by Anthony Hickling

As a child I wanted to be an architect. I drew floor plans, toured open houses (still do), and loved getting lost in the details of a space. As I grew and learned what a significant impact buildings have on exacerbating climate change, I decided that making the building sector more sustainable would be my top priority. It fuels my passion for working in and around the built environment while also supporting a crucial movement towards sustainability.

In 2018 my commitment to sustainability led me to Presidio Graduate School (PGS) where I cultivated best practices for operating businesses that support people, profit, and the planet. From finance and operations to marketing and fundraising, I learned to navigate the priorities of traditional business stakeholders while bringing a systems perspective that incorporates social and environmental externalities. I utilized these lessons while working as an MBA consultant to support projects to establish sustainability tracking systems, improve operational efficiency, and build evidence-based marketing plans.

EC3 Tool Transforms Markets for Building Materials

Nine months after its November introduction in Atlanta, GA at Greenbuild 2019, the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3) tool is rapidly becoming an essential resource for architects and engineers aiming to design low-carbon buildings.

The EC3 tool is a free, cloud-based, easy-to-use tool that allows benchmarking, assessment and reductions in embodied carbon, focused on the upfront supply chain emissions of construction materials. The tool was incubated and developed as a project of the Carbon Leadership Forum at the University of Washington, with financial support and collaboration from over 50 foundation and industry sponsors, including the Pankow and MKA Foundations, and recently added sustainability leaders from leading building owners and manufacturers. A new nonprofit, Building Transparency, was established to continue to manage and scale the tool.

Environmental Stewardship and Social Responsibility:
We Can Do It All

by Donald King
Principal Architect of Mimar Studio, a predevelopment planning and design consultancy, and an Affiliate Professor of Architecture in the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington.

For many of us who have worked in low-income communities for decades, combining green building applications with a concern for economic and social equity is a logical next step.

However, most members of underserved populations are not as environmentally aware as we might want them to be. Until recently, these groups were excluded from the movement of green design and construction. Sustainable design was not widely embraced among low-income communities because of the misconception that it is more expensive and certification, as the promoted measure of a successful green project, difficult to achieve.

Demystifying the rewards of a decarbonized economy for low-income populations is key to their inclusion. Plain talk and tangible success promote the idea that “green for all” is good for all.

There has never been a greater urgency for climate action

by Ed Mazria
Founder and CEO of Architecture 2030

We are in a race to find solutions for the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, and sustainable development and energy for all. This crucial moment provides us an extraordinary opportunity to assess and RESET our priorities and actions for the built environment.

Teach-ins were pioneered by anti-war, racial justice, and labor activists generations ago, and the opportunity to leverage this format to again reach tens of thousands of our colleagues worldwide allows us to assess and reset our priorities and actions for the built environment—including providing practical solutions for the world’s most vulnerable populations. Such a platform allows us to collaborate to carry out the real work of transformation: creating affordable clean energy and zero-carbon buildings and housing, designing walkable communities with free access to recreational areas, reframing our approach to buildings and infrastructure so that they act as carbon sinks, and supporting forest and biodiversity recovery.

The CarbonPositive Reset! 1.5°C Global Teach-In is scheduled as a full-day event that will be held three times in September, each one targeted to a different global region. Together, we can make the 1.5°C target a reality.