Transcriber: Thierry de Carvalho Banhete Reviewer: Denise RQ
Hi.
This is nice, isn't it?
We're all sitting here together, warm, safe, cozy, dry,
inside this building.
It's nice. I bet the temperature is about 21 degrees Celsius,
which's considered comfortable by those people who make those decisions.
We can imagine that:
a lone building operator sitting back there in front of computers
connected to sensors that are constantly monitoring
the temperature and the oxygen levels in this space.
Those sensors are sending a live feed back to our building operator saying,
"Optimal comfort levels achieved.
All clear."
But there's no little wizard behind that curtain,
No Great Oz controls this building.
More or less, the building is programmed to control itself.
It's programmed to monitor our activity levels
and to respond with a pre-programmed set of comfort controls.
Not only does the building assume
that we all have the same comfort levels, which is obviously true,
but it doesn't even allow us to feel sunshine or a cool breeze,
though these lights are getting pretty close.
Look out the window.
I'm just kidding, there's no window over there,
but we're intrinsically wired to need that connection with our environment,
to see what's going on around us.
We're going to sit inside here for hours and not get to see outdoors.
And why?
We should be outside, we should be reconnecting with nature.
We just went through eight months of winter hell.
(Laughter)
Maybe it's not the nicest day of summer, but it's still summer out there,
and our brain tells us that we need that connection.
We need sunlight, and green grass, and fresh air.
Yet you're all sitting here, and you're listening to me;
which is great, thank you, don't go yet.
What happened? How did we get here?
What happened is human beings started to create
this artificial, built environment all around us.
We've built these massive cities,
and then we stick ourselves inside these constructs,
and that's where we've stayed.
We've lived like this, disconnected from nature
and from the environment for so long
that we no longer recognize our rightful place in it.
We say we love nature, and I think we do,
we need that connection.
Something starts happening
when we talk about buildings that reconnect us with the environment.
People start shaking their heads frowning and saying,
"No, Lindsey, I don't want that.
That's really different from what I'm used to."
I'm used to it.
For ten years, I've been
in the sustainable building or green building industry.
I didn't know much about it at first, either.
I went into science to become a biologist, and then a geologist,
and then, somewhere along the way, I started working with these people
who were designing, building, and renovating green buildings.
These buildings were so cool!
I started to see how my studies in energy conservation,
in ecological and geological systems applied directly to buildings,
and I became obsessed with what I refer to as "ecological physics."
That's the basic fundamentals of thermodynamics
that drive everything on our planet.
For example, we all know that dark objects absorb heat,
and white objects reflect it.
We know that hot air rises, and evaporation cools things down.
We know that every action requires energy,
but I also learned that we blatantly ignore
all these fundamental principles when we design buildings.
When we ignore physics,
we lose energy.
Instead of building a building
that can interact with the environment as part of that system,
we construct them and design them
in a way that forces them to act against it.
Buildings, conventional buildings use 40% of the generated energy we consume,
but green buildings use less energy,
less resources,
because they work with thermodynamics in a more natural way.
What do you guys think of when I say "green buildings"?
This?
Hey, I stayed in that; it was awesome.
How about this?
Or this?
They're all green buildings,
some of them are pretty conventional-looking,
but others are a little more expressive and more creative,
but that perception of what a green building is;
it varies widely from person to person.
I sat in design meetings where the client is absolutely sure
that they do not want a green building.
No, they want a normal building that saves energy.
That's a great start.
That can be a green building, why not?
A building that uses less energy or resources,
compared to a conventional building.
That's what we call "best management practices
in green building design and construction."
Then we get those clients who want so much more,
they want a building that interacts with the environment,
that produces its own energy, recycles its own waste,
and recycles its water.
They want buildings that allow the occupants
- that's you and me, people, - the ability to adjust
the interior environment to suit their needs.
So that's a building that lets nature into the space.
OK, this is a test.
Who can tell the difference
between the green fire hall and the not-so-green fire hall?
One of the buildings is obviously a lot newer,
and it does have some more advanced sustainability features,
but even that old brick fire hall has solar panels on the roof.
It's actually undergoing an energy upgrade to make it more efficient.
Regardless of how green these fire halls are,
those firefighters eat, sleep, jump in their trucks, and fight fires.
The greenness of a building
doesn't change the way that we work and live.
Buildings will always be part of our habitat,
but green buildings are becoming a more natural,
more integrated part of out habitat.
Most of my projects, including that new fire hall,
follow a green-built building certification program.
The Canada and US Green Building Councils have gathered data
from hundreds of projects across North America over 15 years,
that tell us green buildings save money and energy,
and they actually make people happier.
Kids get higher test scores in green schools,
workers are more productive and have less sick days in green offices
- that's most of us -
and patients recover faster in green hospitals.
Sometimes, that can be as simple as just giving those people a window,
so that they have a visual connection with the environment.
This sounds great.
Why aren't we all over this?
Green buildings should be the mainstream,
but if you go outside,
walk around downtown or through your neighborhood,
you'll see that green building is not the mainstream.
So why not?
We've got every opportunity
to educate ourselves in the wide array of green building possibilities out there,
and yet, very few of us even know
the basic, fundamental elements of building,
or even less, how or why we should make these structures more sustainable.
So why aren't we there yet?
Excuse number 1: It's too expensive.
OK, I get that.
Everyone wants to save money, I do too.
But people tend to focus on the upfront cost of design and construction
while forgetting the decades of operations and maintenance costs
to sustain that building throughout its life cycle.
Green buildings cost less to maintain throughout their life cycle.
Excuse number 2:
it's all a bunch of left-wing, health-nut hippie crap.
(Laughter)
Well I'm no hippie - don't think I'm a hippie -
but I think it's healthier and safer to live and work in a building
where there's no harmful chemicals.
