The Living Future Community’s Handprint

“We’re not on our journey to save the world but to save ourselves. But in doing that you save the world. The influence of a vital person vitalizes.”  ― Joseph Campbell

The work we do at the Living Future Institute is not accomplished in a vacuum, easily, or alone. The tireless community of sustainability experts, advocates, and volunteers who stand beside us in the pursuit of ecological restoration span 70 countries, an array of industries, and a multitude of sectors. They represent the inspiring leadership that leads to sea changes in sustainable design and, ultimately, to the vitalized pursuit of drastic structural climate action.

Our members are ambassadors, builders, and industry movers-and-shakers. They and their work highlight real leadership that will move us toward a Living Future. Today we’re highlighting a few of those members, and their efforts that are leaving a lasting ecological impact–their handprint.

Avideh Haghighi, ZGF Architects

Avideh, a licensed architect who has worked on projects from schools and hospitality to mixed-use housing, steers our Living Building Challenge Los Angeles collaborative and leads the creation of sustainable and regenerative buildings in California. She’s currently building the largest Net Zero Energy building in Southern California, strategically adapting a high energy program to achieve a zero energy goal.

When asked what inspires her about the handprint our community is leaving, Avideh thoughtfully noted that “people I’ve met through ILFI have not only re-defined ‘sustainability’ but have set new precedents for the entire [green] building industry to follow.  ILFI’s programs shift the conversation from ‘doom and gloom’ to ‘potential’, which is pretty powerful.”

Blair S. Kershaw, Strategic Serendipity LLC

Blair left the 2018 Living Future unConference inspired by her professional hero, Bill Reed of Regenesis Group, with a nagging question at the forefront of her mind: how can we—as individuals & project teams seeking to change the world—regenerate the world around us without first regenerating our communities, beginning with the self?

Blair uniquely affects positive change through her focus on this question. Her handprinting energy efficiency work spans audits and management at Strategic Serendipity (the consulting business she owns and runs), education through adjunct teaching at Boston Architectural College, activism in her local community, and human-centered regeneration consulting.

While pushing the envelope towards regenerative systems and sustainability in the built environment, Blair also works to meet people where they are–offering iterative positive changes to help one person (and one building) at a time. Blair has achieved this by expanding her focus from energy management, education, and activism to the duality of energy, offering expertise on the regeneration of people through modalities like mindfulness, yoga, and Reiki.

Brad Liljequist, McKinstry

Brad is a renowned Zero Energy wiz, Program Manager at McKinstry and the author of The Power of Zero: Learning From the World’s Leading Net Zero Energy Buildings. Previously serving as the Institute’s Zero Energy Director, Brad has committed his life to the transition toward an efficient society powered by renewables. Within this movement of dreamers and doers and their collective handprints, Brad notes that we’ll “see yesterday’s dreams as today’s reality.”

Angelica Ciranni, Pittsburgh 2030 District + Green Building Alliance

Angelica Ciranni: Director of Pittsburgh’s 2030 District, GreenBiz 30 under 30 winner, and rockstar advocate of the Institute and its work. Angelica leaves her handprint by “reimagining buildings as spaces of transformation, capable of positively impacting not only their users but also the ecosystem which supports them.”

Andrew Lee, International Living Future Institute

Last but certainly not least, Andy is the Institute’s current Zero Energy Director, sustainable infrastructure nerd, and longtime volunteer with ILFI. His outlook is simple; promote sustainability programs that are simple and elegant, like Zero Carbon, and consumer trends and the greater market will follow.

Our regenerative programs inspire him because their impacts are simple to quantify, and yet have enormous potential. Buildings which choose to certify with our programs serve as a mechanism to affect the grid more broadly and create a direct demand for clean energy. If that’s not leaving your handprint, we’re not sure what is.

Andy oversees our Zero Carbon and Zero Energy certifications at the Institute. If you are interested in registering a project with either program, feel free to drop him a line.

The influence of a vital person vitalizes. More than simply the financial resources, expertise, and industry connections they bring, the Institute’s network of members provides the vitality that we’ll need to radically shift the world to a truly ecologically restorative and regenerative future. Share your vitality today.