Love + Regeneration, Volume 4, Issue 1

A Quarterly Journal from McLennan Design.

Rediscovering our relationship to the natural world.

Volume 4 Issue 1

LEAD Life Touches Life AI and the Nature of Work

INSPIRE Women’s Voices to Advance Climate Justice

ELEVATE Amanda Gorman

CONTRIBUTE A Healing Village in British Columbia Lodge

MCLENNAN DESIGN

The Promise of Spring!

We all wait for spring this year with eager anticipation. Surely this is the start of our return to normalcy? An end to the long period of isolation due to Covid. We are hopeful as more and more of us get vaccinated and the weather begins to turn warmer and sunnier once again. It is also a new spring – with hope politically that the dark days of the Trump administration and what it represented is behind us. We aren’t out of the wood’s yet, but optimism can be helpful after such a long period of uncertainty.

This issue is all about a new spring and looking ahead. It features on the cover the amazing Amanda Gorman who uplifted us with her spoken word brilliance at the inauguration and reminded us how diversity and female voices are essential to a strong civilization. Along these lines, we also celebrate one of our own – the pioneering green warrior and our beloved Director of Regenerative Design, Phaedra Svec. Phaedra discusses many of her influences and thoughts on her arc within the green building movement.

This issue also contains a new in-depth article at the intersection of technology, artificial intelligence and work, posing fundamental questions about what people need to be healthy in both purpose and vocation. It is the start of a new twopart series that focuses on democracy’s need to have societal guardrails in an age where ‘everything goes’. This issue also provides an update on the important work being done in British Columbia to help preserve and restore a First Nation’s language and provide a new center of stewardship at the edge of the Great Bear Rainforest.

This issue – as with all of our communication – focuses on the importance of Love, at the center and fueling our work to do what we can to help regenerate life on the planet. Enjoy and please share your feedback when you can!

Warmly,

Jason F. McLennan CEO, McLennan Design

SPRING 2021

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

JASON F. MCLENNAN

GRAPHIC DESIGN

MICHELLE HENRY

CONTRIBUTORS

JOSHUA FISHER, GALEN CARLSON, COAST FUNDS, AMANDA GORMAN, FRED MCLENNAN

SOCIAL MEDIA

McLennan Design respectfully acknowledges the Suquamish and Duwamish peoples, who, throughout the generations, stewarded and thrived on the land where we live and work.

March 2021, Volume 4, Issue 1 LOVE + REGENERATION is a quarterly publication of McLennan Design, LLC. © 2021 by McLennan Design. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Content may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission and is intended for informational purposes only.

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Cover Photo/Shutterstock

NAVIGATE

6 8 24

COLLABORATE

Six Degrees of Separation Teknoflor™ Launches Nature’s Tile and Plank HPD

LEAD

Life Touches Life People, Meaning and the Future of Work What are People For? By Jason F. McLennan

INSPIRE

Q+A with Phaedra Svec The Director of Regenerative Design at McLennan Design

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ELEVATE

The Future Female Leaders Amanda Gorman’s Poignant Inaugural Poem

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CONTRIBUTE

Nawalakw Healing Society and Culture Project Embarking on a Journey of Cultural and Linguistic Revitalization

APRIL 20-23, 2021 | ONLINE livingfutureconference.org 5

COLLABORATE

SPRING 2021

Teknoflor™ Launches Nature’s Tile and Plank HPD with Jason F. McLennan and McLennan Design Milwaukee (February 2, 2020) Teknoflor®, a major supplier of highperformance commercial flooring, has launched Nature’s Tile and Plank HPD Bio-Polyurethane Flooring in collaboration with Jason F. McLennan and McLennan Design.

Teknoflor Nature’s Tile and Plank HPD bio-polyurethane flooring brings a new sense of versatility and sustainability to the commercial flooring industry. The collection boasts 42 visuals, including abstracts that mimic both hard and soft surfaces and a variety of planks inspired by the world’s most popular wood species. Nature’s Tile and Plank HPD offers all of the advantages of luxury vinyl: durability, easy maintenance and versatility, but without the vinyl.

Jason F. McLennan, along with his McLennan Design team collaborated with Teknoflor on the design of its biophilic Nature’s Tile and Plank collection. Specifically, the teams focused on a concept of “six degrees of separation” in which they designed the product line around four geographical areas found within six degrees of one another, latitudes 34–40°.

“‘Six degrees of separation’ refers to the sociocultural notion that all people are six, or fewer, social connections away from one another. When we apply this idea to the geographical latitudes of different locations across the globe, we find that an abundant and complex array of habitats can be found within just a few degrees of geographical distance,” said McLennan, CEO at McLennan Design. “Northern Africa, Northern India, Southern Appalachia, and Southern Italy all reside within six latitudinal degrees, yet the species and habitats found within these respective environments are uniquely saturated in ecological richness, diversity, and community – and what a wonderful thing to share with the world.”

The line holds true to Teknoflor’s No Wax, No Buff principle and its promise of high-performance design, all without the use of vinyl or other red-list materials.

Teknoflor bio-polyurethane flooring achieved C2C Silver certification and qualifies for Silver Criteria under Health Care Without Harm’s guidelines.

Learn more about the collection at Teknoflor.com/naturesplank

Latitudes 34–40° “six degrees of separation” Southern Italy

Northern Africa

Northern India

About HMTX Industries

Southeastern US - Appalachia

HMTX Industries is a global new materials flooring company and a leader in LVT manufacturing whose brands service a diverse cross-section of the construction marketplace. Headquartered in Norwalk, CT, and doing business in more than 40 countries around the world, the HMTX family includes Halstead in North America, the leading supplier of LVT to The Home Depot; Metroflor, its signature residential brand in North America; Teknoflor, its focused healthcare and institutional brand; Aspecta, its high-end global contract brand for architects and designers; as well as Vertex, the foundation of the international supply chain for HMTX. 7

life touches life

People, Purpose, And The Future Of Work.

What Are People For?

By Jason F. McLennan

Just because a machine can do a job better than a person, should we let it?

Just because a machine can do a job better than a person, should we let it? People have been asking this question since the term “Artificial Intelligence” (A.I.) was coined by a handful of computer scientists presenting a proposal to a conference at Dartmouth in 1956. By 1976, computer scientist and MIT professor Joseph Weizenbaum’s Computer Power and Human Reason focused a cautionary lens on the relatively new science and its potential negative impacts on society. Weizenbaum called for societal consensus that machines not replace humans in work that benefits from empathy—a state that a computer would be unable to simulate. Drawing on the work of other contemporaries looking at specific instances in which A.I. would be inappropriate, Weizenbaum named customer service representatives, therapists, eldercare workers, soldiers, judges, and police officers as roles that ought to be fulfilled by humans. This critique was in turn criticized for its vagueness and as such deemed dangerous, threatening to slow the rate of innovation and usher in authoritarian government control.1 This debate continues in the background even today, but has been overshadowed by the relentless march forward in technological innovation, which has thus far outpaced the ethical conversation. As A.I., supercomputers, and technological advancements cross threshold after threshold, it is time that we, as a society, answer a fundamental question: What are people for?2 Technological innovation has already established the ability to replace human labor. Brute force tasks, previously held by both humans and other animals, were the first to be automated with inventions like the steam engine, steam

shovel, and mechanized farming equipment. Repetitive tasks, the work of manufacturing the stuff of life, were the next to be automated. Then technology replaced humans in simple communicative roles—automated help desks being a prime example. Right now, we are witnessing how technology is continually replacing much more complex functions such as that of cashier or bank teller. And while we may have difficulty comprehending how technology could possibly replace more creative, complex tasks, A.I. promises to do just that. In a not-so-distant future where machines can replace humans at nearly all tasks, is there a line we should not cross? Have we already crossed it? Are there things that should be sacred? Is there work that we should reserve for us, even if robots and computers can do it more accurately, faster, or cheaper? What is our purpose, if not to have a purpose?

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“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”

—C. G. Jung

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Are there ways that we can use the arc of technological progress to wean humanity off work that we shouldn’t do while making us more adaptable and better at the work we should do?

