0:07
Alright, looks like we have Eric!

0:10
Let me introduce my next guest and speaker. Eric Corey Freed is a brilliant architect, author, and global speaker. As Senior Vice President of sustainability for Canon design. He leads the healthcare, education, and commercial teams towards better and higher-performing buildings for over 20 million square feet. A year. For two decades. He was the founding principal of organic architecture, a visionary design leader in biophilic and regenerative design. Eric is the author of 12 books, including green building and remodeling for dummies. He holds a prestigious LEED Fellow award from the US Green Building Council. Please welcome Eric. Everybody! Hey Eric. How are you? Good. How are you?

1:12
Good. You are right here backstage in the green room. What am I supposed to shuffle the agenda you’re like? And guess what? I’m glad you’re here. And the stage is all yours. Take it away.

1:29
Thank you. Hopefully, everybody can see my screen. So thank you for that lovely introduction. As you heard, my name is Eric. I’m an architect and director of sustainable design. If you want to email me or connect with me, you can do that. Also, if you want a copy of the slides, you can text the word green to that number. And, and I’ll send you the slides. By the way, that’s not my number. So don’t send me weird pictures of your junk or anything. That’s just an automated service that we use. So keep that in mind. Also, normally I live in Portland, Oregon. Today I’m in LA oddly enough, but normally I live in Portland, Oregon. I think what we’ve all seen in the last maybe three years is that nowhere is safe. Now climate change has come for everyone. And disproportionately of course, but no matter where you are, there are risks and threats. Over the last few years. I know that we’ve all been like in our little hidey-hole right in stuck at home with pandemic and I’m not good with staying home I like to go out and so I started developing these weird hobbies I started collecting pictures of people that were completely unaware of their face on Zoom. And I’ve got 1000’s of these now.  What else,  I applied to be an astronaut. This is true. And I have not heard back. So. Yeah. And then I wrote my 12th book on the circular economy and the reason why I wrote it on the circular economy is that I really see that as the framework. We need to address the problems that you face. If the traditional economy is what we call linear, take make the waste economy, circular economy loops and make waste into harvest make and remake for over again. And companies like Adidas, and IKEA, and Amazon, and Patagonian Lego have all embraced this. And we got to interview all of them for the book, which was kind of wonderful. So given that context, where do we go from here now? Right? We just spent almost two years indoors. So I want to ask you, what was the biggest driver of digital transformation at your company this year? Was it that your CEO had some grand vision that he or she wanted to put out? Was it that your CTO deployed some new amazing game-changing technology? Or was it more likely this little guy because I’m willing to bet it was that little guy? If anything, the good news is the COVID showed us that we could work remotely from anywhere pretty well. And if there’s any light at the end of the tunnel, maybe that’s it. So today what I want to talk to you about very quickly, and I think I was given six minutes or something to share this is I want to talk about the urgency of carbon and this is me as an architect. From my perspective, I’m not a tech person. Number two, how we redefine cost and a little bit of our innovative approach and how we get into it. I want to start with the urgency because the urgency of Harvard is now desire for lack of a better word.

