Moving Beyond Green Buildings towards Green Thinking
“The anticipation that technology is going to get us out of this mess is as irresponsible as not acting,” critiques Lynnette Widder, a practicing architect and professor of sustainability at Columbia University. “We as architects have glom onto that approach too quickly. Our modernist tradition leads us to think that technology is our savior.”
In the discussion of providing a sustainable alternative to the current built environment, both policy and practice engage the idea of reducing carbon emissions through building interventions. These discussions, however, lack a human element. With a narrow sighted vision, design practices are utilized to achieve energy efficiency in buildings without considering their surrounding human variable.
“Adaptation without behavior change merely delays catastrophe and fails to solve the problem,” states Rosalie Genevro, director of the New York Architecture League.
The 5 Thousand Pound Life initiative, developed in 2013 by the NY Architecture League, offers a new perspective to the sustainable design discourse. It seeks to imagine an American future that is not only economically and ecologically viable, but also desirable. Highlighting the causes of climate change, rather than adaptation methods to its effects, broadens the scope of the discussion beyond architecture. Professionals from many different fields are brought together to consider current economic, political, and social systems as other major influences of climate change. Addressing these issues through public events, digital releases and a major design study, these ideas become widely accessible by all. Reaching out to the public is an important strategy to imply a call to action. Part of understanding the causes of climate change, and working towards a sustainable future, is to accept these systems as human constructions.
So, whose life does the “5 Thousand Pound Life” refer to? Influenced by a study conducted by Nicholas Stern, former chief economist of the World Bank, the title of the initiative accounts for individual consequences of all current lifestyles and their implications on the environment. A maximum limit of carbon emissions created per person is required to efficiently achive the current climate change goals, like the 80 by 2050 plan of OneNYC. According to his study, the world must produce no more than 4 metric tons of carbon emissions per capita by 2030. This maximum limit should gradually decrease to about 2 metric tons per capita by 2050. The set goal of 2 metric tons is the equivalent to around five thousand pounds, hence the title, 5 Thousand Pound Life.
With collaborative effort these systems can be redesigned to benefit the planet. “Coming to terms with climate change not only demands recognition of the complex interactions of the natural systems that support our lives, but it also requires us to question and reimagine the most fundamental arrangements and relationships we have designed for ourselves,” states Genevro. However, while the effects of climate change are undeniable, different beliefs have slowed the solutions to address climate change. The Yale Project for Climate Change Communications reports that 97% of climate scientists link climate change to human activity, compared to only 41% of the American public which makes the same connections.
The question then becomes: what role can design play in influencing this collaborative process? The real asset architects have, and could leverage more, is the methodological ability to integrate many variables into solutions to address climate change. Design facilitates a response which speculates many different paths to achieve a goal. Likewise, it is important to understand that the path leading to a sustainable built environment is not limited to certain design strategies. The initiative started by the NY Architecture League plans to produce a design study of several American cities, proposing built environments which are economically viable and sustainable, which would also influence the lifestyle of its citizens. The central goal of this project is to show that reducing carbon emissions does not have to imply giving up a positive lifestyle, but it is a precondition for individual and collective prosperity.
The 5K Life initiative highlights that the current “green building” approach distracts from the necessary systematic change. Instead, design can restructure the relationship between human activity and the natural world. Architecture has the cultural power to suggest a sustainable, and simultaneously appealing way to live.
“To maximize the potential of design, we need to go beyond green buildings.”
