reading the words are not the point . . . the capability to continue evolving this developmental process into the future, in order to ensure that the projThe goal here is mastery. It is the act of practicing ect lives into its potential. these ideals in every moment of daily life (that) is the challenge, and for most of us that takes repetition and effort, day after day, year after year. This core team may be a newly formed group repre—http://wahiduddin.net/saki/saki_origins.htm senting the various domains or interest areas that form the subsystems (energy, water, mobility, social, governance, and so on) that are part of the whole system. JASON F. MCLENNAN is the CEO of The purpose of this team is to “hold the whole,” bringMcLennan Design and Founder and Chairman of the International Living Future ing together or informing others who are working in Institute. He is the creator of the Living the subsystems so that they are working in support of Building Challenge, as well as the author the unique nature of that particular place. of six books, including his latest: TransforBased on change and transformation experience (and common sense), this core team will typically need some guidance and support over a period of three to seven years. It takes that long to develop new patterns of relationship that have staying power. This does not

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mational Thought II BILL REED is a partner at Regenesis and a renowned pioneer in the fields of Integrative Process and Regenerative Development. He is the author of many articles and co-author of The Integrative Design Guide to Green Building.

BY BILL MCK IBBEN

Originally published in the February 22, 2013 issue of Rolling Stone.

THE CASE FOR FOSSIL FUEL DIVESTMENT PHOTO ISTOCK

PHOTO FLICKR ALEX

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t’s obvious how this should end. You’ve got the richest industry on earth, fossil fuel, up against some college kids, some professors, a few environmentalists, a few brave scientists.

And it’s worse than that. The college students want their universities to divest from fossil fuel – to sell off their stock in Exxon and Shell and the rest in an effort to combat global warming. But those universities, and their boards, have deep ties to the one percent: combined, their endowments are worth $400 billion, and at Harvard, say, the five folks who run the portfolio make as much money as the entire faculty combined.

Fox, Hip Hop Caucus founder Lennox Yearwood) and with Rolling Stone as a media sponsor, we took our biodiesel tour bus from Seattle to Atlanta, Maine to Utah, trying to spark a new front in the climate fight. Unknowingly, we’d timed this DoTheMath tour pretty well: Post-Sandy, as the hottest year in American history was drawing to a close, we had no trouble finding allies. In fact, we were serving less as a virus then as a vector, letting activists glimpse their emerging strength. Every night, kids from a dozen local colleges would shout out their resolve, and then gather in “Aftermath” parties to get down to organizing.

By the time we finally finished, in December in Salt Lake City, 192 college campuses had active divestment fights underway, a number that’s since grown to 256. And people were noticing. On the Senate floor, Rhode Island’s Sheldon Whitehouse told his colleagues that “as Congress sleepwalks, Americans actually are taking action on their own. These students are imploring their Oh, and remember – this is supposed to be an apathetic schools to weigh the real cost of climate change against college generation. The veteran leader Ralph Nader, in the drive for more financial returns, and divest from a speech in Boston last year, said kids today were more the polluters.” The New York Times, in what became passive than any he’d seen in 45 years. “Nothing changes the week’s most e-mailed story in the paper of record, if you don’t have fire in your belly,” he said. “You are a said the campaign could “force climate change back generation without even embers in your belly.” on to the nation’s political agenda.” But here’s my bet: the kids are going to win, and when A few days later, they do, it’s going to matter. In fact, with Washington Time magazine blocked, campuses are suddenly a front line in the climate fight – a place to stand up to a status quo that is wrecking the planet. The campaign to demand divestment from fossil fuel stock emerged from nowhere in late fall to suddenly become the largest student movement in decades. Already it’s drawing widespread media attention; already churches and city governments are joining students in the fight. It’s where the action all of a sudden is. I had a front row seat to watch this explosion – actually, I was up on stage, on a nationwide tour that sold out concert halls across the country early this winter. With a bevy of progressive heroes (author Naomi Klein, indigenous activist Winona LaDuke, filmmaker Josh

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“The campaign to demand divestment from fossil fuel stock emerged from nowhere in late fall to suddenly become the largest student movement in decades.”

PHOTO FLICKR JOE BRUSKY

ended its account of the mushrooming movement like this: “University presidents who don’t fall in line should get used to hearing protests outside their offices. Just like their forerunners in the apartheid battles of the 1980s, these climate activists won’t stop until they win.” We even had some early victories. Three colleges – Unity in Maine, Hampshire in Massachusetts and Sterling College in Vermont – purged their portfolios of fossil fuel stocks. Three days before Christmas, Seattle mayor Mike McGinn announced city funds would no longer be invested in fossil fuel companies, and asked the heads of the city’s pension fund to follow his lead. Citing the rising sea levels that threatened city’s neighborhoods, he said, “I believe that Seattle ought to discourage these companies from extracting that fossil fuel, and divesting the pension fund from these companies is one way we can do that.”

Rolling Stone last summer, has five times as much carbon in its reserves as even the most conservative governments on earth say is safe to burn – but on the current course, it will be burned, tanking the planet. The hope is that divestment is one way to weaken those companies – financially, but even more politically. If institutions like colleges and churches turn them into pariahs, their two-decade old chokehold on politics in DC and other capitals will start to slip. Think about, for instance, the waning influence of the tobacco lobby – or the fact that the firm making Bushmaster rifles shut down within days of the Newtown massacre, after the California Teachers Pension Fund demanded the change. “Many of America’s leading institutions are dozing on the issue of climate,” says Robert Massie, head of the New Economics Institute. “The fossil fuel divestment campaign must become the early morning trumpet call that summons us all to our feet.”

The logic of divestment couldn’t be simpler: if it’s It won’t be an easy fight in most places, of course. At wrong to wreck the climate, it’s wrong to profit from Harvard, say, 72 percent of the student body voted to dethat wreckage. The fossil fuel industry, as I showed in mand divestment, only to have the university respond

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“The fossil fuel industry [...] has five times as much carbon in its reserves as even the most conservative governments on earth say is safe to burn – but on the current course, it will be burned, tanking the planet.”

in the most patronizing possible fashion two days later: “We always appreciate hearing from students about their viewpoints, but Harvard is not considering divesting from companies related to fossil fuels.” But one of the Harvard student organizers responded with just the right mix of pepper and politeness: “The president is going to have to change her mind, because we’re not changing ours,” sophomore Alli Welton said. “Climate change is a matter of life or death for millions and millions of people.” And it’s that simple truth that, over the next few semesters, will help students overwhelm boards of trustees and reluctant presidents. This movement didn’t come out of nowhere, after all – despite Nader’s pessimism, if you knew where to look, you could see the pot boiling for several years. On hundreds of campuses, students had persuaded their administrations to build green buildings and bike paths; tens of thousands of students had traveled to Washington for giant Powershift conventions to learn how to lobby on global warming. And since there’s no longer anything theoretical about climate change, this movement’s not going to dissipate – with each new storm and drought, it will gain tragic power. In fact, if you sit down and game out the future, you start to realize that students, faculty, and engaged alumni have a surprisingly good hand. Trustees and presidents may resist at first – they are, almost by defi-

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nition, pillars of the status quo. But universities, in the end, are one of the few places in our civilization where reason still stands a good chance of prevailing over power (especially since students are establishing some power of their own as they organize). And here’s where reason inevitably leads:

1 Universities need to lead because they are where we first found out about climate change. It was in physics labs and on university supercomputers that the realization we were in trouble first dawned a generation ago. By this point the proverbial man in the street can see their predictions coming sadly true: It wasn’t just Sandy, though there’s no doubt that the image of the cold Atlantic pouring into the New York subways had imprinted the new fragility of western civilization on many minds. (If that radical rag Business Week used the headline “It’s Global Warming, Stupid,” then you knew the message was getting through.) But everywhere we went across the nation on our tour, people had their own stories. In the Pacific Northwest, where we began, ocean acidification is so advanced that oyster farmers are in despair; in Nebraska, the week we arrived, scientists determined that exactly 100 percent of the state was now in “severe drought.” Hell, we got to Colorado in early December, and the night we arrived a raging wildfire

saying probably – but “if a global environmental movement develops that is strong enough, that has the potential to have a bigger impact in a timely manner.” Make of it what you will: The American scientist who has spent the most time on the melting ice of Greenland, Ohio State’s Jason Box, took to the stage at our Columbus tour stop to demand OSU and other colleges divest.

high in the Rockies forced the evacuation of 500 homes. In December. In the Rockies.

