Do you remember the first time you entered a building and it changed you? Perhaps it was a building that brought on a sense of awe. Perhaps it was intimidating. Perhaps it looked and felt and smelled like something you’d never experienced before. 

I have come to understand that buildings change us in many ways. Buildings teach us things, both tacitly and actively. When I was 18 years old, I became one of the first students of a trailblazing building on my campus. I went to Oberlin College in Ohio; I went to study this building. The Adam Joseph Lewis Center opened the year I started college, and it was an unprecedented experiment at that time. Built to produce more clean energy than it needs, to clean all of its own wastewater through an elaborate constructed wetland called a Living Machine, and to touch the earth lightly. Indeed, it was built to give back more than it took. It was the brainchild of my mentor and advisor, Dr. David Orr, an environmental educator and writer who was determined to prove that the act of design and construction could serve as its own pedagogy. He wrote an essay describing his intentions for the project in 1993, Architecture as Pedagogy: 

The process of design and construction is an opportunity for a community to deliberate about the ideas and ideals it wishes to express and how these are rendered into architectural form. What do we want our buildings to say about us? What will they say about our ecological prospects? To what large issues and causes do they direct our attention? What problems do they resolve? What kind of human relationships do they encourage? These are not technical details, but first and foremost issues of common concern that should be decided by the entire campus community. When they are so decided, the design of buildings fosters civic competence and extends the idea of citizenship. …. 

These questions cannot be answered without engaging issues of ethics. How are building materials extracted, processed, manufactured, and transported? What ecological and human costs to various materials impose where and on whom? What in our ethical theories justifies the use of materials that degrade ecosystems, jeopardize other species, or risk human lives and health? Where those costs are deemed unavoidable to accomplish a larger good, how can we balance ethical accounts?

These questions were raised at Oberlin for the building that would rise on campus in the years to come, as Orr worked with the design team from William McDonough + Partners on the design and realization of the project.

The Lewis Center is now a profound learning experience for thousands of people and generations of students who learn and engage with the building. It is a lesson in what we are capable of, how we can live in balance with our communities, our ecological resources, and how that has incredibly positive impacts on our health, our learning, and our relationships with each other. It is a teacher who will never retire, it is a book in the physical “public library” of a campus landscape. Just walking into the building and learning how it works shows the visitor that a regenerative future is possible, and indeed, it is here in this small space in this particular community, because they made it so. Today, the Lewis Center is a grandmother of a family tree of buildings that have emerged all over the world that are teaching similar lessons. 

The Lewis Center was completed before the Living Building Challenge was launched. At its heart, the Living Building Challenge and all the programs in its orbit are driven by the idea that every building has the potential to be a dynamic hub of learning — for its users, owner, stakeholders, community, design and construction team, and others. Each building can teach us how to use less energy to heat and cool our buildings, how to use non-toxic materials to build, and how to landscape without potable water. But it can also teach us about how to live in balance with the world around us, it can teach us about native plants and animals, and ecosystems. It can teach us how to care for each other just through the act of buying and making things. It can teach us that our opinions matter, that our values matter, and that we have a hand and a responsibility in the infrastructure around us.

To learn more about the Living Village project, join our next Living Future Member webinar on April 2nd.

This piece was adapted from a talk that Lindsay Baker delivered at Yale University’s Divinity School in 2023. The School is engaged in a Living Village project. 

Cover photo: © Barney Taxel, courtesy William McDonough + Partners.

I have a small confession to make. I am a chronic sufferer of a very common but pernicious syndrome: FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). As a youngest child and part of the first generation to experience the internet in our youth, I have had a life-long anxiety that I’m being left out of something very important and very fun. It has its downsides, and I’ve learned to tame it considerably over the years. But more recently, I’ve actually found that FOMO is one side of a two-sided coin for me. The other side is that I am an enthusiastic advocate for convening and coordination, and I often think about who else should be invited to whatever I am doing.

I’m telling you all of this about me, dear reader, because I’ve come to believe that these kinds of things — personality, anxieties, motives, extroversion and introversion, etc. — all matter significantly in our work to transform the building industry.

We already know that this daunting goal requires a collective effort, and we are great at that. We bring our technical contributions, our successes and failures, our persuasion tactics, our facts and data to help the greater good. But all too often, those activities don’t involve a critical act that I believe we need more of, and that is the act of thoughtful and rigorous coordination. Our sense of urgency, our passion and, oftentimes, our desire to help our individual businesses propel us to share what we are doing and add to the collective knowledge base, but it doesn’t require that we agree with each other on critical tactics, on definitions and “what good looks like.” And without this harmonization of tactics and goals, I believe it will be impossible for us to rapidly transform our industry in the ways that our planet and our communities need.

