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The idea that a city or a neighborhood has a vocation may sound strange as the concept is usually applied to humans, not places. Yet, the notion of a place’s vocation begins to make sense when you think of a place as a socio-ecological system that has the properties of a living system. All living […]

USGBC-Los Angeles stands proudly together with Governor Brown, Mayor Garcetti, and the over 200 other Governors and Mayors across the country representing 54 million Americans who are committed to upholding the Paris Climate Agreement. Although we strongly disagree with the President’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement, USGBC-LA is more committed than ever in accelerating […]

Many of the ideas for advancing urban sustainability entail “smart” technologies. That is, setting up networks of cameras, detectors, or other sensors that can be useful for more efficiently and effectively managing traffic (including public transit), landscape management, public safety, and public security. Implicit in these kinds of “smart” initiatives is that they rely on […]

In the middle of Cologne, Germany, along a bustling street near City Hall and the Mayor’s Office, there is a doorway with stairs that lead to the past. The Praetorium is the palace of the Roman governor, and lies relatively intact below existing government buildings. Like much of this city, the Romans and all of […]

I believe people think of environmentalism as something like tree-hugging, veganism, or even being extremely frugal. Yet, many of us forget to look at our individual contributions that don’t fit into our perception of an environmentalist. This last year as a master’s degree candidate at Loyola Marymount University has helped me connect the dots between […]

I’m reading Philip Langdon’s new book, Within Walking Distance: Creating Livable Communities for All and I’m thinking about neighborhoods. In the back of my mind is the song “Walking in LA” by Missing Persons. But first, I used to go to Kemah, TX to give workshops on grant writing. I’d get dropped off at the […]

Against the backdrop of recent awareness-building events designed to bolster against the political sludge oozing out of Washington DC, I spent Friday, April 28th at the 11th Annual Summit on Sustainability at the Getty Center, put together by the Los Angeles Business Council. There was no shortage of powerful rhetoric, but there was a new flavor of […]

Numbers are powerful. They provide context, status, and proximity to goals. They can be used to shame or celebrate.  Often they are presented as irrevocable facts, but we can ‘work’ numbers to get them to tell our story, or to uncover one that has remained silent for too long. It’s argued that data is the […]

In advance of MGBCE on April 20th I’ve been talking to keynote speakers about what’s on their minds and what drives their work, bouncing these ideas off other conversations I’ve been having.  In a previous blog I stated that cities are structured locally and that they are the engines of change in the world. I […]

Last week focused on the need for a language decoder ring to help us determine whether sustainability is a concept, a framework, or a movement. This week we tackle the term resilience. Look in the dictionary and there are a variety of definitions of the word. Even more so, the synonyms: elastic, springy, flexible, supple, […]

EcoMap, Eco-Tech Makerspace, Tours & Greening Businesses Demonstrate  Useful, Replicable, Teachable & Community-Driven Projects   LOS ANGELES (April 12, 2017) The U.S. Green Building Council-Los Angeles chapter (USGBC-LA) has received the Los Angeles County Green Leadership Award for a nonprofit agency for its 2016 campaign “Road to Greenbuild”. The campaign was prepared over months to showcase sustainable […]

Last week this series focused on some of the roles we take on and those facets of ourselves that we highlight to get our job done. This week I am thinking about the words and phrases that we use that tell others what we believe in and the roles we represent. You can join the […]