By Niku Darafshi, Health Building Materials Intern
Last week, seven of our team members here at IES embarked on a journey to Hampshire College for the first annual Net Positive Symposium for Higher Education.
Included in the group were Charley Stevenson, Mariah Kurtz, Patrick Brannon, Matt St. Pierre, Irene Winkelbauer, Brice Hereford, and Niku Darafshi. The two-day event was filled with tours, keynote speakers, and breakout sessions centered around the themes of sustainability, health, and innovation. Charley also had the opportunity to lead a breakout session about h
ealthy materials. While we were each there to share our experiences and meet other people who were pushing the limits of LBC and sustainability, we enjoyed being in the R.W. Kern Center, a Living Building Challenge (LBC) certified building on which we consulted, and left with a reassurance that our work at IES was being noticed and appreciated. Each team member shared some thoughts on their experience last week.
General thoughts and impressions:
Irene: I have been to many similar types of events but was especially impressed with this one. It appealed to a very different group than the usual green building crowd with its focus on education and academia. The Education Imperative was well met with using the Kern Center fully for the Symposium- exposing all attendees to the comforts and beauty of the building and meeting rooms.
Charley: I appreciate the depth of expertise and the level of enthusiasm that I found at the symposium. Attendees were truly excited about Living Building Challenge and very curious about how to put the principles into practice.
Niku: I loved that the event w
as attended by not just people in higher ed and those who advise them, but also groups whose purpose and mission were not necessarily around sustainability but were interested in becoming part of this growing movement. It was nice to see everyone coming together and realizing that healthier environments cannot be solely achieved by one group and that we need to celebrate everyone’s successes, small or large, that help move the needle forward.
Something you learned:
Brice: I was very interested in seeing and meeting the types of people that we are/will be working with on these projects. LBC is growing in its influence. I met one person before the Materials presentation who indicated that they put LBC on their wish list to senior administration and it keeps getting cut. After the presentation, he turned to me and said that they, “need to push this to make it happen.”
Mariah: I sat in on an eye-open
ing session geared towards sustainability directors at higher education institutes – which I am not. It ended up being extremely helpful to hear about the struggles the people who are advocating for LBC projects at their respective schools go through. Learning more about the difficult position they are put in will definitely serve me in the future. Rosi Kerr, Director of Sustainability at Dartmouth College, gave some advice that was extremely valuable: ask where sustainability lives on campus. She explained this means to ask who the director reports to, where are they physically situated on campus, who are their allies, who has competing interests, and so on. I never would have thought of that but I do see how this is pertinent to moving forward on sustainability initiatives on a campus.
Patrick: What struck me is how much work remains to be done, especially among the sustainability professionals in higher ed. Even at institutions with strong green-building initiatives, there is still a tremendous effort needed to bring the administration, faculty, and students together.
Irene: My favorite presentation was on the Equity petal with most of the focus on social justice. There were several people from Georgia Tech present to talk about how this Petal has been defined from their campus project which is going for full LBC Certification. The efforts fall way short and there needs to be more creativity and stakeholder buy in to make this Petal one of real relevance to the disenfranchised community that the LBC building borders.