So when, for instance, Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust PHOTO USDA says “our most effective impact on climate change” will come from “what we do with our teaching, our research. . . the students who may be the heads of the EPA or all kinds of organizations,” it’s partly true – that scholarship is important. But it’s also clearly not doing the job alone, since the temperature keeps going up.

All this means that climate is no longer a fringe concern. Seventy-four percent of Americans said global warming was affecting the weather. On campus, opinion is nearunanimous. “For one of my classes I just did a poll,” says Stanford freshman Sophie Harrison, a leader in Universities have in fact already gone well beyond the divestment fight. “Out of 200 people I only found scholarship in the climate fight. As veteran student three who didn’t believe in climate change.” organizer Maura Cowley points out, 738 colleges from Adams State to Yeshiva University have already signed Meanwhile, the scientists keep pushing their research the “President’s Climate Commitment,” pledging forward. Twenty-five years ago, they were predicting that their campuses will go carbon-neutral because the trouble we’re seeing now; when they look forward they are “deeply concerned about the unprecedented another quarter century, things get truly scary – and scale and speed of global warming.” The commitment academics get much less academic. In the past, just a is more than rhetorical – open up almost any college lonely few, like NASA’s James Hansen, were willing web page and you’ll find a tab for “sustainability,” to go to jail, but in November, the premier scientific with the PR office lauding the latest effort to install journal, Nature, published a commentary urging all solar panels or convert to a pedestrian campus. “You climate scientists to “be arrested if necessary” because can’t walk 20 steps on the Stanford campus without “this is not only the crisis of your lives – it is also the seeing a recycling station,” says Harrison. “I’ve been crisis of our species’ existence.” In December, at the very impressed with all of that, which is why it seems annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union so illogical they’re invested in fossil fuel.” Exactly – where most of the year’s cutting-edge climate studies if you’re committed to greening your campus, why are released, one panel examined the question “Is Earth wouldn’t you be committed to greening your portfolio, Fucked?” The scientist leading the session finished by too? Why is the heating system for the new arts center

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“The math is so irrefutable,” says Klein, the veteran anti-corporate activist who’s been helping lead the fight. “The fossil fuel companies haven’t even bothered to dispute it. And coming to the issue with numbers like that, putting them in an academic context, that’s radiHence divestment. Sometimes, colleges can exert in- cal. It makes it hard for the boards of trustees – who fluence without selling stock – on many issues, like after all are supposed to be numbers people – to deal sweatshop labor, they may have been smarter to keep with. Suddenly it’s the students who are the number their stock, so they could use their position as share- crunchers, and the idealistic fantasists are the bank holders to influence corporate decision-making. “But presidents on the board who don’t want to deal with when we were talking about sweatshops, it wasn’t be- the reality staring them in the face.” cause we were opposed to t-shirts. We just needed some changes in how companies operated,” says Klein. It’s not as if all of us who use fossil fuel aren’t impliAdds Dan Apfel, who as head of the Responsible En- cated – flying to Florida for spring break fills the sky dowments Coalition has coordinated much of the with carbon. But it’s only the fossil fuel industry that emerging divestment furor, “If you’re Apple, we want lobbies round the clock to make sure nothing ever you to produce your computers in ways that are good. changes. “We’ve figured out the root of the problem by But we like computers. The fossil fuel industry, though this point,” says Maura Cowley, who as head of the En– its existence is fundamentally against our existence. ergy Action Coalition has been coordinating student We can’t change them by investing in them, because environmental efforts for years. Individual action matthey’re not going to write off reserves. There’s no way ters, but systemic change – things like a serious price they can be made sustainable, in the same way tobacco on carbon that the industry has blocked for years – is all that can really turn the tide in the short window the can’t be made healthy.” science of climate still leaves open. “Going after them directly feels seriously good,” says Cowley. a proper target for environmental concern, but not the $50 million sitting in Peabody Coal, where it helps support climate-denying think tanks and realitydenying Congressmen?

Universities understand math, and in this case the math about who’s to blame is Q.E.D. clear. It points straight at the fossil fuel companies.

Faced with this kind of irrefutable evidence, colleges have led in the past, conceding that their endowments, in extreme cases, can’t seek merely to maximize By now, most activists know the three numbers I outreturns. lined in this magazine last summer, in a piece that immediately went viral: If we’re to hold planetary warmIn the 1980s, 156 colleges divested from companies ing to the two degrees that the world’s governments that did business in apartheid South Africa, a stand have said is the absolute red line, we can only burn 565 that Nelson Mandela credited with providing a great more gigatons of carbon – but the fossil fuel compaboost to the liberation struggle. “I remember those nies, private and state-owned, have 2795 gigatons of days well,” says James Powell, who served as president carbon in their reserves. That is, they have five times of Oberlin, Franklin and Marshall, and Reed College. the coal and oil and gas needed to roast the earth, and “Trustees at first said our only job was to maximize rethey fully intend to burn it – in fact, a company like turns, that we don’t do anything else. They had to be Exxon boasts about spending a hundred million dolpersuaded there were some practices colleges simply lars a day looking for more hydrocarbons, all the frackshouldn’t be associated with, things that involved the ing gas and Arctic oil and tar sands crude they can find.

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oppression of people.” Since then, colleges have taken stances with their endowments on issues from Sudan to sweatshops. When Harvard divested from tobacco stocks in 1990, then-president Derek Bok said the university did not want “to be associated with companies whose products create a substantial and unjustifiable risk of harm to other human beings.” Given that the most recent data indicates fossil fuel pollution could kill 100 million by 2030, the coal, oil and gas industry would seem to pass that test pretty easily; it’s also on the edge of setting off the 6th great extinction crisis, so everyone over in the biology lab studying nonhuman beings has a stake too. Here’s how Desmond Tutu, Mandela’s partner in the liberation of South Africa, put it in a video he made for the DotheMath tour: “The corporations understood the logic of money even when they weren’t swayed by the dictates of morality,” the Nobel Peace Prize-winner explained. “Climate change is a deeply moral issue, too, of course. Here in Africa, we see the dreadful suffering of people from worsening drought, from rising food prices, from floods, even though they’ve done nothing to cause the situation. Once again, we can join together as a world and put pressure where it counts.” Or, you know, not.