4:28
In August, the IPCC came out with its sixth and final assessment report. Essentially unequivocal data from all the world scientists about 200 scientists all in unison, saying this is a flashing Code Red for humanity. One of the little tidbits in the report was that we’ve already released enough carbon in the air to blow past our 1.5 degrees centigrade. targets. That’s the goal that we’ve all been working towards for the last 30 years. Well, it looks like we might not make it unless we take really, really urgent action today or yesterday. Really, as an architect, we tend to think of one building at a time but one of the things that really changed for me in the last 510 years, is that I don’t really see it one building at a time. I don’t think we’re going to solve the world’s challenges one building at a time, we really need to realize that a building is actually connected to a larger network of infrastructure and legacy systems and communities and history and, and neighborhoods. And really, if we want to address these problems, at the scale, we need to address that we need to not think about one building at a time but rather in this district scale. Because a lot of our buildings are built based on a set of assumptions that are no longer true. And maybe they never were right. In a warmer was the world. How can we design buildings the same way that we’ve always been designing? Because it really makes sense. We’re, you know, we’re working on projects in Miami Beach and we told the client, we’re not designing your air conditioning system for 2021. We’re designing your air conditioning system for 2050 Because it’s only going to get hotter and stickier in Miami. In addition, all that the world is now building at an unprecedented rate. We’re about to double the world-building stuff by 2060. To give you a sense of scale, that’s essentially building an area the size of New York City every five weeks for the next 40 years. That’s what we’re doing. So imagine a New York City area being built every five weeks that’s what’s going on. And if we do it the old-fashioned way, we’re going to completely blow past our carbon budget. In addition, we’re fighting with the rest of the world on natural resources. China is also using an unprecedented amount they’re doing 50 bridges a year. They built one large dam every day since 1949. They’ve consumed more concrete in two years than the United States in all of the 20th century. It’s just an unprecedented, almost inconceivable amount of just stuff. And at the same time in this country, we love buying crap, right? We keep buying crap and new dollar stores opened today in the United States. Every day in the United States for new dollar stores open that’s $1 store every six hours if you’re paying attention. There are now more dollars thrown around Walmart, McDonald’s, and CBS combined. So a lot of stuff. And so it also explains why we reached rather a grim milestone last year, where for the first time in human history, all of the man-made mass now outweighs all the earth’s biomass. In other words, all of our crap now outweighs all life on Earth. And hence, that’s never happened before. It should be a sign that we’re doing something horribly wrong. It also explains why the richest guy on Earth is the guy that sells us all this stuff, right? That kind of tracks that kind of makes sense. And this is why I’m interested in the circular economy, this idea that whether it’s a tank, whether it’s making, or whether it’s waste, all those can use improvement. And all of those may come in. Alright, so this is, this is how I see us right now basically, we’re just kind of like lottery that we’re just completely oblivious to the world going on right over there. And as a result, this is where we now are, we are at a proverbial fork in the road. The decisions we make in the next 1218 months are going to determine the rest of our century. So do you want to have a bad century or a really, really crappy century that’s basically what’s ahead of us, unfortunately, and I so I almost feel like we’re all just tiny little dinosaurs just completely unaware of you. I think of our heads.

8:15
Jim Collins has he’s got a book called Good to Great I imagine a lot of you have read a wonderful book, but at the end of the book, he does this exercise with CEOs. And he asked them to name the five most brutal facts that are facing and so I did that for the construction industry and brutal fact number one is that climate change is going to change everything. As soon as we put a price on carbon. How we deliver our buildings is going to have to change whether we like it or not. Number two, the most brutal fact is that liability is going to make whole areas un-insurable, and by areas I mean both geographic regions like the southeast portion of the country, but also whole industries just un-insurable. Number three most brutal fact is that concrete and we use a lot of it still does not have a low carbon alternative yet. I mean, there are things that we’re doing I’ll show you some of them but still, it’s it’s not great. Number four, the most brutal fact is that this demand for materials is going to require that we come up with something else. We can’t keep fighting over the last scraps of raw natural materials. We’re gonna have to build engineer living materials, we’re gonna have to use waste in a new way to create new material, we’re gonna have to grow materials. And it’s all TED talk just on that idea, just let’s grow materials. And the fifth most brutal fact is that the construction industry is going to have to deploy technology in a way that’s never done before. And it’s not really quick to do. So. I’m really here to ask all of your help to do that because really, we’ve been building the same way for 200 years. And we’re not really deploying technology in any meaningful way and we’ve shot you out badly we’re not doing this really leads me to six kinds of clear objectives here. Number one is that we have to make every building as efficient as possible, including the existing ones. Number two, we need to target net-zero on every single thing that we do. Number three, we need to use every tool in our toolbox. Because that’s just where we are number four, we need to measure everything measurable, that including includes electrification of buildings, data occupancy, you know everything, and we need to do it now. And finally, we need to use nature as the technology we need to deploy nature at scale. That means by remediation phytoremediation micro remediation, thermal mass passive cooling, passive solar, all the things that nature does for free. We need to deploy. As I mentioned, we’re not using technology and construction really, I mean, I know there’s a lot of companies that say they are they call me every day, but we’re just dabbling compared to what other industries you know, compared to what Google and Apple and Oracle are doing. It’s laughable, so we’re not really mining any data or insights. We’re not really seeing the productivity gains or automation gains that we should be seeing as that other industries see, and we’re not really deploying prefabrication yet, and keep in mind that kind of design. Phones are a prefabrication company so we’re trying we’re getting every word I feel like we’re infants and all this

