An article you recently shared: Lance Hosey’s article in The New York Times, “Why We Love Beautiful Things.”
Smartphone app you’re always using: Austin Food Cart. Every city should encourage mobile food trailers and have an app to track their locations, menus, and fellow foodie reviews. Food carts can enliven temporarily vacant lots, provide affordable dining choices, and foster small businesses.
Favorite Instagram feed: Aditya Zulizar T (@aditzt) from Indonesia. I love seeing what someone else sees, from a country so totally different from where I live.
What you’d tell the green movement if it was your child: “It’s okay not to know all the answers right now. Part of the joy of growing up is the journey of discovery.”
The boldest idea in sustainable design: Austin City Limits Live recording studio. Touting a Willie Nelson Boulevard address, this mixed-use LEED development near Austin’s hike and bike trail includes retail, a W Hotel, and condominiums. The 2,700-seat theater has state-of-the-art sound and lighting systems, zero-waste operations, an outdoor music porch, and a legends of rock-’n’-roll photography gallery.
Cause you’d support with a billion dollars: Provide everyone on Earth an electric bike and a solar electric-charging station.
One book everyone should read: Nonfiction: A Whole New Mind, by Daniel Pink. How right-brained people will rule the world. Fiction: Solar, by Ian McEwan. A moral tale with a main character who serves as a metaphor for modern society.
The perfect city would have: Historic buildings, green oases, sidewalk cafés, views, interesting people-watching, a trail system.
The thought or idea that centers you: “I am not alone.”
The first step to becoming a steward of the environment: Look at the simple things you do every day and begin to understand their impacts. Where do things come from? Where do they go? What are the unseen consequences?
The next big idea will come from: Someone who is not within the discipline where the problem lies.
Blog that you follow religiously: The Atlantic Cities website and daily email. theatlanticcities.com
Your topic if you were asked to give a TED Talk: “Do What You Love, the Rest Will Follow.”
Most impactful experience in nature: Camping and beachcombing in Olympic National Park, discovering thousands of starfish clustered around sea stacks at low tide.
Magazine you subscribe to but never read: Elle Décor. I love to look at the pictures but never read the articles.
Industry jargon we should banish: Anything with an acronym that isn’t intuitive.
The one question industry professionals should always be asking themselves: “Who is not in this conversation who should be?”
Twitter feed you tell everyone about: @livingbuilding
Next thought leader nobody’s talking about: Rob Bennett, executive director of the Portland Sustainability Institute and orginator of the EcoDistricts Initiative. Also, Chris Krager, principal of KRDB Architects. He designed and developed the SOL zero-energy subdivision in Austin.
One technology on the horizon that can change the world: Not so much a technology as an approach: Making useful and beautiful things out of trash. See Waste Land, an inspiring story about the journey of Brazilians who live off of recycling materials from the largest landfill in the world, and the Landfill Harmonic project, where children make symphony instruments out of refuse. wastelandmovie.com, landfillharmonicmovie.com
Favorite place you’ve traveled: Santorini, Greece.
Favorite mode of transportation: Walking on a sunny day, arm in arm with a friend.
What you’d pitch to President Obama if you had 30 seconds: Create a massive job and economic development solar program covering every feasible rooftop in the country.
Social media—helping or hurting? Both. So powerful, while so overwhelming. Probably a net positive though.
Trend you hope will never go out of fashion: DIY