The idea of utilizing more discernment in the adoption of new technological advances is one I have found compelling for some time. The clarion call of neoliberalism has been for deregulation and privatization of everything. Guardrails formerly in place to safeguard the excesses of the free market have been systematically dismantled year after year in the United States and state involvement decried as impediments to innovation, or worse, branded as “socialist overreach.” In neoliberalist theory, the free market allows for equally unbounded prosperity—a rising tide that lifts all boats—but in effect it is concentrating wealth in the hands of a few and widening socio-economic gaps between the haves and the have-nots. This wealth concentration is, in fact, by design. In a past article I authored in 2014 called “Ecological Ordnung” I put forward the simple premise that technology for the sake of itself (or simply the enrichment of a few) is not a reason to use it, and that there needs to be a societal and ecological screening criterion for any invention or new technology based on a democratic and egalitarian review of its impact on human and planetary health.

This article, in essence, picks up where that one left off by asking the follow up questions, “How do we better regulate rapid technological and A.I. adoption without stifling innovation and progress? Are there ways that we can use the arc of technological progress to wean humanity off work that we should not do, while making us more adaptable and better at the work we should do? How can we ensure technologies are, on a net basis, benefiting the whole—not just people, but the entirety of life on this planet—and not the few at the expense of the whole? Who should arbitrate this conversation and by what criterion?” We should ask ourselves why our politicians and business leaders are so silent on these issues even though the answers are often self-evident.

While there are no shortages of dystopian predictions of A.I. gone horribly wrong, it is not all gloom and doom if we put up suitable and rigorous guardrails and take more care with our designs. These are our technologies; they should work for us, not diminish us. They should not strip us of meaningful work and a viable future simply for the benefit of those who hold a patent or own enough shares and certainly not simply because they exist. The widespread adoption of technology must be more critically assessed going

forward or, as we are now seeing, it will go on unchecked at great and perhaps terminal peril to humanity and most higher order life on this planet. One person’s invention should not undermine entire livelihoods and human dignity, or ecological and sociological health. This critical assessment is the work of democracy.

Therefore, to get at the question, “What are people for?” from a holistic perspective, we must simultaneously ask ourselves, “What is technology for?”

Discernment And The Myth Of Inevitability We do not exercise much discernment with regards to technology anymore in the United States. And while other countries have exhibited slightly more good judgment, this is also a global issue. In fact, a hallmark of our contemporary society is a total lack of discernment in many regards—particularly when there is money to be made.

When conversations around AI and technology surface on questions of impact, we tend to shrug our shoulders and view the future as inevitable rather than designable.

Screening for social and environmental good is quickly labeled socialist and regressive. We delude ourselves with aphorisms like, “All progress is good progress,” or, “The market will sort it out,” or, “Automation achieves better results and people will always find other work.” But when societal and ecological fabrics are as frayed as they are, it becomes clear that progress for progress’ sake does not inevitably lead to good. Our societal track record since World War II has been abysmal. When all major living systems across the globe are in decline and with the effects of runaway climate change becoming evermore evident, it has become clear that the market’s only inclination is to make money; it certainly does not sort anything out for the betterment of nature—which we perennially forget includes ourselves. And it does not magically level out the playing field for the poor and middle classes of the world who are given as little thought as other species.

Left to its own devices, market forces without rules lead to degeneration, the lowest common denominator, as well as massive inequities, and even death. In the context of work, automation, and better economic results, we really need to define what we mean when we say “better.” If our only metric for better is GDP or stock market gains, our economic betterment portends our decline.

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A hallmark of our contemporary society is total lack of discernment in many regards— particularly when there is money to be made.

The language of inevitability, at the heart of neoliberalist policies, casts us as puppets in the hands of fate, carrying out the work of our own demise like brainwashed suicide bombers. We forget that we have agency in democracies, that we build legacies, that we can create meaningful change at massive scales when we wake up and act together for the benefit of the whole. We can utilize the same ingenuity that invents dazzling new technologies to thoughtfully consider their limitations, externalities and the precautions that should be taken in their use. Then as a society we can design what is best for us as a collective whole. This idea that, for good or ill, technological “progress” is inevitable is merely a human idea. We can introduce other ideas that change the timbre of this discussion and the trajectory on which we find ourselves as a global society.

In a democratic, free society we have the ability and the responsibility to say how we want things to be for all of us, including our children and our grandchildren. We must recognize that capitalism and democracy are not one Photo/Jonathan Hillyer 12 Alex Mondau image:

and the same, and that capitalism is but one tool in our democratic toolbox to create the societies and world we want. It is possible to have active and vibrant capitalist systems within a functioning and active democracy that safeguard the world.3 Why then are we not asking ourselves, “How do we want to live? What role do we want technology to play in our world? What do we want our societies to look like?

What are people for?”

The Promise Of Technology We have all been told the great promise of technology is time, and that our adoption of new technologies will free us from the tyranny of work. In 1930, economist John Maynard Keynes famously predicted that by the time his grandchildren were employed— essentially now—they, and we, would be working just 15 hours a week. (I write this having just completed a 60hour workweek.)

NPR’s special series “Planet Money” revisited Keynes’ work and tracked down his family members of younger generations to see what he got wrong.

“John Maynard Keynes’s argument

for the 15-hour workweek was that over time, thanks to machines and technology and new ideas, people get more productive. An hour of labor produces more and more stuff. Keynes figured we would just decide to work less,” reports David Kestenbaum. “In some countries, the number of hours worked has dropped some. But look at the United States. In 1950, people here worked, on average, about 38 hours a week. Today, six decades later, we work about 34 hours a week— a bit less but not much.4 While the idle wealthy might be the exception to this time at work, nearly everyone else is working just as long or longer than in recent decades.

There are many reasons for this— human competitiveness prominently among them, and a consumerist mindset that inflates standards of living. Earnings gaps, wage stagnation, and other contextual inequalities certainly also contribute (the promise of technology, it seems, is actually far more about money for some than time for all).

After

As we hurdle through time and space, the acceleration of this automation increases while the list of jobs exclusively relegated to humans grows ever shorter and shorter.

But another facet exists as well: humans like being industrious. We enjoy work. We derive a great deal of satisfaction from meaningful work when we are treated well. We would certainly benefit from a more thoughtful approach to work. To our detriment, we lack boundaries around the amount of information we attempt to hold and process, the number of hours from which we attempt to wring productivity, and the way in which we prize and prioritize work, often at the expense of all else. However, at the other end of the spectrum, to be entirely bereft of work would not, in an existential sense, be the boon to humanity that we might imagine.

To a certain extent, automation could gift us more time and free us up for higher functions with more meaning.

But beyond that point, we will find ourselves redundant among our own inventions. Rather than passively relinquishing our jobs to automation, why do we not actively decide who we want to be and the nature of the work we want to do?

With each passing year, we inch closer and closer to realizing the ultimate promise of AI: a world in which humans may truly be expendable. As we hurdle through time and space, the acceleration of this automation increases while the list of jobs exclusively relegated to humans grows ever shorter and shorter. Two thresholds mark the trajectory toward the automation of entire career paths: the first is the viability of the technology, the second is economy.

In most instances, we have already crossed that first threshold by inventing technologies that could replace nearly all human-powered industry. With each year, increases in computing power accelerate this change. What happens when that second, economic threshold is crossed? When every form of industry, or nearly every form, is more economically run by automation and artificial intelligence than people?

We will, if trends hold, arrive at that threshold in this century, and quite possibly within the next couple of decades. And then what?

Technology’s futurists warn of “the singularity”—a hypothetical point at which technology, by way of this unchecked, human-designed advancement, can no longer be controlled by humans and begins fulfilling its own mandates by deleterious, even disastrous means.

We have a moral obligation to rein in our inventions before we reach this point and the opportunity for control is forever lost. This is not a luddite argument; I am not proposing we stifle technological ingenuity and advancement to hold on to a past beyond which we have already evolved.

But neither should technology and the market be treated as sacred cows: above reproach, above questioning.

Technology’s implications should be understood and discussed. We should evaluate and decide as a society whether our technology supports the world we want to live in. The work of democracy is to ask these questions and strive for a balance in which we are progressing toward a knowable, desirable, living future that harnesses human ingenuity in its service.

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So, What Is Technology For? Currently, the precautionary principle—which states that newness for the sake of newness should be resisted until its ultimate effects are understood—is unexercised with regards to technology and invention.