4 And it’s not just people at a distance who are in trouble here, though so far they’ve borne the brunt – young people, the kind of people you mostly find on campuses, are the next chief victims of climate change. Let’s assume the average age of a college trustee is 60, meaning he or she has another two decades on this planet; they may shuffle off to the great class reunion in the sky before climate change becomes unbearable to well-off First Worlders. But your average student has six decades ahead – and scientists say that at our current pace of unrestricted warming, we could see the planet’s temperature rise 6 degrees Celsius in that stretch, with consequences best described as science fiction. “By the time we’re ready to have kids, buy a home – it’s already a radically different world if we

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PHOTOS UNSPLASH

don’t put the brakes on as quickly as possible,” says Cowley, the national student organizer. “It’s difficult to plan your life as a young person right now – by the time we get to 2050, we don’t even know where we’re going to get our food.” It’s not like administrators, faced with global warming, are deciding for themselves. Carbon dioxide molecules stay in the atmosphere a century on average, which means, according to the modeling team at Climate Interactive, that “by the time a 55-year-old college president who insists today that a portfolio requires fossil fuel investment reaches the age of retirement, only 11 percent of the CO2 released during the class of 2016′s education will have left the atmosphere.” In fact, says former college president Powell, such an analysis suggests trustees have a quasi-legal duty to do all they can about climate change: “The board is supposed to make sure that the endowment allows for intergenerational equity, that the students who are going to Oberlin in 2075 get as much benefit from it as those there now. But with global warming, you’re guaranteeing a diminution of quality of life decades out.”

PHOTOS UNSPLASH

At the very least, it feels bad – like the opposite of what college trustees are supposed to be doing. “I see this generation being betrayed on every front,” says Klein. “Youth without a future – that’s how they feel about the economy. And they when they understand that thanks to climate change they may literally be facing no future, it makes them really, really angry, as well it should.” The good news is, lots of people are already reaching across those generational lines. “Sometimes it’s dangerous to separate it by generations,” says Alex Leff, a freshman at Hampshire College, which effectively divested this spring. “My family always said, ‘You kids have to do something about this.’ I really reject that – what if we dismiss it too, and say it’s a job for our kids? Youth can’t be the only ones driving this – it helps a lot to see our elders doing their part too.” So at college after college, professors (many of whom were in college during past divestment fights) are signing petitions and joining marches. Alumni are starting to pitch in too – these are early days, but campuses report letters arriving from donors asking if they’re planning to do the right thing.

5 And in this case, they can do the right thing without great cost. College trustees, of course, are thinking about their endowments. They worry that they’ll lose money if they do divest – that if they can’t park their money in Exxon et al., their yields may dwindle. The fear is almost certainly overstated – energy stocks have outperformed the market index the last few years, but lag if you take the last 30 as a whole. Stephen Mulkey is president of Unity College in Maine, which

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became the first college in the nation to officially divest its fossil fuel holdings. He stood up to give the news in front of the thousands that crowded into Portland’s State Theater for that stop on our roadshow, an electric moment that brought the throng to its feet. “You don’t have to do it overnight,” he pointed out – indeed, campaign organizers have asked only that colleges pledge to sell their shares, and then spend the next five years winding down their positions so they don’t have to sell in a fire sale. “There’s abundant academic literature showing that social screening such as this, given the most likely market conditions in the near future, will not result in poor performance. You’re not divesting and then just forgoing those profits – you divest from BP and invest in something else. You reanalyze your portfolio.” In fact, there’s been one academic study of the effects of divesting, and it shows the “theoretical return penalty” at 0.0034 percent, which is the same as “almost none.” At some schools, some of the money can be re-invested in the college itself – in making the kind of green improvements that save substantial sums. Mark Orlowski, head of the Sustainable Endowments Institute, just published a report showing that the average annual return on investment for a thousand efficiency projects at campuses across the country was just under 30 percent, which makes the stock market look anemic. “College trustees often think of a new lighting system as an ‘expense,’ not an investment, but it’s not,” he says. “If you invest a million and can expect to clear $2.8 million over the next decade, that’s the definition of fiduciary soundness.” At colleges – and elsewhere – the potential for significant reinvestment is large: the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, for instance, is considering urging its pension fund to divest a billion dollars. That could do some serious re-greening. It’s also possible that the insights into the future supplied by aroused student activists might actually make for savvy investing advice. As hedge fund founder Tom Steyer, who has advised trustees to divest their stock, put it, “From a selfish point of view, it’s very good for colleges that they know something about the future that

others don’t. Because investing is not about what’s happened in the past – all prices are really anticipations of what’s going to happen in the future. As soon as the trouble we face is really common knowledge it’s going to be reflected in the price. But it’s not reflected in the price yet.” Steyer’s a good investor – his net worth puts him on the Fortune 400 list, meaning he’s worth far more than most college endowments. What he’s saying is: Colleges are lucky to have physics departments not just because physics is a good thing. In a sense, universities have insider information – they know how bad global warming is going to be, and hence can get the hell out of fossil fuel stocks before, not after, governments intervene to make them keep their reserves underground. “Once the scientific research filters into the minds of investors around the world, the price won’t stand,” he says. But since the average investor relies on, say, the Wall Street Journal, which has served as an unending mouthpiece for climate denial, colleges have the advantage. “The only way you gain an investing advantage over the rest of the world is when you have an edge.” As for those who think they’ll wait until the last minute, just before the carbon bubble bursts, “That’s one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard. No one ever gets out at the top. It’s worth missing another couple of good years of Exxon to avoid what’s coming.” In the face of logic like that, an increasing number of colleges seem determined to at least engage the debate. For instance, my employer, Vermont’s Middlebury College, which always ranks in the top five liberal arts colleges in the country, has held a series of panel discussions and open debates this month and its trustees expect to make a decision in the spring. And since Middlebury was the first college in the country with an environmental studies department, its student body, faculty and ranks of alumni are filled with people who recognize the potential power of the gesture. Similar discussions are underway at Bates, Bowdoin, Bryn Mawr, Earlham, Pitzer. But it’s not just small liberal arts schools. Students at the University of New Hampshire delivered a thousand signatures to the president before Christmas demanding divestment; at

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the neighboring University of Vermont, state legislators have begun pressing for action, at the urging of a big student campaign. At Cal, the student senate has backed divestment by a wide margin; UNC students outdid their Harvard counterparts, voting 77 percent for divestment. So let’s imagine for a moment that students and their allies are able to convince many colleges and universities to do the right thing. Especially for those who sign on fairly quickly, and with a minimum of rancor, there could be real advantages. “After we divested,” said Mulkey of Unity College, “we started receiving donations online. We’re seen an uptick in our inquiries from students. I think that will transform into an improvement in enrollment. That’s not why we did it, but it’s a fact.” Powell, recalling the moment when Oberlin divested its apartheid stock, says, “I definitely feel it rallies people behind their alma mater. Whenever there’s change – abolishing fraternities, going co-ed – there’s always the worry the alumni won’t like change. We see over and over again that these claims are false – you may take a hit for a year or two, but in the end you’re changing with the world.” Some alumni, says Klein, “may be resentful. But for many more, it will be exciting. Suddenly the university they came from is not just a site of nostalgia, but a place where they can have an influence on the future.” That influence could be decisive, too. Less in financial terms, though the $400 billion in American college endowments is no small sum, than in political and cultural ones. A college is where a society thinks about itself, after all; if suddenly those collections of knowledge denounce the fossil fuel industry for what it is, a rogue force outlaw against the laws of physics, it will make a difference. Fossil fuel companies care a lot about image, after all – it’s what makes it easy for them to exert their political control. It’s why they run those back-toback-to-back TV ads about “clean coal,” those endless commercials with the polar bears and the drilling rigs. Colleges could strip them of their social license, and if they lead, others will follow. “The speed at which this campaign has spread is causing ripples in the in-

vestment community,” said Andy Behar, the CEO of As You Sow, a campaign partner that promotes environmental and social corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy. “We anticipate more ‘carbon free’ investment options coming onto the market over the coming months for endowments, foundations, and other institutional investors who want to move investment dollars to build a clean energy future.” Already, at least two major Christian denominations have announced they’ll consider resolutions to withdraw their money. One could imagine the fossil fuel industry as the new tobacco, humbled enough that it actually has to come to the bargaining table in D.C. and a dozen other crucial capitals. On other campuses, it will go less smoothly; in some places, doubtless, colleges will go to war with themselves, with trustees hunkered down against the increasingly strident demands of students and faculty. But even in those cases, the fight will be valuable, educating each new incoming class about the culprits behind climate change. It’s hard to imagine that it’s all just a short-lived fad. “Global warming is not going away in anyone’s lifetime,” says Powell – and from now on, each superstorm, each megadrought will become a moral challenge to the university brand, a reminder that one’s education or one’s salary is being paid for with the not-so-gradual extinction of the planet’s possibilities. Students, I think, are determined to believe in the colleges they love – but they’re also up to the fight. At Pennsylvania’s Swarthmore, for instance, they’ve been demanding divestment for more than a year without luck. “Particularly at small liberal arts schools, students are conditioned to believe that college boards and administrators will always do what’s right – that if we just dialogue with administrators enough, they’ll come around,” says Hannah Jones, who graduated from Swarthmore last spring. But in fact, even at a school like Swarthmore with a deep Quaker tradition, “the administration and the board are part of an institutional hierarchy designed to support the status quo,” so “it’s up to students, faculty, and alumni to build power and to apply pressure in a way that demands bold, swift action.” And as students learn

