Global Green Design: A New Green World

Global population has doubled – from 3 billion to over 6 billion – during my lifetime.  As the massive scale of development has accelerated across the planet, we are now beginning to understand the impact as it reverberates and reflects from one site, one city, and one country to another – and affects all of our lives and our work on foundational levels. We are practicing in the midst of a revolution in knowledge, awareness, technology and communication advances on sustainable practice.  The measure of our work has shifted to the triple bottom line — sustainable success: economic, ecological and social enhancement, in balance.

 

 

Rooftop deck of our LEED Gold certified office

Photography by Tim Soar

 

Experiences from Beijing to Tokyo, Jakarta to London, Dubai to Istanbul, Brazil to Thailand, and home in the US have elevated my sense of responsibility – and belief – that we have an unprecedented opportunity in our hands.  Immersing in ancient places that are more alive and useful today than the most modern developments in the same community is cause for reflection.  Will our work and legacy will be relevant, resonant – reflective of the people, the landscape, the culture in 5 years, 10 years, 100 years?  

 

    

Souks of Marrakech 

 

We recently worked with the founders of a 40 year old global product company based in Brazil – a 4B$ business, carbon neutral last year.  Their social and environmentally responsible practices are saving indigenous cultures and plant species in the rain forest through sustainable harvesting and valuation, making native plant materials an economic platform for local populations.  Their business success is founded on customer relationships and loyalty based on these shared social and environmental values. Sustainable practice is their way of life.

 

 

Sao Paulo, the edge of the rain forest

 

In Beijing, while climbing down the precarious scaffolding of a construction site, I can see across acres of rebar and concrete the size of a small city, where 4,000 workers live on site (working 24 hours a day in three 8-hour shifts, 7 days a week) –these workers all come from rural areas of China.  Here they quadruple their income, all living expenses are paid, so they can send most of their earnings home to their families.  Every 21 days, like time-lapse photography, an entire level of this new building rises out of the ground.

 

 

Beijing construction site

 

More than half of the particulate matter in the air here is from construction sites, and in the next ten to fifteen years, China’s cities will need to provide housing, infrastructure and transportation for 250,000,000 additional residents.  Based on UN projections, half of all new construction on the planet during this time will be in China. The opportunity and challenge of sustainable practice is now.    

These global forces make sustainable development an imperative (check out this website for a perspective of world population shifts). My son reminds me that if everyone on the planet consumed resources at the rate of the average American, we’d collectively be using 5 times what the earth has to offer.  The planet can support an individual ecological footprint of 2.1 hectares – in 2008 we hit 2.7, globally, with Americans leading the way at over 9 hectares per person. 

 

Challenges and opportunities are boundless in our new green world.