In its recent history, humanity has thrown off most of its societal filters, previously imposed in the forms of monarchies, class and caste systems, and religion. We have celebrated these jubilees, and rightly so, but we have failed to acknowledge what we have lost (often trading one master for another) and have therefore replaced these previous arbiters of societal good, however flawed, with… nothing. Unfettered market systems and neoliberal policies denounce the need for such guardrails, and the call to author new societal filters that are better equipped to hold our modern identities is either vigorously shunned or has yet to be answered in a meaningful way.

If we want a society that is healthy, that treats the planet well, that treats each other well, then we have to exercise greater discernment around what we let through the gates as part of a rational, defendable, clearly communicated, and international societal pact. At a global level, humanity has successfully collaborated

on such pacts before—the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons being a prime example.

The models exist, however scarce, and the time is now; the technology that is currently under development is literally begging for regulation. We must decide collectively that we do not want it to be unfettered. What we are looking for is an elegant set of parameters—guardrails that neither kill innovation and profits nor stymie freedoms.

In order to arrive at such parameters, we must come to some consensus as to the appropriate application of technology, and what kinds of consequences are okay and not okay.

This is a big undertaking, but I believe one way to begin thinking about it is to acknowledge that technology is here to help us become better people, to help us become better with people, and to help us become better with all life. If any technology is not supporting that function, then it is time to put on the brakes or re-engineer the technology in question. In light of the environmental degradation we are experiencing globally, by “better” I mean technology must contribute to regeneration, to the increased health and diversity of all life, and to both peace and the betterment of the many. If it does not help regeneration, it is the wrong tool to use. There is

room for whimsy and frivolity with technology of course, provided that it is truly benign.

When we define “better” in this way, we are left with some unprecedented, hard stands to make. We have to demand an end to the enrichment of the one percent at the expense of the many and the earth that sustains us.

At a minimum, if an invention enriches just a few, it must, as described above, be essentially benign and inconsequential in its externalities.

And further, we must constantly guard ourselves against technology that allows us to shape the world beyond what I call the “boundary of disconnect”—a system’s metaphysical and physical boundary, beyond which the individual or community is no longer able to relate to the whole.

Technologies that create changes beyond scales we can know, fathom, or relate to are inherently dangerous in that their effects can be equally unknowable, unfathomable, or unrelatable until great damage is done. Here again the precautionary principle should come into play. We must consider that even when caution is exercised, certain outcomes might be impossible to predict, and therefore any guardrails must include means of recourse when unintended, damaging consequences are observed.

How Should We Use Technology?

If this seems esoteric, we can bring it down to earth with some simple gate keeping questions around the ways we use technology: In technology, as in all forms of economically driven advancements, there are always winners and losers.

When new technologies arrive, we should first ask and get answers to a number of crucial questions: “Who or what suffers? Does democracy itself suffer? Does family and cohesion suffer? Does the health and well-being of people suffer? Does the health of the environment suffer? Does this technology support and enhance the conditions for life? Does it increase biodiversity and resilience? Does it improve health and well-being conditions for people? Does it foster positive relations within and between

communities? Does it make us freer in the true sense? Does it bolster democracy? How do potential risks stack up against potential rewards?”

Currently, automation impacts the unskilled and uneducated the most.

This large-scale and diverse grouping includes both our world’s poorest and our youth, for whom such work is a rite of passage and a much-needed learning experience. Eighty-five million jobs have potential for automation in the next five years. The World Economic Forum’s “Global Risks Report 2021” names “livelihood crises” as a resulting top ten risk to global stability, in terms of both likelihood and impact. While this report points to the potential creation of some 97 million new jobs in the same five-year time frame in which these 85 million will become automated, without employer commitment to upskilling and reskilling workers it warns of a growing technological divide and deepening divisions between the haves and have-nots that ultimately threaten to further undermine the social fabric of our world.6 And that’s just the next five years. A future in which everything, or nearly everything, that people do can be done “better” by machine is not much further off. The conversation has thus far been focused primarily on the manufacturing sector, but the advancement of AI technology also threatens creative jobs and complex mental tasks. Essentially, when we answer the question, “who suffers” in any way other than, “no one,” we must be committed to hitting the brakes long

2001: A Space Odyssey

enough to engage more discernment.

Within these parameters, we might develop and utilize technology to handle radioactive, chemical, or other hazardous materials safely, to rid the land of the deadly relics of war, or to perform outsized or perilous industrial tasks. We might use it to connect with our loved ones from distances that otherwise would not allow for it. We might use it to monitor and maintain conditions for regenerative efforts on the land or within our bodies.

However, by these same parameters, technology that extracts data from our search histories or social media platforms and uses behavioral psychology to manipulate us into extreme and dangerous behaviors or beliefs must be reconsidered with safeguards put into place.7 Technology that gives a platform and a loudspeaker to hate or fearinducing untruths must be reined in. Likewise, technology that mines the earth or conducts acts of war should be revoked. Not only do these technological applications fail to abide by the “do no harm” mandate, but also, they operate entirely outside the boundary of disconnect, allowing us to effect changes at scales that we can no longer relate to, and increasingly without human oversight.

Facebook’s early internal motto was “move fast and break things.” Zuckerberg believed if you are not pushing the outer edges of a system’s capacity, you are not pushing far enough. If you are not wreaking havoc, you are being too delicate. With current circumstances as they are, this is exactly the opposite approach we should be taking to the development of new technologies in the age of the Anthropocene. What about, “move slow and pause to consider”? Or “take good care”? We humans have a hard time keeping the lid on Pandora’s Box clamped tightly. Therefore, we should be far more discerning with how we fill it.

Photo/Jonathan Hillyer

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“The more coherent one becomes within oneself as a creature, the more fully one enters into the communion of all creatures.”

—Wendell Berry What Are People For? We pin too much of our identity on what we do. As technology rapidly surpasses us in ability to “do,” we are invited to reframe our identities rather around who we are. We are children, siblings, parents, and partners. Our ability to live in relationship with each other, to exercise love and empathy, to ideate, and to delight is what makes us human. And we are nature. The unique task posed to our time is to really remember this reality in an embodied, lived way. To navigate the challenges we face with a deeply felt sense of our natures and our mutuality, and a decision-making compass that derives its true north from this understanding.

That said, I believe human purpose is to provide value to loved ones, to a community, to humanity, and to be in service of all life. Futuristic depictions of idle leisure with robotic servants doing all of our bidding do not acknowledge our fundamental need for meaningful work, personal expression, and to serve something greater than ourselves through acts of creation. I believe humans are here to be agents of regeneration and are inherently social creatures who need connection and meaningful tasks to be mentally and physically healthy. This composite vision necessarily looks like a million different things, allowing each of us to show up 16

with our unique talents and interests in the pursuit of a living future.

The future I look forward to is not one in which people’s contributions are superfluous and systematically replaced by human analogues, leaving us existentially redundant and without meaning. We do want a world where undignified, dangerous work is eliminated. We do want a world where people are rewarded economically for their ingenuity and hard work, but not at the expense of the greater good. When we are bored and without purpose, when we are not contributing to our community or to life, we are diminished. In extremes, this leads to violent unrest. History has shown that there are few things more dangerous than a lot of young men and women without meaningful, purposeful work, hope, and dignity. We crave and deeply need to feel a sense of value, of belonging, of being part of something bigger than us. A future in which we are idly at leisure is as much of a dead future as one where we are forced into servitude by A.I. overlords. Work provides us not only with means, but also purpose, pride, resilience, discipline, skill,

and knowledge. For many individuals, workplaces are also the primary source for finding and fostering connection with people beyond their immediate communities. And by work I also mean working with our hands as well as our minds, digging in the dirt and breaking a sweat.

I believe we are here to reach our highest potential and to personally reach for the most positive relationships possible with all life forms. As we face the future we can regroup as humanity around a shared goal of regenerating our world, of each of us finding our place in the web of life and committing to improving the conditions for life as best we can.

This is work that will enrich our lives, banish our loneliness, and give us a lived sense of connection.

I believe human purpose is to provide value to loved ones, to a community, to humanity, and in service of all life.

How Should We Work?

For most of modern history, the majority of humanity has endured terrible lives marked with servitude as slaves, soldiers, and laborers.

Beginning with the Industrial Revolution, the rapid rise of technologies has seen the end of eras and the evolution of work. Technology and invention have freed most of us from the worst of things we have had to do. Although this freedom is still not realized for many in developing countries, technology holds a promise for achievement of this goal for the world’s poorest as well. This is the kind of progress we should continue to welcome.

