If we love it, will it last? This is a question at the heart of architect Lance Hosey’s new book, Shape of Green: Aesthetics, Ecology, and Design (Island Press, 2012). Because the book is just out I want to offer you a quick peek, as Hosey starts talking about it; his first talk since the book launched this week was at SPUR in San Francisco. And in the interest of full disclosure, I must also point out that Lance, who is CEO of the nonprofit GreenBlue, an organization dedicated to making products more sustainable, is also a friend. He and I co-authored Women in Green: Voices of Sustainable Design five years ago.

There’s an ongoing disconnect between what is perceived as “good design” (like the Vanity Fair “A-list” published in 2010) and “green design,” as Hosey points out; he documented this when he polled for the readers of his Architect blog in response to the Vanity Fair survey of architects. The disconnect, to him, is more than something to lament; it’s actually something to mine. He writes:

“Following the principles of ecology to their logical conclusion could result in revolutions of form as well as content in every industry at every scale, from the hand to the land. Reversing the devastation of nature requires reversing the devastation of culture, for the problem of the planet is first and foremost a human problem. We create the crisis, but we can correct it—by appealing to both morality and sensuality, to both sense and spirit, together. Designers can promote sustainability by embracing what they have already cared about most: the basic shape of things.”

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There’s something daunting about a speaking slot called “15 Minutes of Brilliance.” At the Living Future (un)conference, these speaking engagements took place before the keynotes each day, a nice way to give individual speakers a platform. But the “brilliance” and the (somewhat false) time limit give these sessions a sense that the person might spontaneously combust after she finishes. (Think Cinderella at midnight.) Or that it will be the high point of her career. Where to go after brilliance, publicly exhibited?

One thing is for sure, Jennifer Cutbill, has a lot of brilliance ahead of her. Her 15 minutes introduced many of us to her wisdom, care, and passion, something that her mentors had already glimpsed at. Cutbill is an intern architect at Dialog in Vancouver, B.C. “She stole the show,” as Madav Mailin of BulidingGreen.com noted at an intriguing conference wrap-up session. I talked to him later about Jennifer when he added, “She wowed me with more facets of the one-percent-99-percent meme than I would have imagined possible, and showed us our ‘response-ability’ to make a difference.” (More on that “response-ability” term in a moment.)

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Recently at the Living Future event in Portland, Oregon, I had an opportunity to explore “lives of green” with eight other women working in the sustainable design space, as it is often called. We followed the Pecha Kucha format (my first time with the 20-seconds-for-each-of-20 slides).

Barbra Batshalom, a Boston-based “recovering architect” talked about her path toward transforming organizations, to transform practice, collaborate more deeply, and inspire change in the sustainable design world. “Our research has shown that most organizations, even those known for good green goals, are not making wholesale change. More likely, they are experiencing what we sometimes call ‘random acts of sustainability’.” This prompted the founder of Green Roundtable to launch the Sustainable Performance Institute, a certification program for organizations.

This was one of several recurring themes in this session (which, as our moderator Lance Hosey noted, mirrored the themes that turned up in Women in Green: Voices of Sustainable Design, the book that he and I wrote together a few years ago): Find ways to think bigger—much beyond single buildings. And if your current career path isn’t allowing that, change course. Almost every single presenter described a non-linear career, what author and anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson might call “lives of improvisation,” theme she explored deeply in her book, Composing a Life.

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Business consultant, regenerative systems thinker, planner, business consultant, regenerative systems thinker, and author of The Responsible Business: Reimagining Sustainability & Success (2011), Carol Sanford gave a keynote address on the last day of the Living Future “un-conference” in Portland, Oregon. Working as a land planner, she began to explore ways to think about “the whole system,” which led her to regenerative systems thinking.

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Jason McLennan has a potty mouth. The head of the International Living Future Institute, which recently hosted the Living Future conference in Portland, Oregon, says that he regularly uses his keynote to christen the conference’s four-letter word. Last year, there was a lot of talk about composting toilets, so “shit” was the word. This year, he challenged the nearly 1,000 conference participants to find ways to use the most complex one of all: love. “This is the most dangerous word of all,” he said. “My challenge to you: Use this word liberally with meaning and heart. Try to use the word love at least once every 30 minutes. It is essential that we open our hearts to awaken the human spirit. It’s going to take a lot more than PVs and FSC wood to change the world.”

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The physicist-turned international environmental activist Dr. Vandana Shiva gave the opening keynote address at the Living Future “unconference” on May 2 in Portland, Oregon. Shiva is the author of Earth Democracy and Water Wars, among other books, including Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in an Age of Climate Crisis (South End Press, 2008). This book posits that the triple threat of climate change, peak oil, the food and agrarian crisis, together, represent a “triple opportunity”—but only if we change our thinking and our systems.