11:17
wretched stuff you need to get to zero by 2050 Only a bulk of those cuts by 2030. And just if you’re paying attention, 2030 is not 10 years away. It’s light-years away. It’s 90. It’s like 95 months away. So I know it feels like it’s 10 years away, but it’s much closer than we might realize. So there is no time here we have zero years. We’ve been telling our clients that exam but 2014 planner 2015 plan, that that is a two-day plan. There’s no such thing as a 2040 plan, just off whatever you got, and put it into action. And if you don’t have one, well then quite frankly, will help make you one and we’re architects. We’re working on the climate action plans for our clients. One of the things I struggle with is and I struggle with this all the time, is anytime that we’re demolishing a building, anytime that we’re building a double glass box, or anytime that we’re not targeting that zero, and I’m as guilty of it as anybody. Anytime we’re not doing those things. I feel like that is a form of climate denial. We’re denying the reality that’s facing this and I struggle with this as an architect, right? We know better, and yet we still do these things. And that’s kind of the problem. But the one thing that gives me hope is that we created all this destruction by accident. We weren’t trying to destroy the climate. We just did it by accident, to the one thing that gives me hope is imagine what we can accomplish if we try to imagine what we could do if we actually put our heads together and set a vision and so that makes me feel better. Number two is looking at cost in a new way. And this is really something because when you’re in the sustainability world you’re constantly being asked for the ROI for the payback. And I don’t see other industries or other disciplines getting scrutinized this way, right? We build $1.6 billion stadiums that are used eight times a year by people who don’t really can’t really afford it, to go watch a bunch of million. I don’t think it’s about the money. But the same thing with you know, when working in a building, and a client will turn and say, Hey, for sustainability, I’m going to scrutinize every single thing that you do, but where are we with the $26 million parking garage that we’re

