I’ll post more information on this course in the coming months, but wanted to first share a component of the curriculum that I am currently developing. It will be a video series of weekly lessons that correspond with my Intro to SD course topics. The series will find a home here on this site and on its own YouTube page for greater public access.

So below is the first finished video which addresses the question, What is Sustainability?  It turns out this is not that easy of a question to answer!  Well, I took a crack at it anyway, and despite the video’s brief length, it is quite comprehensive in content covered. Have a look and note that about 13 or 14 more just like this will be released in the coming months… I’ve been spending some good time refining both the information and presentation experience within this series, so my hope is it will resonate with many and become a go-to resource for those keen on learning more about sustainability…

And if you’re curious to learn more about the MCAD course and master’s program, click HERE.  It is an absolutely jam-packed curriculum catered for working professionals looking for an eco-edge.  It’s worth noting that each course, including my own, can also be taken without credit for a significant discount.  Furthermore, MCAD’s master of arts degree is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD) and has an application pending for Higher Learning Commission (HLC) accreditation for new programs.

Last note… the video here is recorded in HD, so go ahead and bump up your resolution for the best visual experience.

So my learning journey within sustainability has been pretty remarkable, bringing me through many iterations and evolutions of understanding, from near eco-illiteracy to explorations of enlightenment itself… looking back at this past decade, I can identify an incredible amount of growth that has emerged… my view of the world and how I relate to it has radically shifted over these years. And it is from this evolving story that I feel a lot can be learned in regards to larger institutional or societal scales in regards to sustainability… the second half of this article will be drawn from this insight.

But this particular story starts like this… about 7-8 years ago I was fresh out of college and looking for a gig within the design world… fashion, graphic, interior, at that point it didn’t really matter. I spent some time hopping around from city to city, job to job, feeling out the ‘real world’ before coming across green design. This nascent concept scratched many of my inquisitive itches and acted as a catalyst for further exploration. I found myself wanting to learn through experience and began embodying many of the things I was reading about: recycling, buying organic food, using canvas shopping bags and reusable travel mugs, being energy/water/waste conscious, offsetting carbon emissions, etc… The result of this lifestyle trialing was an increased sensitivity to not only my own actions but also those of others. I noticed myself accumulating hostilities towards others whom I’d catch throwing recyclables in the garbage, using plastic bags at supermarkets, leaving faucets running too long, etc… I quickly realized that menacing glares wouldn’t do much good in these situations, so I decided to be a bit more outspoken about my newly acquired views and openly discuss with friends and family how they might themselves consider living greener. It didn’t take long to figure out that trying to tweak others’ behaviours and personal consumption patterns was about as effective at addressing sustainability as trying to drain an Olympic-sized swimming pool with an eyedropper… ie, not so much!

So building upon and somewhat transcending this initial phase, I started my own green design business. I decided to use residences and small organizations as platforms to apply sustainability in tangible ways. I quickly became an expert in green products and material procurement and how to creatively use them within the built environment. It was great, I was making waves, getting projects in publications, making a decent living, and leading lectures on green design throughout the country… but alas, I ran into the same problem of scalability and influence. I was still merely nibbling at the edges with what I was doing and communicating to others… I needed more.

I followed the thread deeper… I followed it to systems thinking, quantum physics, natural capitalism, and eco-psychology (amongst other things) in an attempt to better understand the interconnectedness of everything and our relationship with the earth at personal and cultural levels… I fully sensed that beneath this sustainability thing was a much deeper undercurrent of existential questions that were rarely asked within mainstream thinking… things like: why do we consume? why do we separate ourselves from nature? and, how do we relate to the future? At this point I began uncovering the flaws, setbacks and ineffectiveness of traditional sustainability initiatives and began exploring more creative and regenerative approaches to driving change… I started championing thrivability and the Living Building Challenge as attempts to distance myself from sustainability-as-usual… I became increasingly disinterested in things like The Triple Bottom Line, Corporate Social Responsibility and LEED certification… too friggin’ boring and in all honesty, not nearly good enough anyway! Professionally, I began offering consulting services to small businesses in addition to aesthetic design and product recommendations. I lusted for the whole organizational pie, not just a single piece of it… I wanted to effect supply chains, marketing campaigns, energy, water, and waste operations, and yes of course, work cultures. I wanted it all, and guess what, I didn’t find many who were interested in what I had to say… too general… I was no longer a specialist.

