Introducing the Living Future Hero Blog Series

This year, the Institute is celebrating ten individuals we believe to be heroes in the regenerative design community. These individuals, originally chosen for the Living Future Hero award, champion Living Future projects, products and values, share visionary ideas with their peers, and change the world with their environmental advocacy and leadership.

The winners of the 2019 Living Future Hero Awards were recognized during the Living Future unConference Big Bang Dinner, a focal point of our annual Living Future unConference, but our admiration and esteem for these individuals continues far past this event! Over the coming weeks, we will be highlighting interviews with our Heroes and showcasing their many achievements and commitment to a Living Future. Here is a teaser for what is to come in each of the 2019 Living Future Hero blog posts:

Kathleen Ave is Climate Program Manager at the Sacramento Municipal Utility District and one of the 2019 Living Future Heroes. Kathleen believes that “health, beauty, nature and peace should not be reserved for the 1%.”

Amira Ayoub is a Sustainability Consultant at the Egypt Green Building Council and one of the 2019 Living Future Heroes. “We need to act now. The problem we face requires us to be brave enough to do that, because we can’t wait for a better life to come along.”

Joel Cesare is the Sustainable Projects Manager at the City of Santa Monica and one of the 2019 Living Future Heroes. “My call to action to the Living Future community is that we need to be bolder, louder and more committed to scale.” 

Bert Gregory is a Partner at Mithun and one of the 2019 Living Future Heroes. “Designing policy, is as important as the design of a project. Find the roadblocks to a Living Future, and use your creative talents to design the policy that accelerates positive change.”

Lisa Petterson is the Principal at SRG Partnership and one of the 2019 Living Future Heroes. “I believe it is up to all of us to create a Living Future – to me, a Living Future entails Equity and diversity.”

Rochelle Routman is the Chief Sustainability Officer at HMTX Industries and one of the 2019 Living Future Heroes. “The critical nature of the environment demands us to start a new course in a big way. Small groups of people are doing this already, but this needs to become more mainstream.”

Lauren Sparandara is the REWS Sustainability Program Manager at Google and one of the 2019 Living Future Heroes. “In order for us to be effective as a movement, we must be able to bring more people into our cause. To truly expand the sustainability community, we have to listen to one another, even to those with whom we sometimes disagree.” 

Amy Johns, former Director of the Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives at the Williams College and currently Sustainability Consultant for Integrated Eco Strategy: “first and foremost, (I believe) that environmental sustainability and issues of justice and inclusion are and need to continue to be inseparable.” 

Victor Montero is CEO of the Regenerative Built Environment Institute, longtime Living Future Ambassador, and 2019 Living Future Hero. “I’ve been advocating for a Living Future by organizing community events in collaboration with Costa Rican universities and organizations – we’ve hosted over 30 events sharing the Living Future philosophy with more than 1,000 people locally.” 

Jenna Cramer is the Executive Director of the Green Building Alliance and one of the 2019 Living Future Heroes. “I think part of our work is to help ourselves and others dream of better places and communities where all people, economies, and the environment can thrive – and to remember that every relationship and project represent opportunities for personal “handprints” and positive ripple effects for a better world.”

Stay tuned here on Trim Tab or on social media to make sure you don’t miss any of the interviews from our 2019 Living Future Heroes!