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to build those campaigns, knowledge spreads quickly. Swarthmore students, for instance, are hosting a ‘convergence’ this week for activists from many campuses; for those who can’t make the trip, gofossilfree.org has become a kind of clearinghouse for videos, manifestos, essays, updates. It’s not perhaps a militant generation – maybe that was what struck Nader, more used to the uprisings of the 1960s with their broad themes of cultural liberation. But in the wake of Occupy, many young people are drawing connections. “We want to make sure we don’t just get divestment, but that we build real political power across wide coalitions,” says Jones. And if you’re a college administrator, you should probably fear folks who know how to use YouTube, Twitter and Facebook better than you do; “militant” sounds good, but “persistent,” “organized” and “committed” are probably a deeper threat to the status quo. And you can prove it by watching the same students running divestment campaigns quickly joining the larger environmental movement: all of a sudden, they’re helping run the opposition to the Keystone Pipeline, or working hard with their Appalachian allies in the fight against mountaintop removal coal mining. The fossil fuel industry may be dominant in the larger world, but on campus, it’s coming up against some of its first effective opposition. Global warming has become a key topic in every discipline from theology to psychology to accounting, from engineering and anthropology to political science. It’s the greatest intellectual and moral problem in human history – which, if you think about it, is precisely the reason we have colleges and universities. Follow @rollingstone on Twitter RollingStone on Facebook BILL MCKIBBEN is an author, educator, environmentalist, and Cofounder of 350.org.

THE LIVING BUILDING CHALLENGE

ROOTS AND RISE OF THE WORLD’S GREENEST STANDARD

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ROOTS AND RISE OF THE WORLD’S GREENEST STANDARD

TRANSFORMATIONAL THOUGHT II MORE RADICAL IDEAS TO REMAKE THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT

Essays by

JASON F. MCLENNAN Foreword & Contributions

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MARY ADAM THOMAS FOREWORD BY DENIS HAYES

BY JASON F. MCLENNAN

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TRANSFORMATIONAL THOUGHT II

Transformational Thought II: More Radical Ideas to Remake the Built Environment by Jason F. McLennan is a collection of thought-provoking essays that challenge contemporary thinking and design modalities while providing solution-based insights for the rethinking of how we live, work, and thrive in a living future.

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BY JA SON F. MCLENN A N

Personal Divestment Living Future to a

The end of the internal combustion engine and the rapidly approaching fossil-fuel free world A couple years ago, I began to discuss the idea that the end of the internal combustion era was finally in sight, along with the overall rapid decline of a fossil fuel– driven world. I think some folks felt it was a premature pronouncement—yet in more recent days, the prediction has begun to pick up momentum. Recent climate talks, scandals by Volkswagen and the emergence of ever-more electric vehicle platforms have combined to give further weight to my prediction. To be clear—I think we will see the end of fossil fuels as the predominant fuel source for the world within our lifetime— and the reign of the internal combustion engine has a scant two decades left. There are several trends to look at:

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The Rise of Electric and the Fall of the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) The electric car has gone from a liability to an asset. I bought my first electric car nearly twenty years ago—the Corbin Sparrow. It was cool looking but spent more time in the garage than on the road—it was bleeding edge and mostly bleeding. Now I have a Tesla, and apart from being too pricey (the only thing wrong with it), it is without a doubt the best car I have ever experienced in nearly every way possible. It seats seven, has nearly as much storage as a minivan, goes 0-60 in under five seconds, and is absolutely quiet. It receives upgrades with wireless software downloads and keeps

While too many Americans are still in denial about climate change, the ranks of the ignorant and foolish are quickly diminishing under the undeniable weight of evidence that climate change is both happening at an alarming rate—and definitely caused by human activity. From the pope encyclical to the global COP 21 agreements and the rise of the divestment movement, The price of renewable energy has dropped precipi- momentum is finally shifting to act on climate change. tously and improved dramatically—when I designed my first net zero home for a client a decade ago solar In the end, like too many things, it is money—not alpanels were 9-11% efficient versus 20% efficient and are truism—that will result in sudden positive shifts in now about ¼ the cost per installed watt as they were the world’s energy paradigm. History has been clear back then. Those are impressive gains and I predict on this front in so many ways—when presented with a there will be similar jumps ahead. Forget about the better paradigm and equal (or even nearly equal) costs, difference in batteries for both cars and homes! Tesla’s people rapidly and willingly dump the old paradigm Powerwall lithium ion batteries are vastly superior to for the better. Once a trend even begins to become inthe polluting and inefficient lead-acid and nickel-met- evitable, the market begins to shift, and the underlying al-hydride batteries that were the go-to solution for de- infrastructure that has subsidized the current paracades. In the last couple of years, significant progress digm quickly dissolve and further hastens the change. on battery development has began to open up exciting As quickly as the horse and buggy was replaced by the ICE automobile, so too will electric cars and renewable new possibilities. getting better the longer I have it. At a Tesla Super Charger Station, a car can charge to full 260-mile range in 20 minutes for free. I haven’t been to a smelly, polluting gas station in over a year. Once the cost of a Tesla becomes equal in price to a gas engine (only a few years away), it’s game over.

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Energy consumption by fuel type Solar City’s business model is proving highly profitable, allowing for solar deployment without upfront capital by building owners in markets where they operate. Payback times are dropping fast, and the price for a net-zero home system is now no larger than the price of a good automobile. There is a lot of work to do to change our grids and utility systems, but I think the transition will be swift and positive. Imagine a world without air pollution, oil spills, strip coal mining, and deadly foreign wars propped up by the necessity of a giant military industrial complex. You can see why there were so many efforts for so long to squash and hinder progress in renewables.

I believe that in less than two decades, internal combustion engines in cars will feel about as relevant as Betamax cassette tapes (for those who remember them), and there will be a rapid and sudden shift in the market after a short (10-15 year) transition period starting about now. Toyota, Volkswagen, Chevy, Ford—they are all racing to get into the electric car game. Alternative vehicles and micro cars like the Renault Twizy, electric bikes, better public transportation and self-driving vehicles will further drive a stake into the old ways. Lastly and significantly, changes in driving patterns and more walkable and bikeable cities mean that more and more people will The following chart explains my predictions of our simply do without a car, which is an even better step. rapid change to the new energy paradigm globally. Car ownership is no longer the rite of passage for young Americans that it used to be.

