"Creating A Sustainable Future": Post-Seminar Wrap-Up

I attended the “Creating a Sustainable Future” seminar in Savannah yesterday which featured Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Paul Dolan, and Robert Berkebile, and for the most part it was very worthwhile.

Berkebile shared some stunning facts about the carbon footprint being left behind by outdated architectural codes and standards, and how the future of architecture is centering on reversing the trend by building according to LEEDS standards and beyond, meeting codes that are known as “Life Buildings” and “Restorative Architecture,” actually building to integrate with the ecosystem in both function and form. He shared how the U.S. Green Building Council has set a date of 2030 to be back below environmental carbon overshoot in existing and new architecture, and you know there is at least a little bit of visionary in someone when they quote Teilhard de Chardin as saying:

“The future belongs to those who give the next generation reason for hope.”

Dolan was equally impressive, sharing how Mendocino Wine Company became a major player in environmental sustainabilty after discovering the advantages of developing organic grapes for their wines, as well as producing organic farming of other fruits and vegetables in order to expand the community’s understanding of wine pairings. Today, the company is considered a leader in organic wines and sustainability innovation for farming, and they have decided to share their intelligence with other growers in order to further the issue of a sustainable world. Dolan told one gentleman in the audience:

“You have an idea to make your community and the world a better place to live, don’t wait for someone else – you do it!”

He also told the audience that his company was focused on three areas of sustainable growth for humanity: Environmental, Organizational, and Spiritual. I appreciated this approach, as many futurist writers often cover these first two drivers, but completely ignore the third as if spirituality has nothing to do with influencing a large part of the global decisions made every day. Not only the issue of sustainability, but also everything from social networking to bioengineering to the future of the family is greatly influenced by human views of spirituality.

(By the way, the company has a great wine club for those who may be interested.)

I promise that I’ll share some of the specifics from both of these presentations this coming week, including statistics they gave illustrating the science of sustainability, and the future if we do not collaborate on this issue. The map showing the increase of hurricanes since the 90’s was shocking, as was the forecast of the land that will be available to grow wheat worldwide in the next 30 years. What I took away from these speakers was their hope for a bright future, acknowledging that we not only have the power and innovativeness to change the direction we are headed, but can make things even better than they were. They didn’t mention Transformational Development explicitly, but they certainly eluded to it indirectly. I guess this is a good place for me to say that sustainability should not be viewed as attempting to bring everyone on the planet to a place of inhabiting the “lowest common denominator,” but rather to create and innovate so that no one is starving, no one is living in disease, no one is living in poverty, and no one is oppressed. We have too easily accepted these prevailing conditions as the norm and the future, when they should be seen as blights to be eradicated.

Now, I already wrote a blurb on Kennedy’s speech on MySpace, but I’m going to post it here as well. His first three minutes were great as he began to talk about cleaning up America’s rivers and stopping the strip mining in states such as West Virginia, practices that are changing the landscape of this country forever. (“The hills where Daniel Boone roamed? What hills?!) Then this:

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. spoke on creating a sustainable environment. He had many good things to say, but there were times that he went off on a political rant, and it shouldn’t be hard to guess what color he was flying.

Not that I have any problem with someone’s political affiliation – I think both major political parties in the U.S. have some good as well as very bad beliefs and practices. But I do have a problem with turning a conference on sustainability through human creativity and innovation into a lop-sided political pep rally against your particular version of the Evil Empire.

But here’s the really bad part: The capacity crowd, who for the first 2 hours of speakers had displayed the utmost decorum, suddenly acted as if they had been transformed into a pack of wild hyenas. It seems as if unadulterated bias isn’t confined to one certain group, and that bias was deafening for the next 40 minutes. And the embarassment for the crowd and the speaker climaxed as one conference participant belted out at the top of her lungs… “IT’S A COUP!!!” (This was a highly respectable conference atmosphere attended by architects, PhD’s, and congressmen!) I don’t care what your political persuation is, but that’s not how to win friends and influence people (Or get anything else done, for that matter). At that point, the conference was over for me.

My point is this: Attending today helped me to see even more clearly how change comes – and will come – from people working together, outside of political hot topics. Politics has it’s place, but is incapable of bringing about long-term transformation. Does anybody really believe either political party is completely right or completely wrong? Even mostly right?

My other “A-Ha” moment at the conference? I am very, very much “Purple” in my political persuasion!