13:28
Subsidizing everybody’s parking and driving habits for 26 million? That’s fine. That was on question. But this idea that suddenly for sustainability, we have to show a payback of fewer than five years for everything. That’s kind of nuts. I was in a meeting the other day and one of the engineers, you know, made a joke and this happens a lot in sustainability. You know, he said you know, hey, I eat a salad today. How many elite points is that get us and you know, everybody laughed? But, you know, obviously, the answers to right everybody knows you get to elite points just for eating salad. That’s common practice, but the point is we’re not selling the value right? Nobody ever questioned the ROI and the coffee and donuts in the office. They just do it because they want to do it. Nobody ever questions the ROI on Christmas decorations every year. They do it because it’s needed. You want to do it. So I don’t think it’s about the money. I think this idea of chasing ROI over time is a trap. Really. The truth is that a green building is a better building a green building offers benefits that have value. And so what we do is we don’t sell clients on green building, we sell them on the outcomes, that sustainability brings improved test scores and students better recovery times, lower operational costs, right all of those have outcomes and those have values if you do sustainability, right. It doesn’t cost you money. It makes you money. Because there are orange slices, and then there are orange slices and the two are always the same. The truth is that if we save the planet to keep warming below, what three degrees, which is not a great target, by the way, but even if we just do that bare minimum, we could save $10 trillion by the end of the century potentially dollars is calculated savings that we can do. If you think about the normal health care experience with long waits slow conference high-stress environment, the typical educational experience with bad spaces bad lighting bad ways to think about the typical workplace experience for air for like for connectivity to your neighbors. Oh great, right. But if we start to track these outcomes of the change that we measure, potentially we could change the world. Think about how we normally measure success in a building. It’s what cost per square foot, maybe revenue per square foot, maybe payback and ROI. But how should we measure success in the building? Shouldn’t we also measure patient recovery times stress reduction on the patients in the family’s staff retention all those things have a lot of value? And so let’s calculate those two and how else could we measure success in a building? Can we also measure the amount of energy we produce the amount of carbon that we sequester the number of species we provide habitat to? Yeah, and those things also have value if we change what we measure, we can change the world which leads me finally to number three, our approach to innovation how we do it we bake sustainability in the outset, we have to It’s the biggest change that I made when I came to Canada design. I moved it up in the agenda from the last item to the first real and it needs to show up on every page of your pitch every page of your proposal. One of the other things they did was we have these meetings, everybody sits around a bunch of expensive experts sitting around telling me what they think. Why don’t you know what I really want to hear? I want to hear what they wonder. That’s the good stuff. And just that little trick of saying Don’t tell me what you wonder that lets them into this kind of innovation mindset and suddenly they’re much more open and receptive to things you know, you’ve seen this last few years what happens when people try to understand something complex like science, and it kind of doesn’t work. And so this idea that everybody’s gonna suddenly understand climate change is, man, it’s a joke. It’s not gonna happen. We need to just make it appealing to everybody. Because people are dumb, you know? They’re, like, pretty dumb and you’re preoccupied. They’re like, whatever the hell’s going on with ketchup right now. They’re really busy. So that’s the thing. The thing about innovation is it never looks the way you want it to look. Right? It’s messy. The inventor of the light bulb had to do it by candlelight. So again, it’s not something that you normally ever see. And by the way, I know what I’m talking about because Canada designed the photo, the number two most innovative company in North America. Most agreed on architecture, and by the way, most innovative companies. So this is something that’s in our DNA. And by the way, I know you’re thinking well, who was number one was Chobani yogurt. And I mean they make a nice yogurt, but it’s kind of weird to lease Do you ever come in? So just deal with that, okay, so you have to choose innovation. It can’t. It’s not gonna happen by accident. It’s not going to happen because you put it on an agenda you’re going to do it we like to say that innovation is an avalanche. In other words, every snowflake has to participate in the innovation. And also we tend to focus on clients’ pain points, because the things that are driving them nuts are the things that they’re suddenly going to be much more receptive to switching out. And just lastly, I want to show you this very quickly. What we normally do is we show them their priorities and we haven’t set the dials to where they are we do the same thing with payback ROI. We do the same thing with waste, what they’re spending money to throw away. We deal with risks and liabilities. And so the idea is that we’re mapping out their pain points and getting them where they need to.

18:30
Okay, I think that’s the end of my time. So that being said in the time that I’ve been talking another million tonnes of co2 has been released, it never stops. So we really need to up our game. I’m hoping this has opened your eyes to that challenge. And really, if we can start to take this outcome-based approach to technology and sustainability, wouldn’t that ultimately be the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? So thank you all very much. Thank you for having me. And hopefully, I stayed within my time reasonably