So feeling somewhat frustrated and stagnant, I picked up and moved to Europe to challenge myself in a new environment. Once East of the Atlantic, my learning journey accelerated… I began experiencing in relative frequency the powers of collective intelligence, interdisciplinary collaboration, appreciative inquiry and deeper reflection. My mind and correspondingly my work began to be much more focused on influencing change at scale… I was delving headfirst into big issues and theories like placemaking, behavioral economics, chaordic systems and integral philosophy. And the projects I found myself taking part in were equally exciting and substantial… urban regeneration projects in London, groundbreaking trans-disciplinary higher education programs, etc… By this point I had fully realized that changing rules and shattering assumptions were prerequisites for any chance at meaningful change… I gathered that if one was truly serious about herding the proverbial cats, they would have to tilt the floor… no more chasing those bastards around one by one!

While in Europe, I found myself wading through a steady stream of deep and meaningful conversations with resonant, international, and trans-disciplinary social innovators and changemakers. A new language seemed to arise within this collective: co-creation, emergence, presencing, harvesting, thrivable… and accompanying this group’s unique vocabulary was a somewhat standard set of interactions… hugs instead of handshakes, conversations in circles instead of long tables, deep listening and confident eye contact instead of drifting ears and wandering gazes… there were many more vegetarians, bicycle riders, chefs, intellectuals, gardeners, authors, yogis, musicians, and storytellers… it was beautiful, and IS beautiful, because this is my reality now… : )

And it is here that I’ve come to realize the extent of my journey… in a mere 7 years, I’ve effectively navigated a tumultuous landscape of information and influence and consciously evolved my awareness from that of an eco-laymen to a level well beyond the rest of the sustainability pack. This new level finds me in somewhat uncharted cultural territory, piloting regenerative philosophies, realigning artificial with natural at scale, exploring the leading edge of our collective potential, etc.

Ok, ok… so what gives?

Well a lot actually… certainly much more than one dude’s personal and professional development. You see, what I’ve come to recognize is that this learning journey of mine can be used as a fantastic lens into the type of evolution that needs to take place in much larger contexts, institutional and even cultural ones. Yes, quite a bold and seemingly narcissistic statement. Why might I say such a thing? I’ll let you in after the break…

Ok, I say such a because society is in one hell of a bind, and that massive changes in perception and understanding of how we relate to the world are imperative for our survival into the future. It is from this change in perception (or mental models) that I feel my own journey can provide some insight… and it can’t happen soon enough.

Basically, what we’re up against in the coming years will be unlike anything humanity has ever faced before… the sustainability challenge will absorb, transcend, complicate and magnify a wide ranging spectrum of tests and trials we’ve confronted over the millennia. Imagine taking the energy crisis of the 70′s, the ongoing struggles of preserving ecosystems during rapid globalization of the 19-20th centuries, the cultural oppression of imperialistic regimes of the 19th century (think big oil fighting to maintain the status quo), the financial climate of the Great Depression, the political tensions of the Cold War (think geoengineering in 10 years time), and the social fatalism of the Dark Ages, and putting them all into a bag and giving it a good shake… look inside and guess what you’ll see? Bingo, the sustainability challenge! And let’s go ahead and throw a nice little time bomb into the mix… we have a single generation to fundamentally figure this one out.

It’s difficult enough getting everyone to understand what’s going on, but imagine the coordination effort necessary to actually implement the changes that are necessary. Let’s not think the Manhattan Project… let’s think the whole of World War II, only with all the antagonists on the same side! Long story short, we have our work cut out for us, and an immense amount of contemplation, collaboration, and action are required in the years ahead…