Energy Prediction Timelines

Solar has reached grid parity in many markets around 1. Between now and 2030, two major changes in techthe world and in a few US markets like Hawaii and nology and a third overarching change in multiple Alaska, and the economics will shift for most of the technologies completely change the energy game. world within the next decade. Much like electric cars—the result of using solar is infinitely better as an 2. Automakers begin to dump the ICE engine and as experience—so that once it is equal in price, it’s the uptake continues, the entire petroleum and ICE end of the road for “conventional” fossil fuels. infrastructure begins to fall apart rapidly. Cars

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their useful lifespan, they will simply be decomhave short lifespans—so as cars are pulled from missioned and never replaced again. the road, they aren’t replaced. Petroleum use, while still necessary for air travel, begins a rapid slide to A lot can happen in the next few decades, and big quesobscurity. RIP! tions remain. What will happen when the world’s ener3. Photovoltaics and wind (and a few other sources) gy is democratized? How will traditional energy playbecome cheaper than fossil fuel resource extrac- ers adapt? How will utilities change over the next few tion everywhere, and the market simply folds on decades? How will government policies help or hinder coal and natural gas and is quickly made up by the transition? renewables. As renewable market share increases and economies of scale and competition kick into What can we all do to hasten the change to this future? high gear, they will continue to improve in both economics and efficiency. By 2040 the fossil fuel era of humanity comes to an end, and by 2050 fossil fuel accounts for a fraction of global energy use. The fossil fuel divestment movement is growing rapidly around the world as institutions and organiza4. Overall global energy use will continue to de- tions agree to purge their investment assets, including cline—even as the planet adds two billion more stocks, bonds, and investment funds from companies people in the timeframe shown in the graph. Con- that are directly tied to the fossil fuel industry. Since tinued rapid improvements in energy efficiency 2014, several hundred organizations have made signifiand incredible new ways to understand and inter- cant pledges that now total over $50 billion and growface with energy result in radical improvements. ing. Divestment helps shine a light on the contributions Other changes include the rise of computers that of this industry to climate change and stigmatizes furuse a fraction of the energy with significantly more ther investment into unsustainable energy sources. computing power, appliances and equipment that also are radically more efficient—huge improve- But divestment isn’t just for large organizations. All of ments in lighting, building design, building enve- us can join in and begin to divest as individuals and lopes, and improvements by industry in all sectors. grow the momentum to rapidly eliminate fossil fuels We’ll have 20% more people by 2050 and use 20- from our lives. 30% less energy than we do now overall—and 80% will come from renewables.

Personal Divestment

Other energy predictions include: • An abandonment of nuclear energy as unsafe, immoral, and economically backwards. • A wholesale change in how our cities function that de-emphasizes the car and instead prioritizes human locomotion and public transportation.

G I’M DIVESTIN FUELS FROM FOSSIL G IN A AND INVESTIN E LIVING FUTUR

LIVING BUILDING CHALLENG

Here are a few things you can do to personally divest: • A moratorium on large-scale hydroelectric systems that are ecologically damaging, and the rewilding Step One – Lobby your employer to divest from fossil fuof rivers worldwide. As current major dams reach els for all of its assets.

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Step Two – Divest all your personal investments from fossil fuels, including where you bank and which credit cards you use. Many large financial institutions have ties to entities you likely don’t support! Check out the ILFI credit card from Beneficial State Bank for a better option, (show link) and consider putting your money into funds that support renewables. http://fossilfreeindexes.com

Step Six – Live locally and give up flying. I’m nowhere near to being able to do this, but for many it can be a significant step, since flying consumes so much fossil fuel. For more information on the divestment movement:

• http://divestinvest.org • http://350.org/category/topic/divestment/ Step Three – Purchase 100% of your electricity from green • http://gofossilfree.org energy sources. Many utilities offer a green energy purchase option. Step Four – Trade in your gasoline car an electric vehicle or better yet a bicycle! Stop buying petroleum directly. My family has gone all electric, and it’s been liberating to not have to go to the pump! Step Five – Buy a solar array for all your home’s power needs.

JASON F. MCLENNAN is the CEO of McLennan Design and Founder and Chairman of the International Living Future Institute. He is the creator of the Living Building Challenge, as well as the author of six books, including his latest: Transformational Thought II

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Meanwhile, in Seattle...

Have you seen the latest f igures?

Yep, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re off icially working out of a Living Building.

Congratulations to the Bullitt Center team for achieving netpositive energy usage and final Living Building Challenge certification. Recent figures show that the "world's greenest commercial building" produces 37% more energy than it uses. PROSOCO is proud to have played a small part in the creation of this incredible project with our LS/CS and LSGuard concrete flooring products and our R-Guard FastFlash liquid flashing and air barrier system.

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TRUTH + TRANSPARENCY CONFRONTING THE BARRIERS TO CHANGE

LIVING FUTURE 2016

WESTIN SEATTLE MAY 11-13, 2016 living-future.org/unconference

STEVE CURWOOD Host / Executive Producer Living on Earth

AMANDA STURGEON JASON F. MCLENNAN CEO, International Living Future Board President and Founder, Institute International Living Future Institute

ED MAZRIA Founder | Architecture 2030

JUAN MARTINEZ National Geographic Emerging Explorer

Practice Transparency. Speak Your Truth. Design With Nature. Join the Next Decade of Innovation.

REVEAL. The Energy Efficiency Label for Projects

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Reveal, a transparency label by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI), aims to make known the energy use of commercial buildings for the purpose of broadening people’s access to information in the corporate sphere. By labeling the electricity consumption of specific buildings, Reveal targets an invisible and often hidden component of physical structures. The Reveal label brings forward numerics and data in an accessible medium so that a building becomes imprinted—quite literally—with its own energy footprint. Reveal does not designate any renewable energy requirement. Instead, the immediate goal is transparency, with the understanding that labeling keeps a building’s energy use in the forefront of the minds of employees, executives, consumers, and citizens alike. Following on such transparency, many companies and owners may choose to voluntarily invest in renewable energy and thereby improve their Energy Use Intensity (EUI). Reveal is therefore a vital ingredient of the renewable energy economy, a stepping-stone to the forthright and honest business relations that a growing number of people desire. Looking beyond a building’s energy use, a Reveal label also designates the building type, location, local climate region, and square footage. In addition, it denotes a building’s energy use compared to an average building of its type, plus the building’s renewable energy production as a percentage of its total energy use. Going above and beyond mere numbers, the Reveal label marks a building’s place in its local environment as well as in the energy economy as a whole.

the grid is smart, energy sources are renewable, and builders are committed to reducing their footprint. Here’s an account from Glumac, one of ILFI’s Reveal partners: With a mission to deliver “Green Buildings that Work” Glumac happily agreed to partner with ILFI to help test out its new Reveal label for energy-efficient building performance. Glumac actively tracks post-occupancy building energy and water use data from its projects and analyzes it to inform new designs. The firm believes the Reveal label aligns with its design philosophy. Justin Di Palo of Glumac explains, “As an engineer and energy analyst, measurement and verification are my feedback loop. Without real data on building performance, it’s nearly impossible to calibrate and optimize our design and modeling processes, strategies, and techniques.” The firm finds the Reveal label especially important in providing a third-party verification of its projects’ building performance. “Having a third party review our results and help provide a sole source to define the actual building EUIs adds tremendous credibility to the results and claims we market for our past projects,” says Mitch Dec, Senior Energy Analyst at Glumac.

The firm has submitted two high-performing buildings, including the Vestas North American Headquarters and the GSA Edith Green Wendell Wyatt administration building. The owners are proud of their buildings’ accomplishments, including a deep renovation of an existing building and LEED Platinum certification. The Make no mistake—Reveal carries the potential GSA building in particular boasts an ongoing to transform the urban environment. By Energy Star score of 99. Glumac sees the extra imagining a city in which all buildings display marketing benefit that the Reveal label brings. their energy use, Reveal shapes a future where

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Vestas America HQ Vestas, the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturer, also chose the city of Portland, Oregon, for its American headquarters. As if it weren’t enough to churn out turbines, Vestas reclaimed an abandoned warehouse and brought it into line with sustainable standards. A central atrium allows for abundant natural light, and contractors sourced recycled, nontoxic, and efficient materials. The Vestas headquarters is now LEED Platinum certified. Its Reveal label shows an EUI of 32—that’s 15% of the energy footprint of the average New York City building.