18:58
Awesome. A No. I completely agree. It has to be innovation is cannot be an afterthought. It has to be actively part. And I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t agree with you that people are not stupid, but they just have so much on their mind so much. And that’s exactly what we say like the things that we are talking about climate change now is like, Oh, it’s too late. You know, we are still under this denial that it’s not happening and we have just right into the fact that we are in this acceptance in that now whether we are in denial or not, it’s happening and that’s why they are on wants to be at the forefront of this will not happen with the data privacy and data. So like you know, a few years later, we are waking up to the fact that we are still in denial. Data. Privacy is not as saying and everything is good. Yes, we need to be proactive. I completely agree. A lot of good questions. I’m going to start with the couple. I know Susanna says that yes, we did. A lot of I did a lot of crazy things during the pandemic but I didn’t think about escaping art or being an astronaut. So yeah, that’s true. An astronaut should have been on the list. Okay. So Taurean Dyer says Thank you, Eric. So many people have been saying that about concrete. However many places can’t seem to figure out a good alternative. What is what are your list of viable alternatives that nearly any country can

20:40
Oh, well, some of my favorite alternatives are just, you know, engineering the buildings. Right? Normally, we just kind of assume the default thicknesses of everything we do out of habit. But if we actually sharpen our pencils a little bit, what we found is that we can reduce it by 20%. Just by doing the maths. Oddly enough The other thing that we’ll do is find alternatives, right? So instead of Portland cement, which is the cheap ingredient, we can use something else. And a lot of those alternatives used to be free. Now their people are wising up and they’re still cheap. So, fly ash, blast furnace slag, there’s a whole bunch of these alternative admixtures No wonder once every time that use of those that are a ton of carbon, a ton of Portland cement you not to use, which is a ton of co2, you’re not emitting so you’re taking waste products and putting into the concrete and, and it works and there’s a lot of documentation out there for it. And then we’ve been playing with companies that do these admixtures like carbon cure, where they inject co2 directly into the water of the hungry mix and become a carbon sink that way, and it’s pretty interesting. So we’ve been playing with a lot of these things. Again, the cost is an issue everywhere, not just in certain places. I mean, our clients are all worried about it too. So we found that you know, efficiency is always the cheapest low hanging fruit. So we always start with that point and then we start to move up to technologies on efficiencies.

22:10
Another use our LinkedIn user access, you know that we are streaming live on LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube and we are getting questions from everywhere, which is yeah, it’s everywhere. It’s they’re all coming in. So how do we get and go about creating more sustainable materials and making current buildings’ construction projects sustainable? I know you’ve touched upon this a little bit.

22:34
So there’s, there are two parallel worlds going on right now. There’s a world of waste. And they’re their own thing, and they don’t really talk to other people. But it’s a pretty interesting world because lots of valuable resources moving down this world. That includes agricultural waste, but also all municipal waste all the time and find people finding ways to try to close that with TerraCycle is a good example of a company that thrills scaling that is taking place and making it into the product. The other one is the biology CRISPR crowd that is manipulating DNA to grow things for what they want. And their goal is ultimately to grow a new kidney or grow a new heart or something like that, right where they, they essentially call your heart. That’s basically that’s their ultimate goal. But in the meantime, what we can do is we can grow materials. These materials could have some of the qualities and characteristics that we want. So I could grow a panel that could heal, or I could grow a panel that could absorb co2, or gives up oxygen. I could grow it I know that glows in the dark, really we already know all of the genetic codes are all those little features. And it’s just a matter of programming and so one of the things that we’ve been working on for the last, however long is this idea of how do we do that? And there’s a number of companies now that we’re kind of working with.

24:09
To help them on to do that. One of my favorites is Bio-based. Their ultimate goal is to grow concrete. And so they’re taking recycled aggregates, basically stone dust, and mixing with bacteria. And they’re growing concrete tiles, you’re not really creating something else. It’s but it’s pretty wild. And I’m very excited to see where they go with it.

24:33
Thank you, Eric. I think that’s all the time we have more questions from our audience. So stick around on the chat, the comments section of the live stream. And if you want to answer a few of them take this question that will be great. It was a pleasure having you and thank you for your time.

24:50
Oh, thank you all good. Seeing you all and hopefully next person. Oh, yeah.

24:58
Thank you.