While we certainly should continue to move away from dangerous, debilitating, and degrading forms of work, it is healthy and good to work hard, to use our bodies as well as our minds and to take pride and dignity in creating something beneficial out of our efforts and toil.

But do we really want to evolve beyond meaningful work itself?

Humans are purpose-driven animals.

Work is essential to our well-being, our identity, and our self-worth.

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Here I propose a simple credo to define the work that we should reserve for humans no matter what:

life touches life.

If the work that needs doing is in direct contact with a living thing or system, this work should primarily be undertaken by humans. While technology certainly has a supporting role to play, the human capacity for empathy and discernment should never be automated out of work that engages with people and other life forms. Even if, by some metric, automation would achieve “better” results, these are instances in which we should say, “Nope. These jobs are for us. I see your increased profits, your accuracy, and your efficiency and still, no thanks.”

For example, I believe there should always be farmers. To work the land is to know, love and connect with it.

Farmers are our liaisons with the land that provides our sustenance, and we cannot afford to sever another such relationship with our nature. Similarly, animals bred, raised, and slaughtered for human consumption should be bred, raised, and slaughtered by humans.8 We cannot afford to be 18

disconnected from the sacrifices they make on our behalf if eating meat is desired. To do so risks detachment from the entire food chain and further injustices against domesticated animals. This deference is often absent from large animal agriculture, and this omission needs to change, for moral and environmental reasons. In both instances, with land and with animal, humans must honor a deliberate transaction of respect that can only be made between living entities.

There should always be teachers.

Children need to learn, in addition to facts and figuring, how to interact with each other and how to engage with the world. Learning is not just about facts; it is about social interactions and the empathic use of those facts. These jobs should never be replaced by robotic stand-ins. Empathy, love, kindness, and engagement are equally or more important than the more tactile lessons imparted in schools that can be aided by technology as helpers, not replacements. Children need to see demonstrations of curiosity and the richness to be gleaned from following it. They need to spend time around a variety of adults who act kindly and demand such behavior from them.

They need to learn to navigate the social complexities and sometimes challenging situations that rise pre-

cisely from having to deal with other human beings. They need exposure to the subtleties and spectrum of human personalities. We learn how to be good people by being around good people.

There should always be doctors and mental health care professionals.

When it comes to the physical and mental well-being of humans, we design empathy out of care at our great, long-term peril. Again, technology is a wonderful handmaiden to those in whom we entrust our care.

There should always be humans caring for the elderly and directing the proceedings of death. While the way we care for our dying and dead varies widely from culture to culture, and in many cases deserves some scrutiny, we cannot perpetuate artificial barriers between us and death, and we cannot mechanize ritual. The acts of caring for those facing death, caring for their bodies after death, and carrying out ritual and creating containers for grief for those yet living belongs with other humans. Proper care is tactile and real, and people become more human not by being separated from aging and death but by learning to sit with and deal with it.

es

f i e l . t e ou f il ch s e

life to u life. c h es

f i l e . t e ou f il ch s e

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. life t o u life c h

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Elsewhere in our lives, I think we have been impoverished by the removal of people from the simple, mundane daily interactions we used to have in our towns and cities. It is not that a machine cannot outperform a human in economic or efficiency terms for many tasks, it is just that we have not thought through and discussed the thousands of ways our communities and community life have been eroded by the loss of small, simple interactions with strangers and familiar, yet unknown, neighbors. The small pleasantries of our days—the exchanges with bank tellers, grocery store clerks,

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ticket sales representatives, sales staff—undergird our humanity.

Even interactions with telephone customer sales representatives, frustrated though we may be, hold this opportunity and are increasingly lost. These interactions force us, or at least invite us, to engage with civility regardless of our circumstances. They also connect us to people outside our comfortable circles, expand our sense of community and mutuality beyond family, colleagues, and friends, and invite us to exercise empathy.

As it happens, much of the work that people should not do is, in fact, work

that should not be done at all. Most resource extraction falls into this category. Coal mining, by example, is degrading and dangerous work unfit for humans. The extraction of coal is also broadly degenerative. So, on two counts, this is work that simply should not be done. As we work together toward imagining and realizing a living future, each line of work must bear scrutiny. Many fields should be discarded for the greater good and progress should run its course. And for the technologies that we discard and the lines of work we do away with by these regenerative standards, we must commit to a plan to provide

meaningful replacement work, opportunity, and—yes—access to technology, for those whose livelihoods are impacted.

Understanding the human need to utilize natural resources and that resource utilization can be done within a living balance, the life touches life credo applies. If we are going to log forests to build our homes, I suggest this is work that should be done by humans primarily. Yes, there are inherent dangers, but again, this is a transaction with life and one to which we should not be desensitized.

The transaction in which gratitude and respect is given in exchange for materials would be lost if we automated the work of cutting down trees—in this regard we have already gone too far.

Likewise, certain kinds of sea and other wild food harvesting operations are perilous. Does danger merit automation? In part, yes, but perhaps not entirely. We certainly should use technology and best practices to make any human activity as safe as possible, but not to the extent that we find some automated means of vacuuming the ocean floor of its life, for instance. Life deserves better.

carpenters and glassblowers? Here again we are shortsighted in our assumption that losing such traditions is inevitable. Should we reserve anything creative for people, even if algorithms can randomly produce good stand-ins?

Though much is already forgotten, societies depend on artists, craftspeople, farmers, fishers, hunters and foragers, conservationists, scientists, and gardeners to carry on and maintain these direct connections to our history as humans and to the life that sustains us, to be in relationship, to convey our gratitude and respect, and to steward. We also need these people to act as societal parents to pass on generational traditions, ideas and values associated with their respective livelihoods and areas of expertise.

I also believe that we need craftspeople and artisans, musicians and other creators in this world.

While this maybe falls outside the literal box of life touches life, we need to also consider what is good for human psychology, what makes us happy (life metaphysically touching life), and what the continuity of craft and artistic traditions does to weave us into the broader fabric of humanity, past, present, and future.

If we can agree that it is tragic to lose some of the time-honored ways of making beautiful things well and by hand, then why do we let it happen?

Where are the highly skilled masons,

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SPRING 2021

A Possible Future It is important to understand, particularly when the language of inevitability is invoked, that the systems in place that concentrate wealth to the few and externalize impacts to the many—to other life forms and the planet, which have no voice, and to the poor—are by design.

The callous pursuit of profits at the expense of all else is no accident.

However, continuation down this destructive path is not a foregone conclusion. We are the makers and shapers of these systems and if we adopt a disposition of empathy, a desire to perpetuate good in this world, and a commitment to begin consciously to use our inventiveness to heal the planet, we can change our living future.

Every point of connection on our web of mutuality needs regenerating. At every intersection where one lifeline touches another there is opportunity for healing. I believe humans—these unique entities in which self-awareness and the ability to organize around work overlap, are here to heal these connections. I imagine a future in which the entirety of the work we do is in service of holistic and comprehensive regeneration, where people have value and are valued, and technology truly serves us and does not replace us.

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I imagine a future in which all technology, without exception, aids us in this work. This type of technology will be profitable in a dimensional sense like never before; it will profit its inventors, yes, but also benefit its users, and even those who choose not to use such technology. As well as humans, all living systems in which this technology is utilized, be they cultural or ecological, to the exclusion of no living thing anywhere, will reap the benefits.

This is a future we must choose, and soon.

JASON F. McLENNAN is a highly sought out designer, consultant and thought leader. Prior to founding McLennan Design, Jason authored the Living Building Challenge – the most stringent and progressive green building program in existence, and founded the International Living Future Institute. He is the author of seven books on Sustainability and Design including the Philosophy of Sustainable Design, “the bible for green building.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_artificial_intelligence

1

Wendell Berry wrote a great book of essays with this name. The name always captured my interest as a provocative question to understand in the context of work, play and human activity.

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Let’s not forget that capitalism also exists in fascist states, monarchies, and communist countries like China. Capitalism does not equal democracy any more than putting economic and technological guardrails means that a country is now “communist” as so often is the scare tactic of neoliberal conservatives.