And so I am delighted to share the small example of what we have begun with the Embodied Carbon Harmonization and Optimization (ECHO) project over the past year. It was just one year ago that it all got started, and Andrew Himes asked me to share a bit about the story. As a fellow believer in collective impact, Andrew is a kindred spirit with me on this topic, and I think we both hope that lessons can be learned from the full story of how ECHO came into being. I will say upfront that it has not been a perfect or linear path, nor is the story complete.

Five organizations took on the responsibility of hosting and leading the conversation: Architecture 2030, Carbon Leadership Forum, Building Transparency, ILFI (us!), and USGBC. The group included representatives from all of the major organizations in the US that were presently collecting embodied carbon data at a whole building (and project!) scale, either as a part of a certification or voluntary commitment program, and a few who were just embarking on the task.

FOMO was a big factor for me in showing up in the conversation that became ECHO. I was introduced to a woman named Kate Ascher and told that she was putting together an event about embodied carbon in New York in April of 2023. In January, she would be out in Seattle to meet with a few embodied carbon experts to discuss how best to set up the agenda, and she invited me to join. Double FOMO! Two in-person events (after the pandemic years, this alone was exciting), one a lovely small group of experts and the other a larger and powerful group of industry leaders. I cleared my schedule and eagerly showed up in January.

The meeting in January was intended to just be a planning meeting, to help Kate come up with a useful agenda for the May meeting. But as the conversation progressed, folks around the table suggested that there was one potential outcome for the April meeting that would be a shame, and we all wanted to avoid it. It was something we had learned from the past: if we held an event to talk about embodied carbon in the built environment and ask developers, architects, owners and others to take action to reduce embodied carbon emissions, we would get a familiar and understandable response, that was something along the lines of:

“There are too many conflicting standards and definitions, too many acronyms, too many certifications asking for slightly different things. It’s all just too confusing and we don’t know what we are being asked to do. We need clear and universal (and achievable) targets to hit before we can really address the problem.”

At that point, I piped in to say that I thought we had a decent shot at getting ahead of that problem. For many reasons, 2022 and 2023 were years where the spirit of communication and collaboration really picked up between green building certification programs and related NGOs. The communication lines were open. We might be able to get a group together to agree to make the paperwork and definitions and other infrastructures as streamlined and harmonized as possible, so that embodied carbon achievement could be evaluated consistently. Especially because the field is so much younger than that of operational carbon accounting, we had a chance to address inconsistencies before they got out of control.

At the same time, it turned out that Architecture2030 and Building Transparency had been talking to a set of large firms about aligning carbon data reporting for the various professional commitment programs (AIA 2030, SE2050, MEP2040, etc.). This idea was clearly aligned and quite similar, so it was woven into the conversation.

Through the grace and tenacity of Kate Ascher, the financial support of the Holcim Foundation, and the efforts of a small group of people, we managed to get a group in a room together just 2 months later. The group was convened by another group- five organizations who took on the responsibility of hosting and leading the conversation: Architecture2030, Carbon Leadership Forum, Building Transparency, ILFI (us!), and USGBC. The group included representatives from all of the major organizations in the US that were presently collecting embodied carbon data at a whole building (and project!) scale, either as a part of a certification or voluntary commitment program, and a few who were just embarking on the task. We spent a day getting to know each other’s organizations, and then discussing the question: how might we work together, how might we harmonize our efforts?

If this piece has left you feeling FOMO about ECHO, I feel you. We are working hard to make sure that all of our peer organizations are in the room, and that others will have opportunities to weigh in to what we are doing in the right ways. But ECHO is just one way that we can come together and align on our shared goals.

There is much to be found now on ECHO’s website to see what has transpired since. We are working on two specific deliverables, a common project data reporting schema and something we are calling the North American Minimum Project Embodied Carbon Reporting Framework V1.0. I will leave those to speak for themselves, because admittedly I am NOT the expert on the technical details of what we have agreed to align on. But I do want to clarify and share what I think we have accomplished so far, and what this can teach us for the future.

First, the ECHO project is not a new standard or definition. It is a collective project to align ourselves. The activity that we are engaged in is coming to agreement across a variety of programs and organizations so that all of our definitions and embodied carbon data requests are asking for the same things.

