For Immediate Release: January 3, 2008
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Spring 2008 For the Greener Good: News Release
The National Building Museum’s sustainability series examines the global impact of green design and planning
WASHINGTON, DC— What global problem transcends socio-economic, national, or religious boundaries? The National Building Museum addresses this extensive issue when the second part of its innovative sustainable program series, For the Greener Good: Conversations that Will Change the World begins in January 2008. This series explores broader international themes such as sustainability as a global concern and the contributions, both positive and negative, of various professions on healthy building environments. The series brings together experts from a diverse range of professions, often for the first time, to generate discussion around solutions for a sustainable future; with the outcome of the experts sharing new ideas with each other. With the goal of developing long-term solutions, people throughout the world now look at sustainability relative to its global impact and realize that the technology to solve climate change can come from all over the world with its origins in industry, government, or academia. Global change could be spurred through the power of one determined individual from any corner of the planet, from the most industrialized countries to the most impoverished.
The four programs will investigate the complexities of social, economic, and technological change in the world: whether sustainability is a "rich man's problem" as the impact of the billions of people living in poverty is an often overlooked part of environmental concern; whether a business start-up in Abu Dhabi can act as an industrial incubator for environmental invention; whether inter-governmental stalemates can be broken and if true international leadership can mitigate carbon output; and whether the rest of the world will be able to survive the Chinese explosion in building, population, and resource consumption.
In the United States and in many other countries there is a call to look externally and to recognize sustainability as a global problem, as a problem that varies from country to country, and even region to region. United States residents currently embrace day-to-day initiatives to promote environmental sustainability such as recycling and energy conservation, but environmental responsibility expands far beyond the boundaries of individual countries. "The world has become much smaller in the 21st century. Green house gases created in the U.S. affect the world's temperature; residents of Los Angeles breathe air pollution released in China. As we investigate solutions to a more sustainable world, we will have to think beyond national boundaries," said Scott Kratz, vice president for education at the National Building Museum.
For the Greener Good challenges us to account for both the positive opportunities and the negative impacts tied to our approach to global environmental sustainability. The series provides a public exchange to debate the growing number of questions surrounding issues of urban slums, green technology, carbon dioxide production, and adaptive building use. Program panelists that represent world experts in their fields address whether we provide the 1 billion people who live in slums with massive aid programs or do we provide them with the tools necessary to work their way out of poverty? Or if the world's first zero emission city, created in response to the climatic environment, will become a model for the rest of the world to follow? Or do nations have a moral responsibility to one another in curbing the problem of carbon dioxide accumulation? And how does China's drive to save energy succeed in the face of the overwhelming obsession with economic growth?
The Museum's public programs are one of the nation's leading forums for advancing public dialogue on the built environment, most critically the discussion about sustainable architecture, planning, and design. For the Greener Good brings experts from various sides of the argument together to discuss how we arrived at the current situation, the projected and unforeseen effects of the green movement, and how to more forward toward a more sustainable future.
For the Greener Good: Conversations that Will Change the World
Spring 2008 Schedule
January 22, 2008: What 1 billion Slum Dwellers Mean For the Environment
What are the global and local environmental consequences of 1 billion people living in slums? Urban poverty is one of the largest obstacles facing the earth's environmental sustainability. Panelists examine the importance of access to clean water, how to create sewage infrastructure in these communities, and the long-term environmental consequences of a slum dwelling population that grows by 25 million people a year. Panelists, Michael Cohen, director, The New School International Affairs Program; Pietro Garau, past chief of research, United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat); Rose Seisie Molokoane, national chairperson, South African Homeless People's Federation; Sergio Palleroni, co-founder and director, BaSiC Initiative; and Maria Sonia Vicenta Fadrigo, regional director, Homeless People's Federation Philippines (HPFP) will offer alternate proposals, whether that be providing slum residents with tools to address sustainability, funding from developed countries, or educating them to help themselves, to ensure the health of both the residents and the surrounding environments. Robert Neuwirth, author of Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, A New Urban World and two year resident in shantytowns around the world will moderate the program.
February 11, 2008: Abu Dhabi: City of the Future?
What can the United States learn from a carbon-neutral city being built in the Arabian Desert? In their 2030 plan for Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, city planners are positioning it as a cultural crossroads between east and west while at the same time following environmentally and culturally sensitive designs. Working with Foster + Partners, Abu Dhabi proposes to create Masdar, a planned model city for sustainable planning and development on a community scale. Plans will incorporate a wide range of green technologies and principles. Using historical examples of other planning cities such as Brasilia, Brazil and Canberra, Australia, both created to serve a cultural vision, the audience will gain an understanding of what lessons can be gleaned from this Arabian Metropolis. Panelists include Falah Al Ahbabi, general manager; Urban Planning Council of Abu Dhabi; Khaled Awad, project development director, Masdar, Abu Dhabi; Jerome Clayton Glenn, co-founder and director, Millennium Project on Global Futures Resources; and Alex Krieger, FAIA, professor in practice, Department of Urban Planning and Design, Harvard Graduate School of Design.
March 18, 2008: Whose Carbon is it anyway?
As the construction and maintenance of buildings creates over 40 percent of the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere each year, how do we curb the very real carbon dioxide accumulation problem? Who will take the lead in reducing greenhouse gases? Who has the authority to make the necessary changes? Do we need to think about new paradigms for issues that affect the entire planet? Do countries have a moral responsibility to one another? Panelists Scott Barrett, professor of environmental economics and international political economy and director of the International Policy Program, John Hopkins University; Rainer Hascher, co-founder, Hascher Jehle Architektur, Germany; Melissa Lavinson, director, federal affairs and corporate responsibility, PG&E Corporation; and Fran Pavley, assemblywoman, State of California tackle these and other questions in this program.
April 22, 2008: Planning for a Chinese Century
Can China teach us how to balance historic preservation and the construction of new "green" buildings? As China's economy expands at a record pace, there is a growing recognition within the Chinese government of the great rate at which the country consumes energy and natural resources from around the world, and the need for smarter growth and urban planning. Working with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the American Planning Association, this panel investigates plans for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and looks at how the creation of "green" buildings and the preservation of existing structures is critical not only for China, but also for the rest of the world. Panelists include Yan Huang, acting director, Beijing Planning Commission; Wang Jun, journalist who has written extensively on preservation issues and author of The Story of a City; and Dennis Pieprz, president, Sasaki Associates and author of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Green Master Plan.
Registration
$12 members; $20 nonmembers; free for students with valid ID. Series price, $35 members; $60 nonmembers. Prepaid registration required. Walk-in registration based on availability. Visit www.www.nbm.org for more information, resources, and registration.
For the Greener Good lecture series is presented by The Home Depot Foundation.
The National Building Museum is America’s leading cultural institution dedicated to advancing the quality of the built environment by educating people about its impact on their lives. Through its exhibitions, educational programs, online content, and publications, the Museum has become a vital forum for the exchange of ideas and information about the world we build for ourselves. Public inquiries: 202.272.2448 or visit www.nbm.org. Connect with us on Twitter: @BuildingMuseum and Facebook.
