I must say, I have never been to a presentation where the first thing the speaker does is take his shirt off. I know I shouldn’t focus on this, but it’s true and definitely leaves an impression, especially when that speaker is Sim Van der Ryn, a leading pioneer in ecological design. 

Ryn took his shirt, a very nice red checked dress one, off to don the new t-shirt of the Living Future Conference, here in Vancouver, B.C. The shirt is charcoal and has a simple message on its front that says ‘living.’ 

Jason McLennan, CEO of Cascadia, introduced Ryn as the “father and grandfather of the green design movement.” To learn about the many things Ryn has done in his career, press here.

Ryn spoke about beauty, inspiration and design. Being a conference largely focused on sustainability, you’d expect him to address that topic. He did at the end of his talk in a way that might have shocked some in the audience as he announced that he did not like the term one bit.

“It’s there, we’re going to keep using it, but I don’t like it,” he said. “Part of it is wound up in the metrics… the reality is we don’t have the metrics to measure this stuff.”

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The first full day of Living Future is done and Paul Hawken’s vision of the future (see last post for that) has definitely permeated the conference. It seems everybody, in sessions or personal encounters, is repeating the main message: things are changing quick, we need to help facilitate that and we need to be prepared for a new world. I’m also meeting a lot more people from outside the Cascadia bioregion than I do at these events… people from California, Wisconsin. Interesting.

The conference itself seems very local. It’s exponentially less frenetic than Greenbuild and less straight-laced than Globe: people are having a good time batting around ideas here. (Though the scenary certainly helps. The Westin Bayshore is on a beautiful, open, sunshine-laden, waterside site).

Depending on the session, people also aren’t sugar coating their messages. Earlier today for example, Tracy Bowen of the Alice Ferguson Foundation in Maryland (doing the project discussed below) said she was surprised by how even the greenest people and teams in the construction industry aren’t integrated enough in their building work. “I think it’s really limited,” she said. “It’s boxy, it’s very linear. It’s just shocking to me.” (More on this topic later.)

Bowen spoke during a session on living buildings and the precautionary principal, featuring Sandy Wiggins of Consillance LLC in Philadelphia and immediate past chair of the USGBC. Wiggins spoke about the project, a future living building the foundation’s Maryland farm. He spoke like a virtual poet using phrases like “colorful cacophany of spring” and “children weaned on asphalt and blight.” Do phrases like this help draw you in or turn you off?

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Paul Hawken spoke last night at Living Future in Vancouver. He covered a wealth of topics from the future of buildings (self sustaining) to the purpose of nonprofits (to join together) to cities being the best birth control available. He also said he reeallly likes engineers.

But at its core, Hawken’s talk offered a central warning for those in the green building movement: get ready because things are going to change so quickly it will shock the world.

Hawken said we’re heading for a world where the price of everything will keep rising in a seemingly endless cycle. To get at oil and natural minerals, drills will dig deeper, which will use more energy, which will spread to cost hikes in basically everything including food. He calls it the “red queen dilemma.” It’s this price rise, he said, that will be the catalyst for the world changing the way it does things.

“I believe we have shifted from one regime to another. One that subsidized us and our lifestyle… to one that is going to radically change our relations to ourselves, sustainability, mini-mansions….”

That change will put designers, architects and developers that are already at the forefront of green building through practices like the living building (in its base definition a building that is self sustaining) in the spotlight, as all the world turns to them for advice and leadership.

But before you, green building professional, throw your hat in the air at all the new business you will retain, Hawken’s next sentence offered a warning. “I just want to caution you. I think your star may rise faster than you’d want it to… I’m not saying this to flatter you. I’m saying this to warn you.”

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Here I am at the Living Future Conference in Vancouver, B.C., straining my ears to hear all the cutting edge green building news you might be interested in.

Tonight, I heard Paul Hawken, guru of the green movement, speak about a number of things including the future of design, cities, people and the world. Aren’t you sad you missed it? If so, fear not, I’ll update you on his talk tomorrow morning. But now I need to plan my attack for the massive conference schedule that really goes into effect tomorrow. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes. Stay tuned for updates!