Susan Szenasy is one of the best known design critics and editors of the past four decades; she served as editor of Metropolis magazine from the mid 1980s until a few years ago. In 2017, she was the winner of a Cooper Hewitt National Design Award. During her tenure, Metropolis became one of the most expansive design publications in the American media landscape -- covering all disciplines and tackling sustainability as part of design early and deeply. 

We talked to her about ethics, Trombe walls, why the disciplines don’t talk to one another much, and how the “architects pollute” cover story in 2003 spotlighted built environment emissions. Susan’s view on design is all encompassing. She has the appreciation of a historian and the the gravity of a pragmatist (perhaps rooted in her childhood in Communist Hungary). She showed how a media platform could elevate voices and ideas -- about who design is for, how it relates to ecology and planet, how we teach design and ethics for designers, and how design is valued and funded. A collection of her writing and talks is available in Szenasy: Design Advocate (Metropolis Books, 2014). 

Julie Hiromoto is a Principal at HKS, where she serves as firmwide Director of Integration, leveraging business, design excellence, and technical expertise to advance socially and environmentally responsible design. Julie is a big believer in research and coalitions, and has always engaged with numerous organizations, including AIA, ULI, ILFI, and IWBI. She attended the UN’s COP26 (as part of the AIA delegation). Julie stresses the value of asking questions and being open to learning through different roles. 

Julie notes that the built environment community has finally gotten governments and the public to recognize that buildings are a part of climate action. The reasons are clear: the built environment is responsible for more than 40% of emissions, we spend 90 percent of time indoors, and two thirds of the buildings that will be standing in 2040 are already built -- we have to address existing buildings. “What are we going to do with the leadership platform?” Julie asks. “It’s time to start sprinting.” The urgency of the crisis, Julie notes, is really pressing us toward collaboration and invention. “We know that collectively we can do amazing things. Can we translate that to our carbon, resilience, wellbeing, and equity work?” 

Architect Ilana Judah recently completed her graduate studies in an interdisciplinary program with a focus on urban climate adaptation. This step in her career was designed to orient herself to where she could make the greatest possible impact addressing the climate crisis. She has been consulting to building industry stakeholders through her firm, ACORN Resilience & Sustainability. Before going back to school, Ilana was Principal/Director of Sustainability at FXCollaborative, known for pioneering work on sustainable high-rise buildings.

Ilana is optimistic about our ability to address the climate crisis. “I think it’s going to come naturally over the next few years,” she says. “We will better weave resilience, equity, health and biodiversity considerations into our thinking, while still remaining focused on drawing down emissions. More frequent climate disasters, increasing inequity, and being on the brink of the sixth extinction gives us little choice.” She points out that architects can bring to the table a greater vision of what makes for happy and sustainable living. In terms of what’s ahead, Ilana calls the energy transition very exciting and suggests that “climate related financial disclosure has the potential to be extremely powerful and transformative, if we can avoid greenwash. I’m also encouraged by the still nascent efforts regarding equity, environmental justice and traditional indigenous ecological knowledge.”

Architect, researcher, consultant, and educator Lisa Heschong is also an author. Her latest book, Visual Delight in Architecture; Daylight, Vision and View (Routledge, 2021), explores findings on the physiological, cognitive, social and cultural importance of daylight and view in our everyday environments. Her book, Thermal Delight in Architecture is a cult classic, which grew out of her MIT master’s thesis. Lisa thinks of daylight and view as “nutrition” that we need on a continuous basis. 

“The circadian stimulus that is provided by daylight is really fundamental to our health on so many levels," she says. “For metabolic health, we need to synchronize with the daylight patterns of the planet. Looking out a window actually gives us the strongest signal that we can get from inside a building. Even more so than daylight illumination -- it’s brighter and more interesting.”

“We need as many people working on this as possible,” says Kathryn Wright, Program Director for Building Energy for the Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN). In this role, Kathryn supports people working in 250 US and Canadian cities and counties on decarbonization, climate justice, and resilience.