Second, coming to agreement is not as easy as it sounds. There is a lot that we can all agree on about embodied carbon reporting in terms of what is in scope and what is not. But sometimes there are very real reasons why our standards and programs might ask for different data. Some programs focus on a theory of change that focuses on only decisions that a particular stakeholder has control over, while others (like our Living Building Challenge) are founded on a different theory of change that means that we look at the holistic impacts of the building, regardless of the stakeholder in control. That’s good! We need a variety of approaches to addressing our industry’s problems. My hope for our community is that we talk more with each other about these theories of change, these definitions of what we care about, and act more like a community of different programs working together toward a common goal.

Finally, we are still iterating on the structure of our project. We all feel very fortunate that Architecture 2030 provided the logistical backbone of the group for the first year, and we are grateful that Carbon Leadership Forum is now serving in that role. Many participants in ECHO are volunteers with full-time jobs. Others work for non-profits like ILFI and USGBC, but without funding to support our work on this project. The act of establishing formal governance structures is a big one, and we haven’t gotten too far down that road. So it requires living in a bit of ambiguity, building trust, good communication, and a fair amount of overcommunication to keep things moving and make sure we stay on the same page. I’ve gotten to know a handful of people more deeply than I would have, had we not embarked on this project, and that is perhaps the greatest accomplishment in my eyes. We need to build these relationships with each other, so that we can build a movement strong enough to catalyze the transformation our industry needs.

And if this piece has left you feeling FOMO about ECHO, I feel you. We are working hard to make sure that all of our peer organizations are in the room, and that others will have opportunities to weigh in to what we are doing in the right ways. But ECHO is just one way that we can come together and align on our shared goals. We all can and should find ways to do this work in the communities that we are a part of. So perhaps the next time you meet with your CLF Hub or other group, you can ask yourselves the same question we started with in March: how might we come together and make something bigger than the sum of its parts? In my experience, the act of trying will bring you into a community in a deeper way, and help to build our little movement to the strength and size that we need for the work to come.

This blog post was originally published on Carbon Leadership Forum.

A Path to a Better Future

Recently I wrapped my first Ecotone project with my ILFI colleagues Michael Berrisford and Juliet Grable and their editorial team, and I am delighted to introduce the new book, The Regenerative Materials Movement (Ecotone, 2023). These dispatches about regenerative materials are a primer on the issues at play in our work. 

Using the three pillars of our work—climate, health, and justice—we sought to represent a variety of intersecting issues that all relate to the impacts that building materials have on our world. We acknowledge that there are more subjects and voices than we’ve assembled, but it is a powerful introduction to these topics and a instructive guide for practitioners and supporters that entices and encourages deeper examination.

The viewpoints are those of people who are in the very thick of it, including ILFI’s own Hannah Ray and Susan Puri as well as Robin Bass & Lauren Sparandara (Google), Dana Bourland (JPB Foundation), William Browning (Terrapin Green), Gina Ciganik (Healthy Building Network), T. Campbell, R. Temple, P. Vanderford, T. Seager (Sustainable Northwest Wood)  Don Davies (carbon expert), Kelly Alvarez Doran & James Kitchin (MASS Design Group), Heather Henriksen (Harvard University), Kathleen Hetrick (Buro Happold), Jeff Hurley (Blue Green Alliance), Carol Kwiatkowski (Green Science Policy Institute), Malisa Maynard (Mohawk), Alison Mears & Jonsara Ruth (Healthy Materials Lab) Alex Muller (Mindful Materials), Sharon Prince (Grace Farms), Christina Rabb (Ph.D. in materials chemistry), Veena Singla (National Resources Defense Council), Rebecca Stamm (Healthy Building Network), Charley Stevenson (Integrated Eco Strategy), and Wendy Vittori (Health Product Declaration Collaborative).

No matter the scale of a project, decisions about materials that design teams and owners make occur in a vast, complex, unwieldy, and fraught landscape. For many years, teams have slogged along, sifting through unaligned and incomplete information, making the best decisions they could at each step of a project. Through the emergence of the transparency movement that the ILFI has helped to lead, we are seeing a huge influx of data and reporting activity: increasingly, product manufacturers are showing building professionals what is in their products. This is great progress. We are beginning to know what we are building with enough to understand and make better decisions about the impacts we want them to have.

