The real big picture of sustainability is obsenely large houses, fast cars, luxury travel, stacks of money and babes in bikinis. Well, not really, but it seems like these are the only things that get people’s attention, so I figured I would throw them in here.
I graduated from U.C. Berkeley with a degree in architecture and a lot of idealism in 1995. I knew that I had to learn the ropes before I could tackle any major challenges, but after about five years in the profession, I was getting very impatient working in a system that I felt could be vastly improved. I was pretty far down the totem pole though, and when you have bills to pay, it is quite a challenge to get up the gumption to make waves.
I had always loved learning about design, but had resisted studying sustainability because I felt it would only compromise an architect’s ability to put out a quality project. It was only slowly that I became interested in it, as I worked on so many projects that realy were not very innovative or green in any sense. I respected the men I worked for being masters at putting a building together, and for putting food on my table, but as the years rolled on I felt that I needed to learn more about sustainability.
The problem was I did not know where to start. I quickly realized the subject was huge, and there was a lot of confliting information scattered around. It was very difficult to get the big picture on why I should even care about sustainability. After about a year of growing interest and frustration I finally found the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) and their Leadership in Energy and Efficient Design (LEED) program. It is a fantastic way to learn about sustainable practices for buildings, and I was very grateful when my employer paid for my LEED accreditation. As I employed the techniques I learned in LEED training I came to realize that sustainability only deepened the quality of building design.
So my knowledge of sustainable design was able to grow tremendously, but I still had a lot of questions about sustainability in general. What is the big picture of “green” and “sustainability”? The debate over sustainabillity seems to focus on global warming, but I sense that our sustainability issues go far beyond the question of whether or not human actions are contributing to the warming of the planet. Is this true? I want to start being green in my private life, and I do recycle, but do I need to do more? What do I have to sacrifice to be green?
I asked myself all of these questions, and while I got portions of the big picture in some movies, books and websites, I had no answers to some of my most basic questions. I also noticed that several companies had taken advantage of growing interest in green to use planet saving as a marketing tool. Often the hype is just a facade for very cosmetic changes to existing goods and practices.
This book came out of a determination to find out the core principles behind sustainability myself, and then determine general strategies for making my home and my community greener. The thing I love about principles is that they don’t change. There is just a certain way the universe works, and when you go against that way, your going to pay the price. When you pay attention though and take the time to do things right, the flow is a whole lot smoother.
Sustainability: The Big Picture is a work in progress, and this is admittedly a very rough draft right now. I hope you enjoy the book, and are able to take away some actionable items as well. I also hope that after reading this book you will come to understand that sustainability is not about about sacrifice; it is a deepening of the quallity and security of our lives.
Love to all,
Millard
Part One: The Principles Of Sustainability
Part Two: The Resource Flow Chart