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4 David Kestenbaum. “Keynes Predicted We’d be Working 15 Hour Weeks. Why was he so Wrong?” Planet Money, NPR. https://www.npr. org/2015/08/13/432122637/keynes-predicted-we-would-be-working-15-hour-weeks-why-was-he-so-wrong 5 6

“The Global Risks Report 2021.” World Economic Forum. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_Global_Risks_Report_2021.pdf “The Global Risks Report 2021.” World Economic Forum. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_Global_Risks_Report_2021.pdf

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This is a topic I will dig into with greater detail in a forthcoming article.

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Fully acknowledging that we should increasingly question our addiction to meat.

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SPRING 2021

A Regenerative Troublemaker This past year has been a year of raised awareness for the many voices that have been found missing from nearly every solution we collectively seek. I acknowledge that my voice is heard more so than others simply because I am a white woman raised with middlecaste advantage.

More voices and perspectives must be included to advance climate justice.

I recognize that over centuries we have lost much of the wisdom, knowledge, and creativity that naturally emerges with the presense of great diversity. We are each here to see the world from our own unique perspective and to add our individual gifts to the mix. When we silence anyone’s voice, we deprive the whole of their wisdom and creativity.

The architecture and design industries are currently facing a crisis. We are trying to solve the many problems of this age, yet all too often do so with a lack of the very diversity of perspective and experience that might lend itself to finding innovative solutions.

How would you describe your role at McLennan Design – and why do you work at this firm?

Phaedra Svec is the Director of Regenerative Design at McLennan Design. As one of the early pioneers of the sustainability movement, Phaedra’s years of thought-leadership and creative curiosity have uniquely positioned her to lead a wide array of institutions and organizations on a journey toward becoming more holistically regenerative.

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Many years ago, Jason and I were partners in the first ever sustainable design team within an architecture firm (at BNIM). From the beginning we were self-branded troublemakers, and experimented broadly to find new ways to approach old challenges. Our mentor, Bob Berkebile, and the firm gave us a lot of room to explore and define what sustainability meant for the practice as well as for the industry.

Jason originally asked me to be the Director of Sustainability at McLennan Design. By that time, I had been doing that work for a couple of decades and

I understood the limitations of the sustainable design movement and methods. I had become increasingly curious about what it could mean to practice in a regenerative way, to include more voices in the process and to consider what benefits all of life in a place. I asked him if I could be the Director of Regenerative Design instead... He said yes, and so I said yes.

Now, my role is something I make up every day, just as I made up my title. It is an aspirational title and an intention more than an expertise. I assume that if I keep practicing simply being a part of the living systems I am connected to, one day I might understand what life needs and how to participate in making it better. Along the way, perhaps I can partner with others who are on a similar quest and try to make it an easier path for others to follow.

Director – to me – means mentor. It is my greatest hope that I can be a little bit inspiring while I remain fully open to others inspiring me. I’d like to make it easier for my colleagues and my clients to see what is possible – what can be.

For me, my title signifies an intention to practice in a certain way and declares what I am trying to learn and discover.

Regeneration means many things, but most simply for me, it is the act of repairing what is broken and making things better for life. There is a whole technical realm of how to practice place-based, systems-based thinking, but at it’s heart, it is about doing some good in a place. I am looking for every opportunity to make the conditions for life better.

Many people can feel overwhelmed by the scale of the climate crisis and experience a kind of ecological grief. How do you cope with these feelings and remain inspired to keep fighting for a regenerative future, and how can others do the same?

I’m a fan of Mother Theresa’s “small things with great love.”

There are no big things that one person can do, but doing small things with great love will make lasting change. My sphere of influence may be small, but I know that I can at least do my best to let this way of thinking infiltrate every decision. I firmly believe that the only way my life will be meaningful is if I know that I have done everything that I can to see living patterns and try to make them healthier.

I was fortunate enough to grow up in a rural setting and was forced as a kid to participate in gardening and orcharding and land restoration work with parents who encouraged a strong work ethic. What a gift it was to observe firsthand the process of taking a small plot of spent agricultural land and restoring its biodiversity and soil health – all in one lifetime!

When you watch life unfold before your eyes, and you feel the cold soil on your fingers, how can you not be inspired?

When I strive to not be apart from life but to be a part of it, I begin to understand the possibility of life. I’ve watched nature respond to our invitation with wonder and awe.

“I believe that we are all equally capable of doing helpful things. We bring about what we focus on, so I focus on that.”

I’ve learned that nature runs through everything we touch – so that touching is important.

Whenever I am saddened by the destruction of life, I focus on all the times I have witnessed life respond to the slightest invitation. I am not naïve, I know how destructive humans can be. But I believe that we are all equally capable of doing helpful things. We bring about what we focus on, so I focus on that.

One of my mentors was Margaret Wheatley, who said, “There is no power greater than a community discovering what it cares about.” I have witnessed that power firsthand over many years. When we as practitioners can help communities to focus on what they want to bring about – on quality of life – they are capable of tremendous things together. And when we invite life to thrive in a place, nature always responds.

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SPRING 2021

What kind of jobs will a clean economy offer, and which governments and businesses are leading the way that you are most excited about?

I’m inspired by the work of Seattle Public Schools to be willing to face a new vision for a regenerative and net-positive future and – in the midst of a disruptive pandemic – prioritize planning for the future. They understand that the next generation needs to have firsthand knowledge of how to work to restore living systems, to solve complex social challenges and to work with finite resources to create circular economies. They are willing to start building this legacy for the generation with 2020 perfect vision of what must be done

to maintain human thriving on the planet. SPS is also learning to do this by inviting many diverse voices to be a part of defining the solutions. When institutions decide to do something helpful, they can bring a lot of other people with them and transform whole communities and systems. Small things - great love!

What trends give you both the most hope – and also raise the greatest concerns for you?

The current trend that is hopeful is the raised awareness of the inextricable connection between social and environmental justice. Within this divisive political atmosphere, the pandemic, burning summers, cold winters – more people are starting to understand the connection between environmental disasters and the lack of equity in every realm and are learning to see the slow disasters that have been in place all along. Maybe as a society, we are just ready now to explore this interconnection.

Taking action for social equity alongside environmental justice

“I believe that together it is possible to reverse destructive patterns and participate with living systems in a different way. It is possible to create a better quality of life. ” feels like the dawning for a new era. With that raising of awareness also unfortunately comes a huge backlash that can seem overwhelming. But if the people who are starting to ask ‘what can I do’ keep asking that question we can’t help but find some new answers. And I hope that more of those folks who are clinging to the old ways will begin to see examples of the promise and benefit of diversity alongside biodiversity.

The lack of diversity within my profession still concerns me. We cannot solve community scale problems if we do not resemble the communities we serve. We must fix this by getting involved in our communities and introducing more children to what this work is all about. And, every chance we get, we must make a seat at the table for new voices. Even if that means giving up my own, I am committed to doing that. When I work with a community, I will no longer accept the excus that we cannot have diversity of engagement for any of the old and tired reasons.

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I fight to have diverse collaborations because I believe that the answer is in the room if we can only learn to listen to one another.

In my job I get to spend some time in design, some time in research/learning and some time teaching. I think of myself mosly as a teacher – and I am reverant about what that requires of me.

I also find hope through Scouting with my two boys and within the troop. I am doing my best to guide the boys to find a personal connection to nature and to develop a sense of responsibility for human-made systems.

I believe that together it is possible to reverse destructive patterns and participate with living systems in a different way.

It is possible to create a better quality of life. I try to create hands-on opportunities for them to experience how to do this.

I can also answer for me and why am I doing this work. I have always watched life with wonder. I have been fortunate to experience life passing through my body. I get to experience life whenever I pay attention to the sun on my cheek or the breath in my lungs. I want to participate with life, to create conditions for living systems to thrive. I want my great grand children to feel sun on their cheeks. So, I get up every day and try to help.

How can architecture be transformed to operate as regenerative contributors to ecosystems?

Why do you feel there are so many strong female leaders in the green and social justice spaces?

First, let me say that the built environment is not separated from its ecosystems.

There are a few things that architects could do to make better use of this potential. If designers and planners can hold open a space in which a community can verbalize and listen to one another’s goals and vision, then it will unleash a part of that potential.

I can’t speak to the big whys, but I don’t like the statistics.