The USDN recently released an Equity and Buildings framework to help practitioners approach the built environment in a more holistic and people-centered way. “We are all striving for a just transition and to combat climate change,” Kathryn says. “And if we look at the history of the built environment in North America, it is built on unjust principles. We have to work together, as a network of professionals and practitioners, to keep that history from repeating itself as we are about to drive investment into built environment in order to get to the greenhouse gas mitigation goals that we want.” 

Robyn studied architect, civil engineering, and city and regional planning, and today she  is the Long Range Planning & Sustainability Manager at the City of West Hollywood. Robyn notes that building genuine, long-lasting relationships within and across industries and communities is the key to meaningful, district-scale sustainability work. 

“Transformation is happening at the local government level,” she says, “and it’s so important for us to learn about what’s working. That’s why the networks and relationships are so valuable.” She attributes the growth of sustainability activity at the local level (even when it’s not called that) to the thought leadership shared via those networks, such as the Government Alliance on Race and Equity and the Urban Sustainability Directors Network. 

At the moment, Robyn is working on a Climate Action & Adaptation Plan that centers equity and addresses the drought and heat that is ahead for the community of West Hollywood. And she is thinking a lot about the gnarly problem of decarbonization of existing buildings, which is a challenge facing communities of every scale.

Katie Ackerly, a principal at David Baker Architects and the firm’s sustainable design lead, is committed to elevating the critical importance of high-performance, equitable housing as the essential core of a successful, resilient future. 

Katie would like to see more focus on the big questions. “What is the value of housing to society?” she asks. “And why is it so expensive to build? If we can tackle the construction market, that would go a long way toward increasing the performance and resilience of homes for people and communities.” In addition to the many things that are usually associated with climate-responsive housing, she says, such as energy, water, materials, waste, and ecological impact, “we should also be talking about many layers of human experience. What about home improves the ability for people have a stable, thriving life? What allows them to be safe and well?”

Marta Schantz is senior vice president at the Urban Land Institute, where she has been building ULI's Greenprint Center for Building Performance -- a community of practice -- into a vanguard of real estate sustainability. 

ULI is tackling transformational initiatives including net zero and decarbonization. “I’m proud that a real estate industry group is declaring decarbonization a priority," Marta says. ULI recently released an electrification report because, she says, “most of real estate hasn’t yet realized that buildings need to electrify to be truly zero carbon. Our report is the business case for new buildings and retrofits.” 

This week, we turn the spotlight on host Lindsay Baker who has just been named CEO of the International Living Future Institute. Lindsay is a building scientist, market mover, and climate activist focused on transforming the built environment to rise to the challenge of the climate crisis. Most recently, she was Global Head of Sustainability and Impact at WeWork; before that, she grew a smart buildings software startup, Comfy, to acquisition, and held roles at the US Green Building Council and Google. 

Linday is excited to be transitioning back to the non-profit world after being in the private sector for a decade, and thrilled to work with ILFI team and community. “I think ILFI is perfect to be instigating some of the needed changes in our movement and industries. It is already a leading-edge and progressive voice,” she says. “I think we need more urgency, more action, and less equivocation about what can be done.”  

Dana Bourland is committed to solving our housing and climate crises in ways that advance justice. Dana led the creation of the environment program at The JPB Foundation, one of the largest private foundations in the US. Before that, she helped create the Green Communities program (at Enterprise Community Partners), a set of criteria now required by 27 states.

Dana is also the author of a new book, Gray to Green Communities: A Call to Action on the Housing and Climate Crises, published this year by Island Press. Dana conceived it as a thank you to the imaginative, committed people working in affordable housing, but the call to action is clear, and it is for us all. 

“Mainstream America doesn’t know what’s going on in affordable housing on the green building and equity front,” Dana says. “It is within our grasp to fundamentally change the course of human history -- if we address these two crises together. We can provide housing at the rate and scale we need and address climate action.” We can do this, she says, if we all show up in a way that is accountable to communities who have never gotten the resources that they deserve.