With a bit of global context now, let’s now go back to the changing perspectives bit… As I’m sure you picked up from the first several paragraphs of this piece, the trajectory of my perspectives and mental models expanded quite significantly over the years from an individualistic approach to a collective and regenerative one. A particularly fascinating discovery I made several years ago was that my expansion of perspectives was not unique to me or that of any other individual, but is very much culturally driven and evolutionary in its nature. Essentially, I realized that cultures can be seen to evolve in a very similar manner that individuals do with corresponding phases of infancy, adolescence, and adulthood.  Starting a couple hundred thousand years ago, humans roamed the lands as hunters and gatherers and were very much driven by survival. This was very much a mental model of infancy, with concerns primarily being that of meeting daily needs.  A long and ongoing phase of adolescence then found us banding together as groups with self-interests, ie tribes, kingdoms, and empires.  This can correlate to the personal development of teenagers, who primarily emphasize only with others that look, act, dress, and think like them… the majority of concerns for teenagers deal with what’s best for one’s own group.  And it’s from this adolescent phase that it appears our contemporary cultural story resides, as nation-states feuding for resources and power is still the de-facto model of development.  The unfortunate reality is that this current worldview or mental model is quite literally incapable of dealing with global challenges like climate change, ocean acidification, and deforestation.  By focusing on self or group interests, the rights of those who suffer from global inequality, the rights of nature and biodiversity, and the rights of future generations continue to be unheard… these rights, when brought together, essentially encompass sustainability.

So in this cultural context, sustainability can ultimately be seen as a developing phase of adulthood. In individuals, adulthood emerges out of adolescence through a naturally maturing process of shifting morals, responsibilities, and perspectives.  Cultural adulthood is no different, as it too requires an incorporation of broader morals, responsibilities, and perspectives. But of course transitioning civilization into sustainability, or adulthood, is much easier said than done if it’s not ready or willing to change itself… imagine trying to pull a 13 year old away from playing video games to go voluntarily pick up litter in a public park.  Damn near impossible, eh?  Now try getting several billion people mostly set on satisfying self-interests to consistently think from biodiverse and future-based frames of mind… hoowee, that’s a whole other type of challenge!  But that is exactly what the world needs to appropriately address the challenges ahead.

And at the most basic of levels, this story of evolving cultures is perfectly in line with Darwinian evolution. One of the greatest travesties of modern times is the distortion of Darwin’s primary message, ‘survival of the fittest’. It was never intended to represent natural selection, rewarding the bigger, faster, stronger, and smarter. It was rather said as a metaphor for ‘better acting in a local environment’ which if reinterpreted as ‘survival of the fitting‘ can quite accurately encompasses the core of the sustainability movement… how can we fit in with the natural environment of which we are a part of?

Understanding this evolutionary process is massively exciting, but conversely daunting as we have to be fully aware of the paradox of our current standing… this slowly emerging cultural condition is running full speed into the unrelenting sustainability challenge that was mentioned earlier. We fundamentally do not have the privilege of sitting back and passively waiting for the process to unfold itself, because quite frankly if we do, it would be civilisation suicide. To meaningfully address the challenges in front of us, our institutions and cultures must consciously accelerate their own growth to encompass broader and more unified perspectives.  They must transition out of isolated self-interests (adolescence) and into sustainability thinking (adulthood).

I feel that clues from my own learning journey can provide meaningful insights to this expansion.  Before I launched into this sustainability thing 8 years ago, my own worldview was very much aligned with traditional mainstream thinking… I ate a whole lot of meat, spewed garbage everywhere, drove 15,000 miles a year, cared little about the consequences of my actions, and often treated those that were different from me rudely.  Seeing this as a starting point from which so many people currently reside, I sense that my experiences and insights may be able to provide value by mapping and accelerating the development of others yearning for transformational change themselves.

So, winding down with a few queries here…

What practices can you as an individual do to expand your perspective and be more empathic, open, and aware?

What barriers or blockages must be addressed to accelerate our collective evolution?

What philosophies, principles, or tools can be used to guide institutions and cultures in presencing their greatest potential?

-j

This guide should act as a general resource to help city stakeholders better understand the role rooftop agriculture (RA) can play in moving urban regions towards sustainability. It is not a technical resource with detailed data, but can be used to build a foundation to better understand the concept of RA in a systemic and comprehensive way.

Please give me a shout if you would like more information or if wanting any help in getting an agricultural project of your own off the ground (literally!).

Committed vegetarians make up only 3% of our population… it is this select few who might have issues with flexitarians…. ‘part-time vegetarians’ or ‘vegetarians with little will power’ have been used to describe this ambiguous classification of eaters.  There’s no time for hatin’ though… because two people who cut their meat consumption in half is the same as one person going completely veg, and that’s a huge deal!

