The third annual Living Futures Unconference was held recently in Portland. It’s the annual gathering organized by the Cascadia chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). I headed down on Amtrak to catch a couple days of “deep green” workshops and lectures. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to catch the opening keynote by Janine Benyus on the topic of biomimicry, “an emerging discipline that seeks sustainable solutions by emulating nature’s designs and processes.” The DJC’s Green Building Blog has a summary of her keynote here. I started the conference with the incredibly engaging presentation by Jason McClennan, the CEO of the Cascadia chapter. My favorite bit of knowledge from his presentation: humans are the only species on Earth that breaks the nutrient cycle with regard to excrement. Instead of returning it to the earth, we transport it long distances in sewer pipes, spend lots of money to treat it, and even mix it into our water system. (Steve discussed this issue in his April 28th post.)
Since I’m a planner, not an architect or engineer, I am particularly interested in green practices beyond the building scale. This is especially true since my primary project here at CollinsWoerman is the redevelopment planning for the 30-acre Yesler Terrace site in Seattle. At the “Living Campus and Neighborhood” workshop I got to hear about a number of larger projects, including Dockside Green in Victoria, B.C. Though only ½ designed and built, it’s a green project many would consider to be quite successful. It incorporates a wide range of robust green systems from on-site wastewater treatment to a heat-producing biomass plant. The true test for large-scale projects like Dockside Green is how they will fare during the current economic downturn and the eventual recovery. Will the push to build (and in turn, buy homes in) deep green communities be able to regain its momentum in the post-crisis economy?
One last item worth pointing out was the very strong emphasis on living buildings. During the conference it was announced that the Cascadia chapter of USGBC had formed the International Living Building Institute. The Institute will be leading the Living Building Challenge, which is basically a challenge to create a built environment that reaches beyond the current standards in LEED, and it’s different in two major ways. All standards in the system are required (vs. the prerequisite and optional credits in LEED) and buildings must operate for 12 months prior to evaluation and approval (vs. the anticipated performance often used in the LEED system). Keep your eyes firmly affixed on the living building issue as green development produces ever-increasing acceptance and implementation.
All of the presentations from Living Futures 09 are going to be available online shortly. I’ll post a link at that time.