Edith Green Wendell Wyatt Federal Building The Edith Green Wendell Wyatt Federal Building defines the urban landscape of Portland, Oregon. Built in 1975, it was retrofitted in 2013 with a solar roof, power-generating elevators, a water cistern, unique shading devices, and efficient lighting. The building, which hosts the US General Services Administration (GSA), now boasts an energy use intensity (EUI) of 34—all the more impressive because the building is an 18-story highrise. The building is now outfitted with a Reveal label, encouraging other developers to take the same strides toward green energy.

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Edith Green Wendell Wyatt Federal Building

Vestas America HQ

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THE

targeting LBC v3.0

N EST T CENTER What if a site served as a living laboratory?

Transforming the way we learn and evolving our relationship with nature, Eastern Washington University’s Natural and Environmental Science Testing and Teaching (NESTT) Center will be a catalyst for change.

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Passive House The Orchards at Orenco is the largest affordable housing project to achieve Passive House Certification in North America. It is designed and constructed to achieve a 50% reduction in total building energy use, relative to existing comparable buildings, and upwards of an 80% reduction in heating demand. Continuous insulation, an air-tight building enclosure, high-performance windows, using and managing solar heat plus balanced ventilation to recover heat and moisture were among the strategies employed to provide an extremely energy efficient enclosure. w w w.wa l s h con st r u c t io n co.co m

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THE POWER OF ZERO: LEARNING FROM THE WORLDâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S LEADING NET ZERO ENERGY BUILDINGS

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Net Zero Energy â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the first stage in a transformation toward a carbon free future. Net zero energy buildings, as compelling and meaningful as they are, are just a beginning. We are only in the earliest days of a revolution in net zero energy design and technology. The energy use intensity of net zero energy buildings will continue to drop, the efficiency and output of their renewables will increase, and the cost of the whole package will come down, making net

It is critical to understand, however, that net zero energy buildings, and even net zero energy communities, do not get us where we need to be if our end goal is the total elimination of fossil fuel usage. Net zero enegy buildings are not a universal solution â&#x20AC;&#x201D; they are just a component. For us to achieve total elimination of fossil fuels, a deeply integrated revolution in buildings, mobility in terms of transportation, and the power grid must occur.

zero energy projects more common. New design ideas and technologies will evolve, enabling new pathways for achieving this vital concept.

David & Lucile Packard Foundation Headquarters, Los Altos, CA

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So what advancements are on the horizon?

NET ZERO ENERGY BUILDING DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGIES — THE NEXT GENERATION The boundaries of passive and active systems blur As knowledge of net zero design builds, the

manufacturer, entered the building market, thereby suggesting new movement in this area.

notion of an approach being “passive” or “active” is beginning to fade. Net zero energy buildings buildings of the 1970s, which at least from a heating

Elimination of high GWP compression gases from heat pumps

and cooling standpoint relied on simple thermal

Today, high global warming potential compression

gain and storage. As the net zero revolution began,

gases, such as HFC’s, are used in heat pumps. These

a heavy reliance on sophisticated technologies

substances have the potential to leak, creating an

— heat pumps and LED lighting being primary

additional impact on the climate. The shift from

examples — dominated the discussion.

combustion to heat pump based heating systems

Today, however, the best NZE buildings seamlessly

must be accompanied by a shift to CO2 as the

are partially built on the heritage of passive solar

combine both passive and active design concepts and, in fact, it is becoming increasingly difficult to describe them in those terms. For example, the Bullitt Center utilizes a highly sophisticated

primary compression gas for heat pumps, lest we simply replace one problem gas for another. Thankfully, this shift away from global warming compression gases is beginning to occur.

software program using real time weather data to open and close windows depending on wind direction, providing natural cooling and ventilation when needed. Those same windows also allow passive solar gain, but only during cooler months, and only if the computerized system opens the exterior shades. The passive solar gain typically contributes only a part of the needed heat which is also provided by the heat pump system. Are these systems active or passive? Mostly, they are just thoughtfully designed with an attention to naturally occuring assets. Moving into the future, sensitively designed systems which take maximum

High performance windows become the norm Today windows typically used in net zero energy buildings, with U-values in the 0.20’s, are fairly custom, with high price tags. However, as glazing and window technology matures, and especially as jurisdictions begin to codify lower U-values for the purpose of energy management, these windows will become much more prevalent, similar to the switchover to low-E glass that happened a decade ago.

advantage of nature’s gifts will become the norm.

Dedicated focus on high energy use sectors Micro heat pumps The revolution in heat pumps will continue, with a new focus on micro systems, which allow appropriate load matching for low heating/ cooling demand buildings with excellent thermal envelopes. Recently, Sanden, a major automobile heat pump/air conditioner

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Certain very high EUI building types — hospitals, restaurants, factories, data centers, and supermarkets in particular — lag in innovation relative to other sectors. These buildings use vastly more energy per square foot than primary buildings like homes and offices. The energy modeling for one potential net zero energy building found that

Mitie Group Data Center Photo: Ed Robinson/OneRedEye, Flickr Creative Commons

heat from refrigerators to outdoors, instead

Heat recovery ventilators, long an obscure, rarely

of using it resourcefully for internal heating. In

seen item, are now available in the hundreds,

restaurants, an ethos often exists of running

rather than thousands of dollars. Perhaps most

stoves at 100 percent despite the actual need,

exciting is the introduction of vacuum insulation

and the heat pump revolution has yet to arrive to

panels from manufacturers such as Panasonic,

kitchen hot water equipment. Technologies such

that offer extremely high R-values per inch.

as CO2 heat pumps, which produce much higher temperature water than conventional heat pumps, suggest that new approaches are on the horizon.

Revolution in building mounted renewables The cost of solar panels has been dropping

Revolution in retrofit technologies

significantly, suggesting a maturing of the

Shy of a complete building overhaul, today it can

technology becomes more commonplace, other

be challenging to deeply retrofit a building for

elements of solar installation are being focused

very low energy use. However, here too, strides

on. Better integration of solar applications during

are being made to facilitate the retrofit process

the design process, particularly to facilitate

and reduce the cost. Thermal imaging cameras,

mounting, will bring solar costs down even further.

a critical tool in understanding building heat and

At the same time, panel efficiency marches ever

cold leakage, have become radically cheaper, and

upward â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 15 percent was typical just several

soon should become a standard toolbox item.

years ago, but 20 percent is now available in the

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technology and, as panel costs decrease and solar

Tesla Powerwall Photo: Alexis Georgeson, courtesy of Tesla

marketplace, while 40 percent has been achieved

Revolution in energy storage

in laboratory conditions. While these performance improvements conveyed as a percentage may

Finally, there is the brewing revolution in electrical

seem small in terms of marginal improvement from

storage led by Tesla and the automotive sector. This

baseline, improvements average about 5 percent

technology brings us back to the roots of net zero

per year, which is quite significant over time.

buildings â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the off-the-grid passive buildings of the 1970s. A potential end game of this technology could be a significant decrease of the conventional

And yet, a much deeper revolution in solar generation is brewing with thin film,

grid as individual buildings become more autonomous in their use and production of energy.

omnidirectional solar cells. Ideally these will absorb sun energy with less regard for solar angle, and will be able to be installed as a wrapped skin, perhaps in lieu of paint. This technology will transform building energy generation again, with potentially much higher levels of building production because panels can be placed in a much broader array of locations, including walls.