Many organizations are working hard to make materials vetting as easy and simple as possible. ILFI is proud to be doing part of that work through our Declare Label program, our Living Product Challenge program, and through the facets of our work in the Living Building Challenge and elsewhere that promote awareness, best practices and advocacy around regenerative building materials. And we are also so happy to be doing this work in coalition with so many wonderful people and organizations around the world who are pushing for change alongside us.

As you will read in my own foreword to the book, there are three themes that emerge in these pages. The first that stood out to me is the deep, passionate agreement that this movement can only be successful through collaboration and interconnection. The second theme that struck me relates to the rapid emergence of voices, expertise, and power in the Global South. A final theme speaks to deep considerations of justice. Many of the contributors are keenly aware that historically, the modern environmental movement has not focused enough on the impacts of environmental and health injustices. Indeed, the authors illustrate how justice is fundamental and intersectional to the work.

Together, we are working to usher in a new era of building where the materials we use are regenerative. When we say “regenerative,” we mean materials that are safe for our bodies and ecosystems, and which sequester carbon emissions from our atmosphere, create jobs that sustain families and communities, and enable local economies and communities to thrive. We hope this book supports you and your team on the path ahead. 

How do you think about your work each day, and the work you are doing as part of this movement? As I consider the purpose of ILFI, I am conscious of a need for and a blossoming of innovation and advocacy. For many of us, I see that innovation comes more naturally and is a part of our work, but advocacy is just as necessary. We are creating a new era for the building industry. As we shift our industry, we are also inspiring other industries in our economy to shift toward regenerative and equitable practices that bring our economy into balance with our planet and each other. 

If that sounds lofty, consider this. There are Living Buildings in every climate zone of the USA. We are working with the largest companies in the world, because they see the climate threats, the health threats, and the threats from income inequality. They are making ambitious climate commitments. This is market transformation. And yet amid the curves of market transformation, there is a chasm, as Geoffrey Moore described it in Crossing the Chasm. The goal was never to create a niche industry. We are all connected to something much bigger: transforming how everyone builds and rebuilds, until every building on this planet benefits from regenerative design. As we cross the chasm, we ask: What kind of innovation and advocacy will advance us to this goal? 

Through the Living Building Challenge, teams face legal or regulatory barriers and , a lack of products and materials, among other challenges. We ask that you write letters and state your desire for rule changes, products, and other things that could help realize these projects. You are doing that not for your projects, but for the future, and for your community. And Open House Day is part of the Living Building Challenge because we know that buildings can be beacons and catalysts for community change. This is the ILFI theory of change: We are here to show that it is possible to build regenerative buildings and use them as proof to leverage change at scale. We are here to use our buildings, our products, and our companies as examples to push for system changes. 

We are not nearly as far along as we need to be in this transformation. We see dramatic disparities between who has access to safe and healthy buildings and who does not. Our use of toxic chemicals is still on the rise. And despite progress, our global industry’s carbon emissions are going up. 

As I look back on the arc of our movement over the past 20 years, I see a resemblance to trickle-down economics. We hoped that after some learned to create these buildings, it would speak to more firms and contractors and homeowners until all of our buildings were transformed. But there are problems with that thinking: One person, firm, and building at a time is way too slow. It also relies on the idea that we can all make choices. Those with resources and connections can, but for many, those choices are not theirs to make at all. And in the case of existing buildings, which we know to be crucial, the choices are even more sparse. 

For these reasons, we need policy change. We need building performance laws like Local Law 97 in New York and embodied carbon policies like California’s AB2446. We need to be banning PFAS. We need incentives and structures to hasten the creation of regenerative buildings and communities. At ILFI, we are building relationships to help envision what these might be. We proved that these buildings were possible, and now we need policies to ensure that all projects can be built and rebuilt this way.

I’m excited about a new coalition we are forming with other non-profits in our space—including Architecture 2030, Building Transparency, Carbon Leadership Forum, and USGBC—to align our industry around whole-building embodied carbon accounting, so that we can accelerate that part of the market transformation. There is a tremendous amount of work under way: we are gathering more proof points, developing the Living Building Challenge Version 5.0, and creating a toolkit to help people use those projects as beacons. We look forward to sharing that work and we hope that you will join the effort, through our new Technical Advisory Groups and other engagement opportunities.

