Learn

Looking forward to looking back

Hopefully, back to the future, in some ways.
Again, the way we used to build, and the value we placed on the act of making our built environment - whether parks, streets, or buildings - points to a better way forward.

1. Old will be gold

Our older buildings represent not only a tremendous investment of capital and embodied energy, they are our history and tell the story of who we are and how we got here. Keeping our older buildings in good working order is the first step in educating future generations, and provides a meaningful fabric into which good new buildings may be woven.
A strong culture of preservation and building reuse will insure this.

2. Materials reuse infrastructure

I’ve advocated for building deconstruction as an alternative to traditional demolition for a few years now, because it simply makes sense for all involved. If a building absolutely cannot be saved from the wrecking ball or reused in some way, deconstruction is an option for giving it a new life in another form. However, this is one component of a larger picture that includes construction and demolition debris management, “waste” management, reclamation, repurposing, etc.

Developing a successful, highly networked infrastructure of materials reuse will insure value materials aren’t treated as “waste” and that our homes and buildings don’t end up in landfills.

3. Design for disassembly and reuse

Chicago has a number of fantastic schools of design, whether they be architecture, industrial design, product design, etc.
Challenge design students by implementing multidisciplinary curricula which addresses working more with existing buildings, reclaimed materials, and planning for what will happen to their buildings, products, and objects once their useful life is over.
If you need help… call me!

4. A multidisciplinary approach

Am I sounding like a broken record yet?
Take the analogy further - think of jazz.
When people from all walks of life and trades who normally don’t cross paths get together, good things happen. Like jazz.

Achieving true sustainability will require folks to work together who normally work against each other, or who aren’t used to working together, to come up with innovative solutions and ways to implement them.
This is starting to happen in Chicago - let’s see more of it.

5. Testing, analysis, and data

Some brilliant analytical minds reside in our city. Rather than wondering why or if it’s worth building sustainably, put these folks to work.
We need facts from testing and analysis of the buildings we’re putting up to tell us whether they really work as they should, and where improvement can be made.

6. Spread the word

The mileage we’ve gotten out of flowers on a roof is amazing.
The green roof atop Chicago City Hall has somehow captured the imagination of thousands - just Google it.
Find the Next Big Green Thing and market the hell out of it - but first, make sure it will truly move people and be exemplary.

Continue to make outreach, education, and good, in-depth, meaningful media coverage a priority over sound bites in ensuring our neighbors keep seeing real steps toward sustainability in Chicago.

7. Challenge assumptions in order to innovate

Nobody wants your old asphalt shingle roof.
Or do they?
That’s garbage, right?
How about 4500 old asphalt shingle roofs a year?
Can we find a way to do something productive with them?
We often make assumptions based upon they way things are rather than questions why those things are the way they are.

For example, landfill tipping costs are related to the value of land, the value of materials, and several other factors. However, we have the ability to manipulate those factors. We know this simply because an entire set of industries exists to make sure certain things do NOT end up in landfills because they have greater value elsewhere.

Therefore, focus on what is fixed (i.e. world petroleum supply is running low) and what is variable (i.e. landfill tipping fees were not handed to us on stone tablets).

8. Think wider infrastructure

Both traditional infrastructure - water, sewer, power, exists alongside the more nontraditional - intellectual capital, greenspace, materials reuse (see above), data collection, mapping, etc.
Extending our ideas of what infrastructure means beyond light poles and bridges will extend and expand the possibilities for the implementation of sustainable concepts and practices.

9. Grassroots, or, Do it now!

With only six people, no budget, and little more than a killer website, a nonprofit I volunteer with, Urban Habitat Chicago, has been able to achieve something few organizations our size can claim - designing and installing a working garden on a Chicago rooftop.
Rather than waiting for the planets to align or the proper funding to materialize, we just did it.
With over twenty food crops planned for 2008, this largely self-sufficient building-integrated food-producing rooftop is not rocket science, but is a small step towards autonomy.
Not just autonomy in terms of greater food independence, but also in terms of what it took for a small group of people to plan, act, and implement in order to demonstrate sustainable concepts and practices in our urban environment.

Get off your rear, stop talking about what the perfect project might be like, and make things happen in your community now.

10. Stop following, start leading

You run faster when you’re not looking over your shoulder.
Stop worrying about whether Chicago is greener than Portland this year. Who cares?
For one of the most polluted cities on Earth to have made such a transformation in less than a century is impressive, but as the third largest and by far the coolest city in the United States, Chicago must continue to seize upon a set of unique circumstances at this moment in history and truly lead.

Otherwise, we risk obsolescence.
Or at least, being on a list below Chattanooga.