16. WHAT IDEAS, PEOPLE, OR EVENTS WERE MOST INFLUENTIAL IN DEVELOPING YOUR INTEREST IN SUSTAINABLE BUILDING?
Influences credited by more than one respondent:
People/groups:
• Rocky Mountain Institute (Amory Lovins, Bill Browning)
(credited 6 times) ("inspired by Amory
Lovins’ lectures in the ‘80s")
• parents (3) ("mother," "father," "upbringing")
• Bill McDonough (3) (McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry)
• David Orr (2)
• Pliny Fisk (2) (Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems)
• David Pearson (2)
• Gil Masters (2) (Stanford University, Civil Engineering professor)
• US Green Building Council (2)
• AIA (American Institute of Architects) (2)
• NESEA (Northeast Sustainable Energy Assoc.) (2)
(annual Quality Building Council)
• clients (2) ("enthusiastic clients," "client advocates")
Publications:
• Environmental Building News (EBN) (3)
Experiences:
Traveling abroad (2) (one respondent to Europe and Asia, another to developing countries):
• "Visiting developing countries, living comfortably with less."
• "I have spent a lot of time living and traveling in Europe and Asia. I’ve
been able to observe the high standard of living obtained in Western Europe and Japan,
where consumption is not as prevalent as in the U.S. Smaller living spaces, less
accommodation for storage of accumulated material goods, and greater reliance on shared
resources like public transportation can lead to a more sustainable way of life."
(Eric Pravitz, Developer)
Other influences:
Ideas/concepts:
• "Good design incorporates sustainability and the return on investment
is very good."
• "realizing the link between environmental degradation, chronic poverty, and
access to basic resources, and the way buildings are conceived, designed, constructed, and
operated (as well as related infrastructure)"
• "learning about aboriginal/Anasazi architecture"
People/groups:
• Hal Levin
• Sim Van der Ryn
• Paul Hawken (see comment below)
• Bill Mollison
• Frank Lloyd Wright
• Buckminster Fuller
• John Bower
• David Rousseau
• Fritz Schumacher (in the ‘60s)
• David Gottfried, Founder of USGBC and President of Gottfried Technology
• NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council): Ashok Gupta
• Green October: Asher Derman
• professors and guest lecturers at school
• co-workers
• early adopters
• Carnegie Mellon’s Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics
Publications:
• e-source (website)
• Solar Age magazine
• Out-on-Bale newsletter
• Mother Earth News (long ago)
• National Geographic
• Scientific American
• New York Times science section
• trade magazines
• books about traditional building types
Events:
• energy crisis
• AIA Green Building Conference, Denver (1992?)
Experiences:
• "working for a logging
company"
• "growing up in suburbia"
• "My personal health concerns
require a reduced exposure to toxic materials."
Comment:
"Paul Hawken's keynote speech at the 1994 Sustainable Construction Conference in Tampa, Florida was what really lit my fire. He referenced the 1986 study by Vitousek et al. that talks about how humans are currently appropriating 40% of the products of biosynthesis, and showed how with population and consumption projections, we will very soon be living beyond the capacity of the environment to sustain us. In fact, with current momentum, we are already there." (Annie R. Pearce, Engineer)
Some comments made by respondents indicated that their motivation to pursue sustainable
building work was not driven so much by leaders in that field as it was by a more general,
personal interest in sustainability and environmentalism. As listed above, three
respondents cited their upbringing; some suggested that what they were taught by their
parents made them predisposed to environmental awareness and gave them the lifelong values
that they then applied to their work when they started careers in building. This relates
to the comments at the end of Question #15, where many respondents emphasized that a lack
of education about the need for sustainability is one the key barriers to increased
sustainable building practice.
• "lifelong personal interest"
• "I was interested enough in sustainable building to do my Ph.D. on the
topic."
• "I became interested in sustainability as it applies to my field: building
construction."
• "My upbringing and political inclinations taught me environmental activism.
Combining that with my training in architecture produced my interest in sustainable
development."