Nor do I think it is helpful to say what is feminine and what is masculine or to speak for all women… we are all unique and different. I can say that in nature, biodiversity strengthens the ecosystem. We do not have nearly enough diversity within the building industry – or any decision-making industry for that matter. We will not survive as a monoculture if this situation does not evolve.

Another big part of uncovering potential comes naturally when learning about the ecosystems of a place. By understanding biological and social patterns and connections, it is possible to notice where there is striving and where there is thriving and to find ways to participate in that process.

Unleashing the will of the people at the same time that one unleashes life’s yearnings is a powerful combination. We need to help architects find their place in that process and take that power to make things better for life in a place. We have to stop being scared to take our place in that process and to actively participate in regeneration.

• Engage with a community to include new voices.

• Facilitate a community in articulating their goals and priorities to each other.

• Integrate place-based research into design.

• Take a proactive role in working within the budget and schedule just as we might design within the the limits of available sunlight and rainfall.

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SPRING 2021

What technical skills should women be learning in order to make an immediate impact on their livelihoods in this profession and a long-term impact on the earth?

Again, I can’t stress this enough: • Learn how to Engage a community and include new voices.

• Develop facilitation skills and learn to hold open a space to allow a community to articulate their goals and priorities to each other.

• Learn to collaborate with biologists and anthropologists to Integrate place-based research into design.

• Take charge of the budget and schedule and guide that process proactively.

If you didn’t do this career – what career would you do?

I would likely be trying to help my community in some way, especially by trying to inspire children. I might also dive into a nature conservancy, prairie restoration, regenerative agriculture, or permaculture project with both hands. I like to get my hands dirty - except I leave the animal touching to others. I like chicken poop for my garden, but I don’t really want to have to deal with the chickens - if that makes sense.

“We need the diversity of opinions, skills, and backgrounds.”

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Tell us a bit aboutsome of your most important mentors in life and business.

I’ve been blessed with so many…here are some: My parents infected me from my first breath with the idea that I could do anything I set my mind and hands to. They had a tremendous work ethic and love of nature that they passed on to me.

Mr. Dillinger, my high school drafting teacher, because he never questioned why I might want to pursue architecture. He just let me explore and try.

My Uncle Tim, who first suggested I look at architecture and never doubted that I could or should do that.

My Uncle Jan, who was trained as an architect and hated it so he warned me about the pitfalls of working for only those who have the money to pay an architect. He suggesting that there must be another way, a healthier way, to practice.

Dr. Lynn Paxson, one of the few female professors, and the only native American professor I had at Iowa State, who taught my cohort about the connection between architecture, culture, and place. She had a beautiful approach to design that first gave me the questions that I continue to ask today.

Bob Berkebile, for giving me endless opportunities to practice, for sharing so much of his personal journey with me, for connecting me to other great thought leaders, and for not letting me whine when someone difficult came along to challenge me.

Sarah Hirsh, who showed me how to be a dedicated mother and still contribute to this important work.

Laura Lesniewski, because despite her incredible intelligence, she practices with her heart in the lead.

Christina Hoxie, for teaching me about 150 techniques for holding space for communities to discover what they care about.

Joel Ann Todd, for modeling change management within large groups.

Dale Duncan, because he is a gentle, model mentor practicing patience and persistance.

Jason F. McLennan, because he always lets me be who I am – even when I drive him crazy.

And to the MANY grey-bearded mentors, professors, colleagues, and leaders who stood in my way, tried to silence my voice, told me I didn’t belong, or took credit for my work, I am most grateful to them - for double dog darning me to prove them wrong.

What are you reading right now that inspires you?

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ELEVATE

SPRING 2021

Amanda Gorman the nation’s first-ever youth poet laureate, read the following poem during the inauguration of President Joe Biden on January 20, 2021:

where can we find light in this neverending shade?

Where a skinny Black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother

The loss we carry,

can dream of becoming president

When day comes we ask ourselves,

a sea we must wade We’ve braved the belly of the beast

And yes we are far from polished

We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace

far from pristine

And the norms and notions

striving to form a union that is perfect

of what just is

We are striving to forge a union with purpose

Isn’t always just-ice And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it Somehow we do it Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken but simply unfinished We the successors of a country and a time

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only to find herself reciting for one

but that doesn’t mean we are

To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us but what stands before us We close the divide because we know, to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another

We seek harm to none and harmony for all

Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy

Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true:

And this effort very nearly succeeded

That even as we grieved, we grew

But while democracy can be periodically delayed

That even as we hurt, we hoped

it can never be permanently defeated

That even as we tired, we tried

In this truth

That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious

in this faith we trust

Not because we will never again know defeat but because we will never again sow division

For while we have our eyes on the future history has its eyes on us This is the era of just redemption

Scripture tells us to envision

We feared at its inception

that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree

We did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a terrifying hour

And no one shall make them afraid

but within it we found the power

If we’re to live up to our own time

to author a new chapter

Then victory won’t lie in the blade

To offer hope and laughter to ourselves

But in all the bridges we’ve made

So while once we asked,

That is the promise to glade

how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe?

The hill we climb If only we dare It’s because being American is more than a pride we inherit, it’s the past we step into

Now we assert How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?

We will not march back to what was

and how we repair it

but move to what shall be

We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation

A country that is bruised but whole, benevolent but bold,

rather than share it

fierce and free

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SPRING 2021

We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation Our blunders become their burdens But one thing is certain: If we merge mercy with might, and might with right, then love becomes our legacy

where our forefathers first realized revolution We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the midwestern states, we will rise from the sunbaked south We will rebuild, reconcile and recover and every known nook of our nation and every corner called our country,

and change our children’s birthright

our people diverse and beautiful will emerge,

So let us leave behind a country

battered and beautiful

better than the one we were left with

When day comes we step out of the shade,

Every breath from my bronze-pounded chest,

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we will rise from the windswept northeast

aflame and unafraid

we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one

The new dawn blooms as we free it

We will rise from the gold-limbed hills of the west,

if only we’re brave enough to see it

For there is always light, If only we’re brave enough to be it

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Nawalakw Healing Society and Culture Project Embarking on a Journey of Cultural and Linguistic Revitalization WORDS Contributed by Coast Funds IMAGES by McLennan Design

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SPRING 2021

McLennan Design is honored to be developing the masterplan and architectural design for Nawalakw Healing Village – a healing centre focused on language and culture resurgence. The project will be a destination eco-adventure lodge and community healing resource located on the shore of a British Columbia Coastal fjord, home to grizzlies, eagles, orcas, and wolves.

We are grateful to be working alongside Chief Maxwiyalidizi (K’odi Nelson) to bring this ambitious, hopeful vision to life. Nawalakw will offer cultural immersion and wellness programing supported through a world class ecotourism operation. It will be the first place on earth where Kwakwala is once again spoken immersively.

At a Glance At Hada River estuary, in the heart of MUSGA’MAKW DZAWADA’ENUXW territory, a vision of cultural revitalization is becoming reality. The vision is of a place where Kwakwala, a language on the brink of extinction, will once again be spoken immersively; a place where cultural revitalization underpins economic and social well-being. The place is NAWALAKW (pronounced Nowwah-low-k, and meaning ‘supernatural’ in Kwakwala).

Driven by Chief Maxwiyalidizi K’odi Nelson and the leadership of KWIWASUT’INUXW HAXWA’MIS FIRST NATION, Nawalakw is a ecotourism

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destination, healing village and culture camp that will offer healing, language and cultural immersion programs for Kwakwakawakw people most of the year, while operating as a world class ecotourism resort in the summer months.

Nawalakw anticipates that over the next decade it will be poised to deliver more than 300,000 hours of KWAKWALA language and cultural programing to youth and provide over 200,000 hours of wellness programming, employing up to 100 people—all while protecting and enhancing the fragile ecosystem of the Hada River estuary which will serve as a hub for the stewardship and conservation management efforts of

the MUSGA’MAKW DZAWADA’ENUXW First Nation governments.

The Nawalakw journey is just beginning. It is a bold, multi-year and multi-generational plan and participation of partners and allies will be critical for its success.

Today Kwakwakawakw community leaders continue to work tirelessly to raise community well-being, resilience, and sovereignty in their territories— leaders such as hereditary Chief Maxwiyalidizi K’odi Nelson. In 2018, Nelson founded the Nawalakw Healing Society and since then has dedicated himself to realizing a powerful vision of cultural and language revitalization and healing for all Kwakwakawakw peoples.

