3 minute read
FROM THE EDITOR BECAUSE WE LIVE HERE
Welcome to Synkd’s Green issue. It’s coming out at a time when environmental advocacy can feel like a losing game. Today’s news headlines can elicit a variety of responses: depression, frustration, SMH acronyms, or simple outrage.
But when I look at my social media, the picture is much brighter. While major non-profits are fighting the legislative fight, many common interest groups and everyday citizens are remaining quietly steadfast in their passion for native plants, pollinator support, invasives removal, decreasing lawn size, responsible stormwater management, more organic landscape care, and generally fighting climate change. The numbers haven’t dropped off. The conversations haven’t changed. The enthusiasm hasn’t waned.
This point particularly came across in a recent podcast discussion with Kona Gray, the current president of the American Society for Landscape Architects (ASLA) and principal at EDSA, a global landscape architecture firm. A key part of ASLA’s mission and indeed, even their code of ethics, has long focused on environmental sustainability. So I asked Gray about ASLA’s focus in the current political climate. Gray, who often carries an attitude of infectious and inspired optimism, was empathetic but non-plussed. “So our mission is very solid at ASLA. It’s focused on designing a sustainable and equitable world through landscape architecture, full stop. Very, very simple.”
He goes on to add, “We have amazing members, non-members, professionals, and friends of the landscape community that all are going in the same direction. I think our role as ASLA is to really push forward, to hold strong to our values…. And just keep going. Keep going. Doing what we do.” Read the full “Groundbreaker” interview with Gray on page 48.
Indeed, not one of the many sustainability-focused companies profiled in this issue shows any sign of slowing down. Molly Finch, owner of Goldfinch Designs, calls her invasive removal service “future-proof” and writes in Bittersweet Goodbye (p. 26),
“Sustainability is where the industry is going. More and more, clients want pollinatorfriendly landscapes, regenerative land care, and low-maintenance, ecologically-sound designs.”
Blossom, a design, build, maintain firm in Portland, OR, is dedicated to responsible stormwater management (p. 22) not just as a result of their own priorities, or client priorities, but due to the dynamics of a combined sewer system that pollutes Willamette River when not properly managed.
Such direct cause and effect relationships serve to remind us that environmental issues are not just scientific studies in far flung locations but daily realities within our own neighborhoods. I recently ran across a meme that said something like, “Someone once asked me why I was so concerned about the environment. I replied ‘Because I live there.’” Indeed, we all live here.
-Christine