The theme of this year’s event, put on by the International Living Future Institute, is Women Reshaping the World, and Shiva opened her remarks with a reference to the “feminine principle” of Shakti, the concept of feminine creative power in Hinduism, which can also be present in males, and which means “to be able” and refers to empowerment.

“The vocabulary is shifting,” she said. “And it should. Words signify imagination and we need a shift from dominance because it is failing us and the planet.” The mistake she sees is a system of artificial boundaries. These, she notes, are part of the unfortunate, destructive, and hubristic elevation of man over nature. “We need to give up the hubris of that notion and embrace interdependence. We may be in the anthropocene, but we can make this cooperative, creative anthropocene, rather than an age of dominance.”

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Only a species as clever as ours would need to designate a “Food Day” to celebrate and promote the prospect of “eating real food.” Seriously.

But the problems with our food system are, as we know, very serious indeed. I stopped by the Bioneers annual conference (Bioneers is a non-profit organization that functions as a hub for education about living and working in the context of natural principles) on October 15, and heard Anim Steel’s lively plenary. Steel is director of national programs at the Boston-based Food Project, founded 20 years ago to promote sustainable agriculture, and he talked that organization’s initiative, the Real Food Challenge. What’s real food? Steel defines it as that which nourishes the body, both the earth and the people who eat and produce it. He derided the global food economy for treating people and land as cogs. He reminded the Bioneers audience (this is one of the most age- and ethnicity-diverse conferences I’ve ever seen) that imagining a world without slavery was almost unthinkable, but it came to pass. “That’s like imagining a world economy without oil,” he said. “Who would dare to think that?”

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As a writer, Sandra Steingraber has the eloquence and urgency of Rachel Carson. As a biologist, she has a fiercely acute perspective on how human health is affected by the many outputs of so many clever human inventions. Her latest book is Raising Elijah: Protecting Our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis (Da Capo Press, 2011). In 10 elegantly framed chapters, Steingraber gives both a personal account of a family attempting to live a healthy life in upstate New York and a scientist’s look at the issues that make that so very challenging. The combination is powerful: The litany of facts about hydraulic fracturing, neurotoxins, and ecosystem services would leave readers grasping for hope. But the stories, such as why she uses a blade mower to mow her lawn, provide just that measure of hope.

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Eva Hagberg’s latest book is a collection of gorgeous rooms with views of “nature” as the architectural elite frame it for elite clients. But Nature Framed: At Home in the Landscape (Monacelli Press, 2011) is anything but a book about windows. “This is architecture at its most primal: as a shift in consciousness from open landscape to delineated space,” the critic writes in her introduction.

The collection of two dozen North American houses is infused with Hagberg’s enthusiasm and her clear and thoughtful perspective. There is such a powerful voyeuristic pleasure in house architecture. Many of the houses are luscious and delicious, powerful blends of site and fabric; they are all elegantly, sometimes hauntingly photographed (almost all lacking people in said photos, of course). The collection includes projects by Fernau & Hartman, Rick Joy, Kyu Sung Woo, Marlon Backwell, Tod William and Billie Tsien, and others.

There is something relentlessly compelling about constructed environments that set up and frame the human connection to nature, the physical connection between the interior and exterior. Read more…

In 2010, David Gottfried founded his latest membership organization, the Regenerative Network; a business consortium that brings together leading green building product manufacturers and service providers and connects them to real estate portfolio owners, architects, engineers, and contractors. The mission of this invitation-only organization, he says, is to elevate the triple-bottom-line profitability of members and affiliates through fostering deep business relationships and accelerating the adoption of sustainable products and services. The Network limits membership to one organization in each green building category, in order establish a non-competitive environment and foster sharing within the group.

The Network’s launch was preceded by several other organizational initiatives. In 1993, David founded the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and the LEED green building rating system, which led to his founding of the World Green Building Council in 2002 (now with GBCs forming in 85 countries). On the heels of the USGBC came two more companies: Regenerative Ventures and its green building consulting arm, both founded in 1995, where David partners with entrepreneurs and management teams, guiding them to establish and achieve sustainable building goals.

Gottfried is also an author. His newest book, Greening My Life, describes his personal green rating system for a life, and his and his family’s attempts to live well in the fullest sense of the word. After attending a Regenerative Network event (the architecture firm for which I serve as director of communications, William McDonough + Partners, is a Network Affiliate), I had a chance to talk with David about his latest activities.

Kira Gould: As a player in the market transformation we’ve witnessed in the building industry, you must have a keen sense of the opportunities ahead. What emerging trends do you think have real potential?

David Gottfried: I’m fascinated by direct current (DC) power, and there are several related trends that have potential. DC is what solar creates before you convert it to AC. You don’t need an electrician to play with DC power, because it’s low voltage. That’s powerful in terms of data, capability, cost effectiveness, and more. I love the idea of closing the loop from solar to power without having to distribute to the grid. LED lights also run on DC power – which creates incredible energy efficiency and lighting control opportunities. Read more…