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BRAD LILJEQUIST is the Director of Net Zero Energy Buildings and the Living Community Challenge at the International Living Future Institute

BY JULI A N MOCINE-MQUEEN

TO EMPOWER BLACK COMMUNITIES, POWER OUR COUNTRY WITH CLEAN ENERGY! Why do African American families use less energy than white households, but pay more for it—literally and figuratively? It’s true. The average African American family emits 20% less carbon dioxide than the average white household does, yet we are more susceptible to increases in energy and water costs that result from climate change. As extreme weather events like blizzards, droughts, and heat waves become almost routine, more and more black families can’t afford to heat and cool their homes. Communities of color also pay more of the hidden costs of our fossil-fuel based economy. Climate change has an outsized impact on the health and economic security of African American families, who are far more likely to breathe polluted air and live next to sources of pollution like coal plants. But today, a revolution in clean energy gives us the chance to correct this injustice and level the playing field for communities of color. For decades, renewable energy was out of reach for most Americans. Only the wealthiest could afford innovations like solar panels and electric cars. Not anymore. Now clean energy sources like solar and wind are not only economical—they’re huge cost-savers for businesses and families alike. In less than a decade, the United States has multiplied its production of wind power threefold, and solar power more than

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twentyfold.1 In many places, clean energy is already cheaper than conventional power. Further, consumers have more choice and more control over how much energy they use through smartphone apps and new technology. But we still have a long way to go. Every American deserves access to clean, affordable energy. If we transition to an economy that’s fueled by 50% clean energy by 2030, electric bills in the United States will be reduced by more than $40 billion. Subsequently, families would see their disposable income increase by as much as $650. The biggest beneficiaries would be low-income families, who spend a much greater share of their income on electricity than higher income households do. Just imagine: millions of Americans would no longer be at the mercy of their utility bills. Black families in particular would have a brighter and more secure energy story to tell.

PHOTOS UNSPLASH

Investing in clean energy does more than save money on bills—it also creates jobs that communities of color sorely need. Last year the solar industry added jobs 12 times faster than the overall economy. More than twice as many Americans now work in the solar industry than in coal mining—and a quarter of workers in the solar industry are people of color. When these clean energy jobs are created—which they absolutely must be—we have an opportunity to make sure that these are good-paying jobs and that they are available to communities of color. In the Washington, DC, area, Mark Davis created WDC Solar to provide low-income citizens of Washington, DC, with a solar program. Since 2012, WDC has installed more than 125 solar systems in DC through tax credits and private funds, at no cost to low-income homeowners with good credit. Through his partnership with DC Sustainable Energy Utility, Mark started a program that has funded solar panel installation provided funding to install panels on more than 300 homes. And once the panels are installed, the extra power results in 1 The Solar Foundation, “National Solar Jobs Census 2015,” January 2016, available at http://www.thesolarfoundation.org/wp-content/ uploads/2016/01/TSF-2015-National-Solar-Jobs-Census.pdf

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a profit every month—money going back into the community he’s working to transform. Mark is just getting started; this year he plans on launching programs in New York, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. While Mark is training a new solar work force and bringing solar to the DC community, Wahleah Johns is working to bring clean energy to places that often times don’t even have electricity. Wahleah, a member of the Navajo (Dine) tribe and the community of Forest Lake atop Black Mesa, Arizona, has been advocating for native communities to diversify to renewable energy for the last decade. As a tribal member of the Navajo Nation, she’s watched resources from tribal homelands provides cheap electricity for California, Nevada, and Arizona, while her people are left to deal with pollution and dwindling water. Working with the Black Mesa Water Coalition and Navajo Green Economy Coalition, Wahleah helped win legislative victories protecting groundwater, expanding green jobs, and advancing environmental justice. As vice chair of the Navajo Green Economy Commission, Wahleah develops economic opportunities in clean energy and traditional economic practices on the Navajo reservation.

At Green For All we see a number of ways in which we can drive this investment. There is a tremendous opportunity held within the Environmental Protection Agency’s recent clean power plan implementation at the state level. States will be developing and implementing plans to bring down carbon in the coming months and years. We must ensure that as we look at curbing carbon, we do so in a way that drives growth across green sectors, and focuses investments in the communities most impacted by carbon and pollution. We also believe strongly that polluting industries should pay for the privilege of dumping carbon into the atmosphere. In California, the value collected from the cap-and-trade system has created a fund that has been used for everything from free solar panels for low-income families, to free bus passes for youth and seniors, to millions of dollars for new affordable housing. We must cap carbon (and make sure there are environmental protections for all communities in those programs), and we can’t give away that value; we must invest in our communities.

The clean power movement is gaining steam—now is the time for us to make our voices heard. Investing in clean energy will lower our energy bills, improve the health of black communities, and create more, better-paying jobs for people of color. Now that’s real Wahleah’s community education efforts helped es- power. Throughout our network, we see individuals, tablish a Just Transition Fund through the California businesses and organizations committed to people Public Utilities Commission. This fund provides $4 and the planet. We need to re-up our investment in million to renewable energy development on tribal these people and follow their lead to a future that is lands. Wahleah helps bring solar to reservation schools truly green for all. and communities, and is developing a residential solar program for the 50% of Navajo Nation residents who don’t have access to electricity. The clean energy revolution is an incredible opportunity to give African Americans a better, more just seat at the table in our new economy. Now more than ever we must seize the opportunity to reverse energy injustice and shift power to the very communities that have historically been left out.

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JULIAN MOCINE-MCQUEEN serves as Director of Education and Outreach for Green For All/The Dream Corps.

2016 Catalyzing the future of zero net energy buildings

October 12â&#x20AC;&#x201C;14, 2016 | Denver, CO Bertschi School Science Wing Seattle, WA | Photo: KMD Architects

Join leading designers, owners, operators, commercial real estate professionals, policymakers and others to share perspectives on the growth of zero net energy (ZNE), discuss the policies driving new projects, engage in best practices for successful projects and collaborate on opportunities for ZNE to transform the built environment.

Participants represent industry change makers who will drive the innovation, policy and practice. Policy sessions will spotlight current rules, incentives and programs that are driving low-energy outcomes. Technical tracks will dig in on critical design, construction and operational aspects. Business leaders will offer perspectives on the value proposition and strategize on breaking down the barriers. Interactive sessions will share and discuss bright spots and lesson learned. Networking opportunities will facilitate new collaborations.

MOUN KY

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IN TA

ROC

STIT UTE 72

We thank our industry partners for their support in envisioning a living future. GAIA SPONSOR

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COMMUNITY PARTNERS Ambient Energy Bartlett Tree Experts Chameleon John Charissa Snijders Architect City of Seattle David Baker Architects Davin Paul Designs Emerge Leadership Project

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Groundwork Strategies Human Nature, Inc. Macro Design Studio McCool Carlson Green MIG | SvR MODS PDX NEBC Portland Business Alliance

RAFN RPKA Schemata Workshop Sellen Construction Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Counci Travel Ticker

The third annual Net Positive Energy + Water Conference brought together the next generation of technical expertsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the people with bold strategies and provocative case studies aimed at accelerating the global shift toward regenerative design. Attendees filled the room with enthusiasm over the course of two days. John Todd offered adaptable solutions for net positive water. Melina Laboucan-Massimo, Seth Maxwell, and Julian Mocine-McQueen discussed how net positive energy + water strategies can be inclusive and positively impact communities. Denise Fairchild discussed how inclusive strategies can strengthen local economies and compared natureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rights to human and civil rights.

