Communities by Design

On the Design the Future podcast ...

Lindsay Baker and I had a great conversation with architect Laurie Kerr, who is a national leader in sustainable building and climate policy. She is Principal Climate Advisor at USGBC and the president of LK Policy Lab. Laurie was an early advocate for the idea that "buildings matter" in terms of energy and carbon footprint, and helped create policies and framing that have stood the test of time. She was NYC's Deputy Director for Green Building Policy under Bloomberg, and helped develop the city's influential sustainability plan and policies. "We changed the conversation from cars and power plants to buildings -- and existing buildings."

Laurie was full of great stories about what has happened in the green building movement, but also very pointed ideas about what needs to happen next, with lots of examples. "We have to stop letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. We have to sharpen our pencils and see what's large and what's small. We have to get the math right. We have to be more nimble and hard-headed and weed out the policies and strategies that aren't working. One example is our energy codes don't address carbon. It's 2022. When will they?"

Listen on our site: www.designthefuturepodcast.com/episodes/laurie-kerr ...

... or on your favorite podcast platform (consider leaving a review; it helps people find us). 

We started this episode with a reminiscence about an old book, Women in Green (released 15 years ago), which sparked a question for listeners: Lindsay and Kira want to know:

What books do we need right now?
What titles are you searching for?
What topics do you think are begging to be explored?

#climateaction