“Nawalakw Healing Village will be the first Living Buildingcertified ecotourism destination in the world.”

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SPRING 2021

Hada River Estuary—A Place of Plenty Throughout Kwakwakawakw territories are sacred, ancient sites—sites of critical importance to history, culture, and being. “These are places where our first ancestors manifested,” says Kwun Kwun Wha Lee Gei Gee-Waakus, Gwawaenuk Chief Dr. Robert Joseph, founder of RECONCILIATION CANADA and a member of the NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF FIRST NATIONS ELDERS COUNCIL. “We were taught that if we’re from this place, then we’re responsible for this place. And we have to make sure that we protect its integrity.”

One such place for the WIWASUT’INUXW PEOPLE—one of the tribal groups Musga’makw Dzawada’enuxw (the four tribes of Kingcome Inlet)—is the Hada River estuary, whose name refers to a place of plenty. The estuary has provided wealth and sustenance to generations Musga’makw Dzawada’enuxw.

The Nawalakw business plan describes the importance of Hada: “In the beginning of time when our ancestors had the ability to change forms, a man emerged from a cedar tree near the mouth of a river known as Hada. This man Tsekama’yi, had supernatural and shamanistic powers. Tsekama’yi became one of the found-

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ing members of the wikwasutinux people.”

In 2015, K’odi Nelson and Daduxwsame’ Sherry Moon—both members of Musga’makw Dzawada’enuxw—were working as guides with the adventure tourism company, SEAWOLF ADVENTURES. “Part of that work was getting us into the territory and being the stewards that we’re meant to be,” says Moon. “To be the eyes and ears for our people.”

Nelson, too, was saddened and angered by seeing the logging operation in a place where Musga’makw Dzawada’enuxw had gone to prepare salmon for 10,000 years. “That’s when I

realized why the Canadian government put us on Indian reservations—that was the lightbulb moment for me,” Nelson says.

“Industry is out here doing whatever the heck they want because there’s nobody here.”

For Nelson, this was a call to action. The impacts of colonization, the reserve system, and residential schools had left his people with little or no presence throughout their territories. He recognized an opportunity to reverse the situation he saw in front of him by getting Musga’makw Dzawada’enuxw peoples out onto their lands and waters. “We have to get something built here,” he remembers thinking at the time.

Visioning, Planning, Building— From Dream to Reality Nelson knew he had to find a way to build something on the Hada estuary. Initially, the idea was just to create a simple cabin. But the more he thought about it, and the more he heard from community members what they needed, the more the idea grew.

From a cabin, to a floating lodge, to eventually Nawalakw Culture Camp, Healing Village and Lodge: a dual-purpose ecotourism lodge and place to foster traditional teachings in all aspects of the Kwakwaka’wakw culture. “The ideas and our vision are still growing,” he says.

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The vision outlined in Nawalakw’s business plan is powerful: “Nawalakw will become the first place on earth where Kwak̓wala will once again be spoken immersively, sparking a revival of language and culture throughout Musga’makw Dzawada’enuxw territory. It will be a place where Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw language and culture leaders, and leaders in Indigenous health and wellness, can gather, mentor and educate.”

“Nawalakw represents medicine for our people,” says Nelson. “And it represents a deep connection to the values taught by our ancestors about how to live and thrive in unity with nature and with each other.”

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SPRING 2021

Paddling Toward Positive Change—Starting the Journey In the short time that has since elapsed, Nawalakw has transformed from the stuff of dreams to a real, capitalized project now entering its second phase of development. The Nawalakw vision is being uplifted by many visionary organizations and individuals who share the vision and support the mission.

Following the first anonymous donation, Nelson connected with another anonymous family foundation, and the MASTERCARD FOUNDATION, who are supporting educational and training opportunities.

“The Foundation is honoured to do our part to support the

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Nawalakw Healing Society in their work to strengthen their language and culture in a way that fosters opportunities for their youth and a green, sustainable economy,” says Jennifer Brennan, Head, Canada Programs at Mastercard Foundation. “They are showing that the way forward will always be found in the vision and values of Indigenous communities, youth and Nations.”

Nelson’s day-to-day has similarly taken a dramatic shift. Shortly after receiving that first investment, Nelson left his teaching career and now works full-time as the executive director of

Nawalakw. He now dedicates all of his time and energy towards bringing his ambitious vision for the Nawalakw project to life.

“The fire has been lit and I look forward to fueling it with the energy and love required,” wrote Nelson in a 2019 email.

Nawalakw had just gathered a small group of partners together at the Gwayasdams big house on Gilford Island to uplift the Nawalakw Vision. “I believe that this is going to happen and with all of you in our canoe we will get there.”

Once completed, Nawalakw will operate as a ecotourism destination on the banks of the Hada River. From June to September, the lodge will welcome ecotourism visitors from around the world, offering people the chance to be immersed in Kwakwakawakw experiences, and will also offer a one-of-a-kind dining experience rooted in local and ancient harvesting techniques.

For the majority of the year, the lodge will operate as a healing

and wellness centre, providing language and cultural programming. In addition, as expressed in the project’s mission statement, “Nawalakw will be a place for Kwakwakawakw communities to meet, maintain and foster traditional teachings in all aspects of their culture, beginning with the origin stories, to fishing, foraging, traditional harvesting, language immersion and spirituality for generations to come.”

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Working Together—Allies for Understanding As the building site is located on the Hada Estuary, the traditional territory of the wiwasut’inuxw, now amalgamated under the Kwiwasut’inuxw Haxwa’mis First Nation, their community members and Council are the primary project development partners. Integral to the project’s design, however, is the creation of a terrestrial route between Nawalakw Lodge and the neighbouring community of U’kwanalis Kingcome Village, a permanent year-round community of the DZAWADA’ENUXW FIRST NATION (DFN).

The route will provide U’kwanalis residents with access to

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employment opportunities at Nawalakw. The Nawalakw business plan explains that, “establishing this linkage is vital from an economic point of view but also symbolically important as it crosses an artificial divide separating Dzawada’enuxw and wiwasut’inuxw Haxwa’mis, ultimately strengthening economic and social ties between communities.”

The intention to create both figurative and material bridges between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, as well as across First Nations, is a key element of the project’s high-level ambitions, explains

Nelson. “First Nations have a lot to offer the bigger world in how to protect areas like this and how to look after it, how we’re all interconnected,” he explains.

“So that’s going to be the bigger message–it’s all about gaining allies….allies for understanding each other and allies for protecting Mother Earth.”

Chief Joseph echoes Nelson’s sentiment, describing how the Indian Act forced separation between tribal alliances. “We truly did have an affiliation among the Musgamagw tribes.

And so, this project, when it’s successful, will bring us together again.”

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Saving Kwakwala For Future Generations Nawalakw is envisioned as a place of healing, community empowerment, and, once up and running, will be the first place on Earth where Kwakwala is spoken immersively. The goal of reviving Kwakwala, by offering on-site language immersion programs adds a level of urgency to the plan.

Nawalakw is envisioned as a place of healing, community empowerment, and, once up and running, will be the first place on Earth where Kwakwala is spoken immersively. The goal of reviving Kwakwala, by offering on-site language immersion programs adds a level of urgency to the plan.

“We’re down to probably a handful of our first speakers and they’re all in their 80s and 90s.” says Chief Councillor Johnson.

“Something like this should have

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happened 25 years ago.” By Nelson’s estimation, there are only about 10 years left before the few remaining Elders who are fluent in Kwakwala are gone forever.

To Nelson, imagining the positive spin-offs of what it would mean to achieve language fluency amongst Kwakwakawakw youth serves as a powerful source of motivation. To him, language is the catalyst to needed community healing and to the development of cultural pride and identity amongst Kwakwakawakw Peoples.

“You see how much trauma we’ve dealt with and continue to deal with—all forms of ongoing colonization, from the potlatch prohibition to the residential school systems to the Indian Act,” he says. “These intergenerational traumas have caused unbalance

in our physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental wellness. Those trauamas have an economic cost.

I believe that our culture is going to be what heals our people from those past experiences.”

As a former schoolteacher, Nelson has witnessed firsthand the transformative power that learning traditional languages can have on Indigenous children. “You have to start with [language] first, everything else will build from that,” he explains. “They’ll be good at math and English and all that other stuff. But if they’re not feeling good about themselves, they’re not going to be good at any of that. That’s what this project is going to do for our People.”