So why the beef with beef?  Oh man… a million different reasons!  Here are just a handful:

• The world’s meat consumption multiplied 5 fold since 1950 (we kill 10 billion animals a year in US alone).
• 30% of the Earth’s land surface is directly or indirectly devoted to raising the animals we eat (this number is somehow projected to double in 40 years).
• 18% of greenhouse gases come from livestock production (more than the entire transportation industry).
• It takes about 2,000 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of beef… a pound of lettuce = 15 gallons, potatoes = 30 gallons, apples = 83 gallons of water.
• Millions of acres of rain forest are cleared each year for cattle ranchers, further accelerating climate change.
• Lifestyle diseases like diabetes, strokes, heart disease, and certain cancers are far more prevalent in US than other parts of the world and can be directly attributed to our higher demand for meat and dairy.
• Half of all antibiotics are fed to livestock… this is potentially scary as it would be harder for people to fight diseases that have immunities to antibiotics.
• Factory farming is inhumane and disgusting, creating acres of ‘manure lagoons’ that pollute neighboring areas.

Pow… that list was like a body blow from Evander Holyfield!  It’ll take the breath right out of you!… Clearly the consequences of this system are massive, but unfortunately there really isn’t a whole lot going on to address these issues.  It’s one thing to tell people to drive less or to switch to CFL light bulbs, but to tell them to give up hamburgers or bacon is much more personal and subjectively offensive.  This is sadly ironic because it’s significantly easier to alter our diets than say the transportation industry…

And quickly hitting on the water issue… you might have breezed right by the number of gallons it takes to produce a pound of beef (2,000.)  To put this into perspective, we use around 5,000 gallons of water a YEAR for showering!…  So why is it that we are told to think that shorter showers are a legitimate solution when there’s this brontosaurus in the corner? What’s wrong with this picture?  If I were to ask someone to choose between a quarter pound burger or a month and a half of showering, I’m guessing most would choose the hygienic option!

Here in America, people for some reason feel that they need to have meat with every meal.  It certainly doesn’t help that factory farms have been heavily subsidized, making it cost effective for the masses to indulge in their carnivorous ways… doesn’t it seem a little odd that it costs more to get a head of lettuce from the grocery store than a meal-ready double cheeseburger from a fast food chain?  Considering the embodied energy, water, and resources of the two, and the negative health effects from malnutrition, this is pretty absurd!

This post is particularly relevant for me because the past 3 years or so I’ve been doing the vegetarian thing… errr flexitarian thing… I’m eating about 98% meat-free now… couldn’t quite completely give up the omnivore status…  When I do choose to eat meat though, I make sure that it is free-range, grass fed, and local.  I’m also staying away from red meat as much as possible, going more for fish and chicken (much smaller eco-footprints, but just as tasty over an open flame! mmmmm).  I was initially worried that I’d get cravings for a juicy cut of prime rib or a rack of ribs, but interestingly the opposite has happened.  I’ve become ravenous for veggies!  My pallet has rapidly adapted to enjoy all the non-meat offerings out there and I’ve found that I’m cooking for myself a lot more than before…

There are hundreds of studies showing that a vegan diet is the healthiest, and thousands more showing that meat is natural and necessary for us to eat… we shouldn’t be focusing on this all-or-nothing debate right now.  We really should be discussing how the developed countries of the world can break their addiction to the quantity of meat that is being consumed.  A concept called ‘Meatless Mondays’ has been thrown around with the intention of getting people comfortable with the idea of going meat-free for at least one day a week.  In Belgium, an entire town is taking this concept and running with it.  The Flemish city of Ghent has designated every Thursday as “Veggiedag” — Veggie Day — calling for meat-free meals to be served in schools and public buildings.  A link to an article by Time magazine on Ghent HERE… curious how they will enforce this… veggie police?…  “YOU! Drop that schnitzel and put your hands in the air!!!”…

I recently read that an individual who switches from a traditional American diet to a vegetarian one minimizes their eco-fooprint more than someone who switches from driving a Hummer to a Prius!  How’s that for going green!… Some powerful stuff indeed, but again, it doesn’t have to be an all or nothing undertaking.  A whole lotta people making moderate changes makes a bigger difference than a handful of virtuous ones…. so on that note, Flexitarians Unite!  (And if you’re already a vegetarian, treat yourself to a nice long shower today!)

-j