2016 RECAP

PHOTOS: PADILLA BOWEN PHOTOGRAPHY

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BY GA BRIEL DUNSMITH

FIGHTING THE FLOOD: Students in Brazil Are Using Mobile Bathrooms to Counter Climate Change

PHOTO CECILIA BASTOS

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São Paulo, the largest city in the Southern Hemisphere with a population of nearly 12 million, has been rattled with one extreme weather event after another for the past several years: major flooding in early 2015 occurred in the middle of a severe drought. Over a single hour during a late February storm, nearly four inches of rain fell; roads soon became rivers, and the onrush of water swept cars away. But the flood failed to replenish the city’s reservoirs, and water levels stayed critically low even after the storm. A month later, another storm buried parts of the city in nearly 20 inches of water. Climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of weather events in São Paulo as much as it is in other areas of the globe—and many municipalities lack the resources or the funding to stave off the worst effects. Compounding the problem is that marginalized communities are often hit the hardest: São Paulo’s slums (also known as favelas), neglected by the government for decades and already vulnerable to state violence in the aftermath of the 2014 World Cup, witness a disproportionate amount of destruction when the flooding hits. Already lacking in water and waste infrastructure, favelas are faced with an increased threat when standing water isn’t drained away. Across Brazil, entire communities have been displaced when particularly strong storms rage across the country—but many

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people have nowhere else to go. The new forefront of environmental justice may indeed be marginalized communities in the Global South: the effective mitigation of climate change demands that those most impacted by natural disasters be safeguarded from future harm. The key to combatting floods is not necessarily building levees—which are bound to break—or diverting rivers—which causes untold ecological damage—but making sure that citizens have safe, clean places where they can escape the high water. In São Paulo, ensuring the protection of the millions living in favelas is a daunting task, but it is one that students at the University of São Paulo are tackling with passion and determination. Led by Professor Lara Leite Barbosa at the College of Architecture and Urbanism, the students are designing portable bathrooms that can be shipped out across Brazil when flooding strikes. The bathroom scheme, titled Project Apis, is named after the Latin word for bees. “The Apis Project bears this name because its biggest goal is to promote a boon for society that’s carried out in a collaborative way, from its conception to its construction,” says Dr. Barbosa. Her architecture students are not just sitting in classrooms mulling over blueprints, but venturing out to communities affected by the flooding and assessing human need. Rather than rely on a bureaucratic model of public service, students are using an experiential one. The idea behind the bathrooms, explains Dr. Barbosa, is that there is a close relationship between physical movement and survival: the more mobile people are within a certain geographic space, the more capable they are of adapting to climatic conditions and settling into a new ecological niche. Dr. Barbosa, who studied the connection between nomadism and sustainability for her doctoral thesis, points out that when floods strike, getting people out of flooded areas and into shelter is essential. But shelters, too, quickly become unsanitary if there aren’t adequate facilities to service everyone. This is where the bathrooms come in. Professor Barbosa is challenging her students to design

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“

21st-century disaster response in Brazil may yet incorporate ecological, human-centric design—in fact, these elements are necessary in order to bolster resiliency against the effects of climate change.

bathrooms that integrate “thoughtful use of material and energy resources” into their very structure, while maximizing social contribution: cumbersome, fixed-location bathrooms do little good when faced with sudden, sporadic floods. 21st-century disaster response in Brazil may yet incorporate ecological, human-centric design—in fact, these elements are necessary in order to bolster resiliency against the effects of climate change. But favelas are not necessarily the most mobile environments. Roadways and transportation in the favelas are poor enough that many are not able to seek out shelter. That’s why it’s so important that the bathrooms themselves embody a kind of nomadic element, explains Marina Lima Medeiros, a student working on Project Apis. The bathrooms, she says, “can function independently of the existing urban infrastructure.” Each bathroom contains single-sex showers, sinks, toilets, and dressing rooms. Designed to serve around 60 people per day, each bathroom functions as an independent unit and eliminates the need of connecting

PHOTO MILTON JUNG

PHOTO CECILIA BASTOS

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PHOTO ISTOCK

“

When human need is the central goal of design, an opportunity arises to respond to disaster in a way that regenerates places and communities.

rials inside the bathrooms are locally sourced: the partitions between the bathroom stalls are made of banana fiber, as is the exterior paneling. Banana fiber is abundant in São Paulo. “From a sustainability perspective,” explains Dr. Barbosa, “the use of local resources both diminishes the environmental impact of [the bathrooms] and facilitates the acceptance of banana fiber as a building material because it is culturally familiar for local people.” The more people see structures made of banana fiber, the more robust the local economy becomes.

to municipal water or sewage systems. Therefore, says Dr. Barbosa, the bathrooms “reduce the spread of infectious diseases and other health problems due to lack The São Paulo students have partnered with several of public health accommodations.” businesses to transform their designs into a functionTransportability is key to the project’s success, so the ing reality. Contain[it] is a construction company that bathrooms are designed to be compact. They use built- builds the shipping containers for the bathrooms, in hydraulic and electric systems in order to operate while Imperveg—a company that produces polyaway from the grid: solar panels on the units’ roofs heat mers—donated all of the resin for the project, which water and produce electricity. (Energy generators pro- is mixed with the banana fiber for construction purvide backup power.) An “utrafiltration system,” mean- poses. Sociedade do Sol (Society of the Sun) is a local while, collects water from the flooded area, then cleans company that donated the solar panels, and another the water to make it suitable for use in the showers and company, Sansuy, helped develop the flexible resertoilets. The bathrooms are inserted into shipping con- voirs for black water and gray water in the bathrooms. A company called Caldeplás, meanwhile, produced the tainers for ease of transportation. reservoirs for cold water and hot water. If one thing is Producing the bathrooms provides a windfall for certain, building bathrooms is a dynamic process with the local economy, the students insist. Many mate- the capability of engaging whole communities.

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About the Design The partitions between the bathroom stalls are made of banana fiber, as is the exterior paneling

The bathrooms are inserted into shipping containers for ease of transportation.

An â&#x20AC;&#x153;utrafiltration system,â&#x20AC;? meanwhile, collects water from the flooded area, then cleans the water to make it suitable for use in the showers and toilets.

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Students are working directly with the community of Eldorado, a municipality within the city of São Paulo with a population of 15,000. According to The Economist, Eldorado features one of the poorest and most violent of São Paulo’s slums—and the area has also been hit by successive flooding year after year. “Despite the fact that these floods have occurred periodically for many years now, it is still very difficult for the government to organize response teams in the aftermath of natural disasters,” notes Dr. Barbosa. “Each time we get a new mayor, we also get new officials, and that brings problems for the continuity of actions in the long term.” That’s where the bathrooms step in: the team at Project Apis hopes that once their working models are complete, they can turn over the bathrooms to the Ministry of Civil Defense, which can roll out the emergency units when strong storms strike the urban areas of Brazil.

respond to disaster in a way that regenerates places and communities. In the words of Ms. Medeiros, one of the students involved in Apis, “Architects need to organize together with affected communities to collaborate in multidisciplinary teams. First and foremost, architects need to listen to the people who are suffering from natural disasters, because many times the local people suggest solutions that are most efficient and appropriate for the areas where these storm events occur, since they live there and know the risk areas very well.” By listening, architects’ work becomes more like that of bees: a communal process of construction wherein each individual is nourished.

Contained in these students’ work are profound lessons for community engagement as well as the human response to climate change. When human need is the central goal of design, an opportunity arises to

GABE DUNESMITH was born and raised in Southern Appalachia. A graduate of Vassar College, he lives in Seattle and interns with the International Living Future Institute.

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Specify with legacy in mind with a twist on an old favorite. • Radius™ is made with PureBond® - No Added Formaldehyde Construction • Radius can be sourced as FSC® Mix upon request • Fabricators, Designers and Architects encouraged to contact Columbia for Declare, HPD support

www.cfpwood.com

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