LIVING FUTURE COMMUNITY IN 2020
Looking to get involved in leading the building industry into a regenerative future? Join Green Building United’s Living Future Community this year for:
- In-depth explorations of key Living Building Challenge topics
- One-to-one youth education opportunities
- Hands-on design of a Living Building Challenge project
- Ambassador and LBC v4 training
We have a robust program scheduled for 2020. Come explore, engage, get involved, and even see yourself taking a leadership role!
EVENTS: CARBON, WATER, LANDSCAPE + AGRICULTURE, INTERIOR DESIGN + MATERIALS
Positive, regenerative action often depends on understanding the full implications of a particular issue or problem. The Living Future Community’s 2020 events will look holistically at three thorny issues facing all of us: carbon, water, and the prevalence and impact of toxic chemicals. We will also explore how landscapes and agriculture sit at the nexus of solutions for the climate crisis. Through expert and introductory discussions and small group tabletop exercises, the group will develop knowledge, expand their toolbox, and explore design strategies that can be readily put into practice.
The first event, Carbon Cleanse: Reducing carbons impact, is scheduled for February 19th, and there are many opportunities to develop dynamic, engaging programs beyond our first event. Step up and be involved!
If you’re interested in learning about LBC 4.0, join ILFI on February 13th.
UPPER DUBLIN HIGH SCHOOL PROJECT BASED LEARNING
This initiative focuses on sharing our community’s passion and expertise in deep green building practices with the next generation through creative and innovative hands-on education. In 2017, our volunteers began reaching out to educators to identify opportunities to present the Living Building Challenge to students. This outreach led to a special, ongoing partnership with Upper Dublin High School. Over the course of the 2017-18 school year, a team of Living Future Community volunteers worked with Erin Loch, an environmental science teacher at the school, and her colleagues to develop tools to teach high school students about the Living Building Challenge. What began in spring of 2018 with our first in-class presentations and workshops with over one hundred and fifty 10th grade environmental science students, evolved and grew into a new course for Upper Dublin High School for the 2018-19 school year – a project-based -learning environmental science course based on the Living Building Challenge.
Recognizing that the Robbins Park Environmental Education Center is in need of updating, Erin and the Center’s Director, Lisa Fantini, proposed supplementing in-class science curriculums with a student-led, in-depth study of LBC’s seven Petals and twenty Imperatives where students are asked to research, design and present to real project stakeholders and the public the strategies needed to transform the Center into a Living Building. The student’s work and their proposals were creative, inspiring and refreshing. They also set the stage for a second-year partnership with the program.
There are limited opportunities to be part of this specific project BUT there are many opportunities to help create a replicable model and how-to handbook for curriculum development in other schools and districts, whichwill help to scale this effort and influence future generations. Read more about the initiative.
THE DEMONSTRATION PROJECT
What do 300 people from over 90 organizations giving more than 4500 volunteer hours have in common? Volunteering with the Living Future Community Demonstration Projects. Using workshops and the design charette model, we focus on a specific, real, buildable project, and take a deep dive into how the challenges of each Petal and Imperative apply to that project. Over the course of 10-12 learning-working sessions, the group develops practical solutions to sometimes thorny challenges and at the end, presents those solutions to the client as a package with renderings, schematics, and budgets.
Still in its early planning phases, the 2020-2021 project is envisioned to move outside the four walls and apply the Living Building Challenge to a public park. We look forward to hearing your project ideas and where you see yourself fitting into the mix. Maybe you would like to lead the effort or have project suggestions. Find out more about last year’s Demonstation Project.
OUTREACH: ADVOCACY, TRAINING, SPEAKING, ENGAGEMENT OPPORTUNITIES
We are starting to work with a group of volunteers to spread knowledge about deep green building using LBC as a framework and could use help finalizing logistics. Our current approach is to target real estate professionals, contractors and their supply chain, corporations, and education institutions.