Our theory of change is bold. It reaches far beyond the built environment community. We create buildings, products, and practices and invite people to join us on this positive path. We know these places and processes can change people. We need every lawmaker, teacher, business leader, and community member to walk these buildings with us to see what it feels like to live in a better world. The chasm leap and the broad invitation require us to know our power and act like a movement. We have incredible opportunity and responsibility. It is inspiring work. It is beautiful work. 

Follow Lindsay on LinkedIn

We recently lost an incredible voice for change, the brilliant ibrahim abdul-matin. ibrahim served on the International Living Future Institute Board of Directors from 2015 through 2021, at which time he joined the Institute’s Advisory Committee, continuing to offer his wisdom and support to our mission. His perspective was a valued addition to any conversation and his kindness, generosity, and passion for the movement will be greatly missed. 

The Institute’s community has many memories to share:

“ibrahim was on the International Living Future Institute Board of Directors when I joined, and we had a chance to spend a few memorable days together. He was generous, passionate, deeply principled, and an inspiration to so many through his book, writings, and broader work. ibrahim, we will miss you deeply, my friend. Thank you for everything you gave to our movement and our world. Rest in peace and power.”

– Lindsay Baker, CEO of ILFI

“I first brought ibrahim into the ILFI universe as a keynote speaker at a Living Future in Portland. He had just published his book – “Green Deen: What Islam Teaches about Protecting the Planet” in 2010, and I thought it was important for our community to hear a different voice and perspective—from a scholar and practitioner, a person of color, and a Muslim. His speech was powerful, and he resonated clearly with our community that values inclusivity and openness to new ideas. 

“What was immediately clear to me, however, was that he wasn’t just an outside voice or perspective—he was one of us. His values and attitudes around the environment and community aligned perfectly with the values embedded within the Living Building Challenge and ILFI’s mission to be socially just, culturally rich, and ecologically restorative. Shortly thereafter, I asked him to serve on our board of directors, and he agreed immediately. For a decade after his first speech, ibrahim was an integral part of our organization—as advisor, mentor and friend. He was a solid, bright, and insightful presence in meetings, conferences, and events that we held year in and year out. 

It is hard to grasp that ibrahim is now gone from us. He was a wonderful friend and a kind contributor to the world. He and I would always hug and ask each other how we were doing whenever we’d see each other. I truly miss that and his wonderful presence. ILFI has lost a true green warrior.

You are missed, my friend!”

– Jason F. McLennan, Founder of ILFI

“ibrahim was a kind and compassionate man and a brilliant champion for living in harmony with nature.”

– Richard Piacentini, Advisor and former Board Chair of ILFI

“During the last part of my tenure as Board Member, I was privileged to be at the same table with ibrahim. I am so sorry for the loss and broken by this news.

He was a charismatic figure to me—knowledgeable to the point of erudition—and with a profound and passionate commitment to the well-being of all living souls. He seemed to bear the suffering of others in an effort to empathize with them. He was always interested in other people’s personal stories, an excellent listener with a healthy sense of humor. A couple of times, he accompanied me on my walk towards my hotel after our sessions at the Board, and would graciously let me take his arm while crossing streets. I will never forget his generosity and kindness.”

– Carolyn Aguilar Dubose, Advisor and former Board Secretary of ILFI

“ibrahim was an empathetic leader who genuinely cared for people and the environment. When I joined the Board, he welcomed me with open arms and took the time to listen and understand. I admired his courage and conviction and will definitely miss his presence.”

– Paolo Bevilacqua, Vice Chair of ILFI

“I have fond memories from working with ibrahim during the CEO search when he was an amazing collaborator and sounding board. He often gave me more patience to continue. He and I met in Prospect Park a few times to walk and talk about the environmental movement.”

– Anthony Guerrero, Board Member and former Board Chair of ILFI

“ibrahim—who had the most beautiful color-arranged library on his zoom calls—was always a delightful presence on the Board—whether in conversation over dinners, contributing new and fresh perspectives to a meeting topic, or simply one-on-one. His enthusiasm, passion for his faith, his stewardship, and his smile will be greatly missed.”

– Margaret Montgomery, Board Secretary of ILFI

“One thing that I always remember about ibrahim was that he was extremely committed to his family and faith. He would occasionally realize that he needed to go pray, and he would do so. I’m glad that this space was sacred to him. 

When in a group setting, he would always take time to focus on the conversation at hand. He’s not looking around to see what else is happening. He’s looking at you, in your eyes, and absorbing everything you have to say. Not only was he a good listener, he also had great perspective and insights, and that was very valuable to me—not just during my time on the board, but also in life.  