Our Rivers Were Never Meant to be Alone: A Blessing Ceremony at Hada The blessing ceremony Johnson and the others had worked toward took place on in the spring of 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic added extra complications, but the event was able to take place. “Getting a group together for a blessing while following all the safety protocols was a good challenge,” says Nelson “We were only able to invite a small number of our youth, our hereditary leadership, our Elders, and our ancestors. But it was an important milestone for us to acknowledge.”

Nelson recalls the day as a powerful milestone where ideas were

finally becoming concrete “For the very first time throughout this whole process I felt this big lump in my throat. This was the first physical sign that we’re actually doing this. I was like ‘We’re actually having a blessing today because we’re going to start building soon.”

Chief Dr. Robert Joseph attended the event. “Our rivers were never meant to be alone,” he spoke. “We recognize the role of our land as a teacher and healer, guided by our ancestors and our Elders.”

The day was one filled with promise, hope, and unity says Nelson. It was a day for future generations.

Children from Musga’makw Dzawada’enuxw communities conducted the blessing, something Nelson says he has never seen done before. The decision was in part due to COVID-19 restrictions, but he says it turned out to be the right decision. “In a way it was almost perfect because from day one we’ve been telling our funders, we’ve been telling everyone that this is for our kids and our kids yet unborn. So, it was fitting that they were the ones that blessed the ground.”

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Environmental Outcomes From the outset, the planning of all phases of the Nawalakw project has always been guided by a strident ecological ethos. “We can’t just talk the talk, we gotta walk the walk,” says Nelson. “From very early on we wanted to be as green as we possibly could.”

The Nawalakw business plan outlines several measures intended to minimize the use of fossil fuels while maximizing the use of clean, renewable energy. Every aspect of the project, from wastewater management to transportation to architecture, has been designed to protect the fragile ecosystem of salmon and grizzly bears in the Hada River estuary.

“Our ancestors, they preserved all of that for us,” says Moon. “And now it’s up to us to look after it. And in turn, it will look after us.”

Inspired by the Nawalakw vision, architect Jason F. McLennan (of McLennan Design) provided guidance on how to make the project as green as possible. McLennan is the creator of a building code called “The Living Building Challenge” where structures are designed and built to produce more energy that than they consume. “We’re very fortunate Jason has volunteered his time and energy,” says Nelson. “He was blown away with the vision and wanted to be involved.” Nelson is hopeful Nawalakw will be the first ”Living Building-certified” ecotourism destination in the world.

Nawalakw will also serve as a hub for local Guardian Watchmen who are employed by their Nations to serve as environmental stewards and monitors of their territories. The facility will also be open to host research activities and regional training and certification programs with a focus on capacity building to ensure the sustainability of this region.

Find out how you can contribute to bringing this powerful vision to reality by visiting the NAWALAKW WEBSITE or contacting K’odi Nelson.

COAST FUNDS was created in 2007 to make the vital connection between sustainable development projects that embrace conservation values; the social, cultural and economic well-being of the First Nations communities; and long-term conservation of the region. Designed as a global model of what conservation must become—an inherent part of healthy economies, environments and cultures—our funds are dedicated to empowering the First Nations in the Central and North Coasts and Haida Gwaii in achieving healthy and vibrant economies and communities in tandem with the conservation of their homelands for the benefit of future generations.

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WESTERN’S New Advanced Technology Engineering and Computer Science Building A new kind of STEM education: Western partners to expand facilities and deliver real-world workforce development opportunities for students.

Contributed by: Manca Valum, Senior Director of Advancement for Strategic Initiatives

Driving the Future Smart buildings. Energy systems. Smart grids. Cyber security. Artificial intelligence. Autonomous vehicles.

Mobile apps. Machine learning. These are the technologies shaping the future. Western Washington University is expanding ABET accredited Electrical and Computer Engineering, Computer Science, and Energy Science and Technology programs to tackle the most pressing technological challenges of our time. Together with industry partners, we are building dynamic and collaborative programs for applied education and research in advanced technology engineering.

Preparing More Problem-Solvers Western is committed to providing more graduates in high demand fields. Western’s focus on small classes, interdisciplinary approaches, hands-on learning, and student participation in faculty-led research is a strategic advantage when it comes to preparing the next generation of innovators and problem-solvers. Western is also committed to inclusive success. We understand that more people of all cultures, backgrounds, and experience need to come together to solve problems. Diversity of perspective is key to shaping a sustainable future.

Connecting Industry to Education Western’s new advanced technology engineering and computer science building is a direct response to the needs of Washington state industries and employers. The building will be a place for collaboration and connection with spaces that foster innovation, investigation, and inspiration. Physically and culturally accessible, it will be a hub where industry experts, faculty, and students come together to co-create the technology and engineering solutions for today and tomorrow.

Reducing Carbon The internationally acclaimed sustainable design expert, Jason F. McLennan, is guiding the net-zero energy/ zero carbon design strategy for the building. The building will exceed LEED standards for energy use, carbon, and other environmental indicators, and will pursue certifi cation through the International Living Future Institute. When complete, Kaiser Borsari Hall will be the only carbon neutral academic facility in the region, be among a handful in the nation, and signifi cantly advance Western’s vision to become the region’s first carbon neutral university campus.

Funding the Building The anticipated project budget is $73 million with a majority of the funding anticipated to be included in the Washington State capital budget for FY21 – 23. The Western Washington University Foundation is conducting a capital campaign to raise $20 million which was launched with a $10 million lead gift from long-time donors.

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WE ARE EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE THE LAUNCH OF OUR NEW VIDEO SERIES, ENTITLED MCLENNAN DESIGN + REGENERATIVE ARCHITECTURE!

CHECK BACK OFTEN TO SEE EXCLUSIVE CONTENT AND VIDEOS FOCUSED ON INNOVATION AND INSPIRATION WITHIN THE GREEN BUILDING AND REGENERATIVE DESIGN MOVEMENTS. WATCH THE INAUGURAL EPISODE HERE, A MINI-DOCUMENTARY ABOUT JASON F. MCLENNAN AND HIS UNIQUE VISION AND WORK IN THE INDUSTRY. 48

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ABOUT MCLENNAN DESIGN McLennan Design, one of the world’s leading multi-disciplinary regenerative design practices, focuses on deep green outcomes in the fields of architecture, planning, consulting, and product design. The firm uses an ecological perspective to drive design creativity and innovation, reimagining and redesigning for positive environmental and social impact.

Founded in 2013 by global sustainability leader and green design pioneer Jason F. McLennan and joined by partner Dale Duncan, the firm dedicates its practice to the creation of living buildings, netzero, and regenerative projects all over the world. As the founder and creator of many of the building industry’s leading programs including the Living Building Challenge and its related programs, McLennan and his design team bring substantial knowledge and unmatched expertise to the A/E industry. The firm’s diverse and interdisciplinary set of services makes for a culture of holistic solutions and big picture thinking.

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ABOUT JASON F. MCLENNAN Considered one of the world’s most influential individuals in the field of architecture and green building movement today, Jason is a highly sought out designer, consultant and thought leader.

The recipient of the prestigious Buckminster Fuller Prize, the planet’s top prize for socially responsible design, he has been called the Steve Jobs of the green building industry, and a World Changer by GreenBiz magazine. In 2016, Jason was selected as the Award of Excellence winner for Engineering News Recordone of the only individuals in the architecture profession to have won the award in its 52-year history.

McLennan is the creator of the Living Building Challenge – the most stringent and progressive green building program in existence, as well as a primary author of the WELL Building Standard. He is the author of seven books on Sustainability and Design used by thousands of practitioners each year, including The Philosophy of Sustainable Design. McLennan is both an Ashoka Fellow and Senior Fellow of the Design Future’s Council.

He has been selected by Yes! Magazine as one of 15 People Shaping the World and works closely with world leaders, Fortune 500 companies, leading NGOs, major universities, celebrities and development companies –all in the pursuit of a world that is socially just, culturally rich and ecologically restorative. He serves as the Chairman of the International Living Future Institute and is the CEO of McLennan Design – his architectural and planning practice designing some of the world’s most advanced green buildings. McLennan’s work has been published in dozens of journals, magazines and newspapers around the world.

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mclennan-design.com