WEEK 4 wrap up
Hello everyone! Week 4 was a busy, productive, and exciting week filled with Anna’s birthday and some unintended sniffles. We are all back and healthy now, and looking forward to the 2nd half of USDS. Here are the highlights:
WEEKEND :
USDS saw FOOD Inc. over the weekend. Critiques, reviews, and opinions aside, the film universally begs the question(s), “Where does my food come from, and how does it get to my table?”
HOT HOUSE :
The Vacant Lot group wrapped up their presentation with much success, presenting on Wednesday to lot owner Gloria Boyer. She was much enthused by their proposals, and action will hopefully be taken soon to transform the space into a usable, beneficial part of the neighborhood.
The FOOd FIGHTERS, as they call themselves, spent the week polishing up their presentation, and are well on their way to pitching their hard work to the Alderman. If nothing else, the group is glad to have had the opportunity to tackle issues of food distribution in urban arenas. “The complexities of sustainability + food systems are mind boggling,” reports one FOOd FIGHTER. “From economics, to transit, it’s clear that the steps from farm to table are more than two, or four, or forty-two. I enjoy understanding the issue, as what better, more fundamental topic to grasp than food?”
CAREERS WORKSHOP :
Monday night was Foresight Design Initiative’s Careers Workshop, focusing on issues of jobs + sustainability. At the workshop, we made our Mary Poppins List, which set the tone for the week: Umbrellas & hard working. Takeaway message of the Careers Workshop: “To thine own self be true.” Know your wants, know your needs, get informed, and go from there. The perfect fit of Sustainability + Career will follow…. If only it were that simple.
FIELD TRIPS :
This week got off to a roaring start with meetings with Barry Matchett and Sarah Wochos of ELPC, The Environmental Law & Policy Center, “the Midwest’s leading public interest environmental legal advocacy and eco-business innovation organization” (http://elpc.org/), and introduction and tour of MEEA, the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance. Each multidisciplinary collaborative interestingly crosses state, governmental, economic, and political lines to promote environmental preservation while bolstering economic development. Friday was spent on a tour of Christy Webber Landscape, decorated firm responsible for landscaping of Millenium Park and O’Hare and Midway airports, and poking around in the rain at CCGT, Chicago Center for Green Technology (the award-winning, platinum LEED rating green building owned by the Chicago Department of Environment).
For any building enthusiast, the Christy Webber Landscape & CCGT buildings are great examples of using what you’ve got to make truly awesome and smart spaces. Both use balance, give and take, and realize that the environment is expressive—and that whether you intend it to or not, it will affect your building. So these work with it. Alex sums up this concept really well when he states: “My favorite activity this week was seeing CWL’s LEED building. The technology seemed so old school (like from thousands of years ago), yet with a modern twist. The architect really understood airflow. I loved the canvas ductwork, the permeable flooring with movable vents, the passive solar heating, and how the building was even positioned to take advantage of nature’s offerings.” The passive systems Alex describes are really only passive in the sense that they don’t require active intervention to regulate building climates—rather they actively engage the dynamic, natural climates and temperature systems that pre-exist around them. A little bit of passive activism. Takeaway message of the CWL & CCGT building field trips: Don’t fight it, work with it [nature, that is].
PRIMARY QUESTION OF THE WEEK :
As we continue to interview, and segue into ‘Paper or Plastic’ and ‘Crossing Communities’, our more than HOT HOUSE projects, we continue to ask and to be asked: “How do you permeate and affect an outside audience? How do you convince your clients to follow your advice; how do you convince your clients to be sustainable?” The answer? We’re working on it. One can often start by convincing themselves to be sustainable—often the hardest sell—and working out from there, but the question of public outreach, education, collaboration, and crossing into communities that are not one’s own to tackle issues of sustainability is an important one to consider. We look forward to providing some Foresight Insight on the matter when the program closes, and welcome your input until then.
Have a great week, and Thanks to all who gave us tours and hosted questions
