Green Roofs - Living Architecture Monitor - Summer 2016 - 1

FROM THE FOUNDER WILLFUL BLINDNESS AND THE CASE FOR POLICY NOW! W ith 2015 the hottest year on record, it is becoming increasingly obvious that something is very wrong with our climate, even without any knowledge of climate science. Three months ago, the most powerful hurricane ever recorded threatened to wipe Puerto Vallarta, Mexico from the map. Thankfully it lost much of its lethal power before making landfall. Our papers report daily stories of change. Snakes are migrating northward. Insects, like the Emerald Ash Borer, are moving northward killing millions of ash trees. To the far southern reaches of our planet, incomprehensibly large Antarctic ice sheets are breaking away from the land, and gradually slipping into the Antarctic ocean threatening to eventually flood our coastal cities. The US EPA estimates coastal flooding will cost $5 trillion in damages by 2100 if climate change isn't addressed. We need public and private sector leadership to reduce greenhouse gases rapidly, while helping us adapt quickly to the changes that are already upon us. This is difficult, because we don't see things that are too distant from our own experience, or too separate from our own immediate concerns. According to Margaret Heffernan, a social scientist who wrote Willful Blindness (2011), "One of the reasons it has proven so hard for climate change activists and negotiators to gain traction must be that the threats feel so far away in time READ THIS ISSUE ONLINE AT LIVINGARCHITECTUREMONITOR.COM - well after the heads of state responsible for it will have left the stage." While Heffernan may well be right, there are huge and mounting costs to not acting on climate change. Moreover, there are multibillion dollar business opportunities in preparing for extreme weather events. Many of these opportunities involve the use of green infrastructure, right now, and in the immediate future, not 'so far away'. The 4th Annual Grey to Green Conference (greytogreenconference.org) in Toronto June 1-4, 2016 focuses on green infrastructure and its ability to provide scientifically proven solutions to the mitigation and adaptation to climate change. Green roofs and walls, rain gardens and urban forests help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions by reducing energy consumption in buildings, by reducing the urban heat island, as well as capturing and retaining huge volumes of stormwater thereby reducing flooding that costs billions in insurance claims. In this Policy Issue of the Living Architecture Monitor, we shine light on lessons learned from policy makers in Portland and Milwaukee (page 10). Unsurprisingly our Annual Green Roof Market Survey found the largest markets, Washington and Toronto, are also those with the most effective policies (page 4). Congratulations to policy makers in these cities. Our On Spec piece looks at how policy leadership can drive innovation and job growth (page 35). Are we moving fast enough to implement policy and leverage our entrepreneurial and business talents to implement living architecture, and the broader range of green infrastructure to prepare for climate change? The answer depends largely on where you stand on the climate change issue - from those who deny its existence outright (the willfully blind) at one end of the spectrum, to those who are deeply concerned. Yet, with or without climate change, there are still many excellent business, health and well-being reasons to implement policies that support the greening of our buildings and communities now, and in the immediate future! Sincerely yours, Steven W. Peck, GRP, Honorary ASLA Editor FIND OUT MORE EPA Estimates on Costs-Benefits of Addressing Climate Change https://goo.gl/TdlPV7 LIVING ARCHITECTURE MONITOR / SUMMER 2016 / 1 http://www.greytogreenconference.org https://www.goo.gl/TdlPV7 http://www.LIVINGARCHITECTUREMONITOR.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Green Roofs - Living Architecture Monitor - Summer 2016