GreenAmy

First off, let me apologize for such a long absence on the blogging front. It’s been a busy and exciting time with a lot happening in all areas of going green, so I’m glad to be back.

Last week I had the privilege of attending the Oakland Lecture Series to hear architect and designer William McDonough speak about his philosophy of sustainable design. McDonough discussed how we can create an environmentally and economically intelligent future by rethinking and restructuring the way in which design interacts with our natural environment.

McDonough, named a hero of the planet by TIME magazine in 1999, practiced and preached sustainable development long before it was fashionable. He built the first solar-heated house in Ireland in 1977 (which he joked spoke to his optimism since there is no sun in Ireland) and requested carbon offsets of a developer in Poland back in 1989, asking for 10 square miles of trees to offset the impact a new skyscraper would have on climate change. Eighteen years ago such an unusual proposition made headlines in the Wall Street Journal reading, “Will Poland plant a forest to satisfy a U.S. architect?”

McDonough’s more recent projects include an office building for Gap Inc. in San Bruno, Calif., which has a roof planted with native grasses and wildflowers, and the Ford Motors Rouge Center in Dearborn, Mich. that incorporates tree-lined public streets and stormwater collection.

One of McDonough’s major principles is the Cradle to Cradle (C2C) concept. Our current development and consumption process is one of cradle-to-grave in which materials end up in landfills and oceans. McDonough suggests a process that mimics the lifecycle of the natural world so that, for example, when a chair has reached the end of its useful life, the pieces aren’t thrown away, but reused to become another chair or object, creating a closed-loop cycle of development and eliminating additional waste. Manufacturers such as Steelcase and Herman Miller are C2C certified and we can expect to see more C2C products in the future across various industries. Requirements for C2C certification include manufacturing processes that are least harmful to the environment and using materials that are healthy and safe for humans and the earth.

McDonough’s presentation was enlightening and stimulating and I hope his earth-saving ideas continue to spread. The planet certainly needs a hero and he might just wear a bow tie.