You know that new car smell?
It happens when we have a new carpet, paint, furniture, and curtains;
those are chemicals that make us feel sick, and tired,
and compromise our immune systems.
But green buildings virtually eliminate the use of those chemicals in the space.
Green buildings better air circulation, filtration, monitoring, and fresh air.
The green building program I use
does not allow toxic materials in this space.
Excuse number 3: we don't like being told what to do.
Extreme ultimatums don't work on us,
"Change your ways or you'll kill the Earth,"
"Stop driving, take transit."
"Recycle, compost."
Those just make us feel like the bad guy, and we resent that.
But I think it goes deeper.
I think all of these excuses are just topical.
I think if we start looking deep down into our primordial subconscious,
where we don't really like to look,
we begin to see we're not
the Earth-dominating alpha primates that we should be by now.
We're weaker creatures
and sure, at the mercy of the environment.
We're afraid of what the environment will do to us.
What it will take from us.
We've lived on the edge of nature for so long,
apart from it, above it, protected from it
that we no longer recognize our place in it.
We don't feel connected to it.
No one wants to end up in a hostile, dangerous place
a cold, hungry, and naked ape.
Fear is important.
So let's look at those instinctive, primitive fears
because I think
that while conventional buildings have been built to keep nature out,
green buildings start talking about letting nature in
and reconnecting us with nature,
with the environment.
Green buildings are actually reminding us of these ancient fears
that we've had of nature for millenia.
Let's break down a building into these primitive fears.
Build with me here.
A rooftop garden.
That's great, that means fresh, local organic food,
but our subconscious starts playing tricks on us and tells us,
"You don't know what you're doing,"
"Do you know how to grow a tomato?"
That's because we don't grow our own food anymore.
We're disconnected from our food chain.
Other people control that now,
so our subconscious tells us, "You're going to starve!"
"You're going to be hungry!"
Let's go down to the ground.
A key component of green buildings,
when they can have the linebase to do so,
is to provide open space for habitat preservation and biodiversity.
It's open space for us to roam around and enjoy the environment
when it's not raining.
But our subconscious says,
"We are losing our land."
Loss of land means loss of freedom,
and that creates stress.
Let's go inside our building.
Imagine an open workspace,
big windows, open to let the fresh air and sunlight in.
Everyone has a view of the environment through the window,
a direct connection with nature.
But to alpha members of our pack,
this means no more window office.
This is serious, that means a loss of dominance, insecurity
because there was the rest of us.
It's interesting, I've run into this at almost every project, except schools.
Because no teacher ever feels entitled to sunlight
while denying it to the students.
Let's think about water.
Green buildings use less water.
Water-efficient fixtures,
harvesting rainwater from the roof,
it means more water is available for the natural water cycle.
But on some primitive level, we think, "Why do we have to save water?"
"We're running out of water?"
"Is the river drying up?"
"We're going be thirsty."
Same thing happens with alternative energy, green energy.
We've got free solar, wind, hydro, geothermal
acting all around us every day.
That should mean clean air, less pollution.
But our subconscious says, "Why do we have to save energy?"
"We're running out of energy?"
"Is there a crisis?"
"We're going to have to rely on the wind and the sun to stay warm."
"We're going to be cold."
So we start to see how our instinct to avoid natural hazards
begins to affect the way we design, build, and occupy our buildings.
A very basic human need is to blend in with the pack.
"Be one of us, live like us."
Nobody wants to be that weird, antisocial guy living off the grid.
But no respectable green builder expects you
to give up your creature comforts, possessions, and technologies
and go live in the bush.
We're not wired that way.
We won't put ourselves in the way of a direct threat.
It goes against our nature.
We're wired to ensure
the continuation of our genetic bloodlines and the survival of our species;
and so we build to protect ourselves from the environment
in order to survive.
But I say we can do better.
I'm going to take that a step further
and say it's the mission of our species to build better.
We've come so far,
we can take an inherently unnatural object of building
and actually use it to reconnect us with the natural world.
We can use a benign form of control to work with nature
to create a built environment that connects us with the environment.
We can use these amazing logical brains of ours
to build in a way that maintains that balance
between finite resources and our biological needs.
We're smart enough to make buildings work for us
so let's tell it what to do.
Design that building,
create that open concept
with windows that you can open and close when you need,
to let in the fresh air, to let in the sunlight.
Tell the building to recirculate the air,
finish your space with natural, renewable materials,
create a growing wall that's soothing to look at
while it generates oxygen for you to breathe.
Take advantage of natural solar and wind patterns
to help your building passively heat and cool itself
and while you're at it,
take advantage of all that free solar and wind
and capture it, harvest it, store it, and use it as you wish.
Design the landscapes so that it will actually capture rainwater
and you can sit beside a waterfaller screen
that's designed to flow when it rains.
Install motion sensors on your faucet
so you can wave your hand magically over it
to turn the fresh water on and then off again.
Then, when you're ready,
go up to your green roof, or your garden, or your sunny H trim,
sit down, relax, and enjoy being human.
Just enjoy being human,
because we are part of the environment.
We need to recognize our place in it and not be afraid of it.
We've come a long way,
and green buildings may reinforce our awareness of natural hazards
and make us aware of the err of our ways,
but they also offer us salvation.
They give us the opportunity to work with nature,
to control it even on a small scale
in order to reconnect with it.
So take this time to reconnect,
think about buildings in a new way.
The building's in your hand
to design, build, and program to suit your needs.
So imagine what window you'll open
to let nature in.
Human beings:
we're a smart, sensitive species,
we can build green,
but we hold the power of imagination and innovation to build amazing.
Thank you.
(Applause)