When he entered a room, regardless of whatever else was going on, he showed up with passion and energy. An infectious energy.  

I’m saddened that he’s no longer with us. His legacy is certain, as he did great things in this world.  

A sad day indeed”

– Ted van der Linden, Former Board Member of ILFI

You can read more about ibrahim’s work on his website here.

Greetings Friends,

I wanted to take a moment at the end of this eventful year to reflect on life at Living Future, and to share some of my excitement for the work to come in 2022. My first 5 months as CEO have been packed with meeting brilliant people, engaging in thoughtful strategic conversations, poring over spreadsheets (I happen to love a good spreadsheet), and engaging in the deep work of setting up a culture with the ILFI staff that will lead us into the next era of the organization. I remain humbled and delighted to be in this role and in this amazing community of world-changers and visionaries. And I am thrilled with the work that we’ve been able to accomplish in the second half of this year. 

ILFI had a transformative and landmark 2021 in many respects: 

• We registered more new projects than any previous year since our founding, which you can read about more in my fabulous colleague Richard’s blog here. We have seen major strides in projects pursuing Living Building Challenge, Zero Carbon, or Zero Energy certifications, including our first sports arena–the Climate Pledge Arena, in our hometown of Seattle. I’ve been particularly impressed by the Harvard Science and Engineering Complex and the new headquarters of PAE, the cutting-edge engineering firm that will open its living building to tenants and the Portland workforce in coming months. 

• We launched a new Corporate Membership option to enable teams to be a part of our work at a firm level, and we are already so delighted by the firms that have joined us in that community. In the new year, we will begin stakeholder engagement around a new concept for our network that will allow us to scale our work globally, balancing the ever-challenging dynamic of centralized organization and grassroots, decentralized momentum that nonprofits like ours have to navigate.

The challenges of the global pandemic continue to be a part of our daily life at ILFI. It affects our work in concrete ways, especially as conveners of this community. We were hopeful that we could reconvene Living Future 2022 in person, but the constant news of variants and travel restrictions compelled us to apply an abundance of caution in our event plans. We really look forward to seeing you all virtually in May for LF22! It will be my first Living Future as ILFI’s CEO, so I am particularly excited about the speakers we are lining up, and for the opportunity to speak with you all about the work and the challenges ahead. If you register here for LF22 before Dec 31st, 2021, as a bonus you’ll get free access to our LF21 conference session videos on demand!

The pandemic has also impacted us personally: we have lost loved ones, it has changed our rituals and our wanderings, it has affected our communities. As people who think daily about the ways in which climate change is impacting our lives, we spend time mourning these losses and considering what enormous losses are still to come as we face more severe impacts of climate change. For me personally, this is a motivating force to get me focused on the work. But all of us have hard moments when we just need to mourn and take space for ourselves, and that has been the case for many folks at ILFI this year. If you are experiencing moments like this, please know that we are with you. Sharing grief with your community can connect us and create space for the type of action and change that the world needs today.

I am so thankful for the community that surrounds us every day at ILFI. I’m thankful for the passionate and wonderful staff of the Institute who show up every day with such enthusiasm and open hearts to do this transformative work. I’m thankful for our Board and Advisory Board, our passionate advocates and members, the teams engaging with our programs, and all of you who support our work in every way. And a special thank you to our donors and funders, who help to allow our work to grow and deepen. In particular, I’m so proud of the work we’ve been able to do with our Affordable Housing program this year- our current cohort is the biggest yet, and huge thanks is due to our funding partner, JPB Foundation. We had our most successful Giving Tuesday campaign ever this year, and we are so profoundly grateful for that.

I want to close by asking for your continued support. I’ve been a part of the professional community of people working to transform the building industry for many years, and I know the passion that this community has for the work that we do. We need a robust community of nonprofit organizations fueling this work for change. We are here to make sure that the momentum grows, to hold the industry accountable for change, to educate and mobilize and do whatever it takes to secure a better future built environment for everyone. That is the role we play in society, and we do it with your support. Without the non-profit community, the building industry would not be capable of rising to the challenges ahead. We are currently working on our 3-year Strategic Plan for 2022-2024 to continue charting an impactful path, which I’m so excited to share with our community in early 2022. So if you can, please consider donating to us, or to one of the other wonderful organizations doing work to transform how we build and operate our buildings and cities. 

Yours in pursuit of a living future for all,

Lindsay