Emergent Leadership

The greater Seattle area is an amazing place to practice sustainable design.

One of the numerous benefits of practicing here is the many choices of enlightening sustainable building events to attend. In just one month’s time this fall I have 6 days blocked out for conferences (EcoBuilding 2013 and Built Green), design slams (Seattle 10x10x10), panel discussions (WNSF’s Women in Building), and site tours (Bullitt Center). And that was after filtering out the events that I couldn’t find time for!

Even with all these events to feed my green design appetite, the one I’m most thrilled to attend this year is the Emerge Leadership Workshop at Islandwood in early December.  I interviewed Kathleen O’Brien about this project almost two years ago on The EcoLogical Home, and have been longing to participate ever since.

After many years at the leading edge of green building design, Kathleen created Emerge as her legacy project. The transformative program, boasting a faculty touting personal leadership experience and deep knowledge in sustainable building, is held a few times a year in different west coast locations. The upcoming session is a two-day immersive residency in the beautiful setting of Islandwood Conference Center on Bainbridge Island.

Emerge is perhaps the most intriguing offering to our community since The Living Building Challenge. The intimate, customized training program encourages us to uncover our unique strengths and engage in servant leadership to create a chain reaction of positive change. It seems to be quite effective – as one recent participant reported; Emerge is “the only workshop of this kind I’ve ever attended, where it has ‘stuck’”.  Another alumnus simply stated the experience was “life altering”.  

As early adopters of green building, sometimes we can feel like “I’ve heard about this before” and pass up learning events. But how does that serve us, or the path toward a restorative future we are passionate about? The momentum of this movement depends on our participation – and our leadership. Luckily for us, and the next seven generations, leadership is a learned skill – and Emerge Leadership might be just what we need.

If you are committed to a resilient, restorative future, get up and go to at least one event this fall and winter. Invest some time and money in yourself, and connect with others on a similar path. There are exciting things afoot, with new faces and perspectives to inspire our next essential steps.

Emerge Leadership Workshop Residency will be held December 7-8 at Islandwood on Bainbridge Island. Emerge Leadership Workshop (non-residency) will be held January 24-25 at Earth Advantage Institute in Portland.

Podcast: The Power of Moms with Corey Colwell-Lipson

The Eco-Logical Home Podcast

Moms are some of the strongest proponents for health, sustainability, and social justice. They also represent over 80% of the world’s purchasing power, and businesses are taking notice. Corey Colwell-Lipson of Celebrate Green, Green Halloween, and the EcoMom Alliance joins Terry to talk about the power of moms to help propel an environmentally, socially, and economically healthy world.

Podcast: Sharing Code Innovations with Chris Van Daalen

The Eco-Logical Home Podcast

Getting a permit to build a home from natural materials like clay and straw can take time and tenacity. The good news is; all the effort isn’t for just one permit! The process establishes credibility for whatever innovative method the project is using, and doors open for others. There is a resource being developed for sharing information about permit success stories called the Code Innovations Database, and Chris Van Daalen, who is heading up this project, joins Terry to talk about this important work.

Podcast: Change Your Food, Change Your Life with Dennis Weaver

The Eco-Logical Home Podcast

We are what we eat! Our bodies come into contact with a myriad of things every day that affect our well being. While we can’t always control our environment, we can choose what food goes into our bodies. Terry’s guest on this episode is Dennis Weaver, who is on a campaign to inspire us to eat better with Change your Food Change your Life, a high-energy good health education company. Listen in to the fun!

Podcast: Flooring Choices with Sandy Campbell of Entero Design

The Eco-Logical Home Podcast

One of the first things people think to do when considering a home remodel is to redo the flooring. That’s a good thing, as getting rid of old carpeting is one of the healthiest things you can do! But what then? Do you want to refinish a wood floor, and if so what are the best methods? Or perhaps you’d prefer to bring in a new material, like cork or tile? Sandy Campbell of Seattle’s Entero Design joins Terry to help explore some sustainable, healthy options for different rooms in the house.

Podcast: CoAbode Shared Housing with Carmel Boss

The Eco-Logical Home Podcast

Shared housing is a sustainable choice for so many reasons. It stretches budgets and reduces energy use, building material needs, and food preparation time per person. We recently learned about a shared housing initiative called CoAbode, an online ‘mom-matching’ service which connects single moms for house sharing opportunities. CoAbode founder Carmel Boss joins Terry on this episode to talk about how this service is improving the lives of these moms and their kids.

Podcast: Beautiful Earthen Floors with Sukita Crimmel

The Eco-Logical Home Podcast

Earthen floors are an alternative to concrete that is warm to the touch, with a hardness between fir and oak. They are experiencing a rebirth in north America after being overlooked for years, with installations in both rural and urban locations. Sukita Reay Crimmel is a natural builder living in Portland that has become known for her work in earthen building, and especially with these beautiful floors. She joins Terry to talk about them, and how natural building is influencing the construction industry today.

Lessons Learned on Z-Home – Podcast

Z-Home has been in the spotlight recently as the first zero-net energy and carbon neutral multi-family development in the United States.  Now that construction is complete, we examine some of the lessons learned from this first of its kind development.  Z-Home project manager Brad Liljequist of the City of Issaquah’s Resource Conservation Office joins Terry on The Eco-Logical Home to share his insight in this 30-minute interview.  Follow this link to listen!

Reclaimed Timbers

Check out our latest Podcast on Reclaimed Timbers, and interview with Jake Jacob of Pacific Northwest Timbers in Port Townsend. It is posted as Part One and Part Two on our Eco-Logical Home website.

Adventures in Reuse

We all know the RE trilogy by now – Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. There is a reason they are listed in this order – Reducing our consumption is the most important of the three. If we Reduce the amount of stuff we bring into our homes, there is less to Reuse and Recycle later. In a consumer society Reducing is often the most difficult to accommodate – the other two are easier.

Recycling has gotten quite popular since the process is so familiar – you can still buy just as much stuff but by separating your trash you can now clear your conscience!  However, we’re still contributing to the extraction of limited resources and almost everything that is Recycled is downgraded in the process.  Sorry.

Lately, I’ve been noticing more emphasis on Reuse, and I like it. My recent fascination started with a trip to the Earthship headquarters in Taos, where this whirlygig beacon stands. Masters of Reuse, they incorporate tires, bottles, cans, wood and steel to build homes.  More commonly used building materials are available at places like Second Use, Earthwise, and the RE-Store, in Seattle and Bellingham, and the ReBuilding Center in Portland.  This is not just a Pacific Northwest phenomenon either – there are organizations around the country like Building Materials Reuse Association in South Carolina and online exchanges such as Build.Recycle.net.

Reclaimed building materials have a history that appeals to me on a visceral level. Where else can you find Douglas fir beams with grain so tight you nearly need a magnifying glass to count the rings? From French doors to pedestal sinks, maple flooring to carved frame mirrors, treasures await around every corner. Most of the stores also provide deconstruction services, mining the industrial forest for the materials they sell.

Different from Recycling, Reuse keeps what is still serviceable in its current form but perhaps with another purpose or in another location. Clothing swaps are another example of Reuse – some of my favorite pieces have come from these exchanges. Garden clubs have plant and tool exchanges every year. Two interior designers in Seattle even started a Home Accessories swap a few years ago with great success.

Our parents and grandparents that lived through the Great Depression knew how to Reuse and Repurpose everything. Reduction was forced on them, and they made do with what they had. Ingenuity kicks in at amazing levels when no other choices are available! Our challenge is to tap this ingenuity while we still have options.