WORLD SUSTAINABLE BUILDING CONFERENCE (SB08)
The World Sustainable Building Conference (SB08) was hosted by Melbourne on 21-25 September 2008. The flagship event of the SB series is held once every three years; seen to be one of the most important global platforms for deliberations on sustainability in the building industry. FuturArc's Chief Editor Dr Nirmal Kishnani was in Melbourne; he reports on what was said and reflects on what was not.
The most memorable presentation of SB08 was also one of the first. At the opening day plenary, Professor Bill Rees (University of British Columbia, Vancouver) announced that the problem, really, was our indestructible, borderline 'religious' belief in the sanctity of growth.
"The 'real' inconvenient truth" he proclaimed "is that we must give up on material growth."
Outside the conference doors, alarms were sounding with news from Wall Street. In the days that followed, government and media response to the financial crisis showed just how intractable this belief had become. No one spoke of the value of a slowdown, only that it could lead to total collapse.
Rees linked economic activity with atmospheric levels of CO2; historically more growth equals more emissions. But instead of reversing the trend, we are placating ourselves with talk of energy efficiency and platinum-rated buildings.
"It is a confusion of ideas to suppose that the economical use of fuel is equivalent to diminished consumption. The very contrary is the truth." (Jevons, William Stanley; The Coal Question, 2nd Edition; London: Macmillan and Co.; 1866)
At SB08, almost everyone you spoke with agreed that the situation was dire, more so than had been thought in Tokyo at SB05. No, we are not moving fast enough to reverse the trend. Yes, all this talk of energy efficiency led by a market economy might be lulling us into believing that we are actually reducing consumption. Yet speakers at subsequent sessions talked about business models and corporate social responsibility—buzzwords of market-led transformation.
There was one particularly interesting juxtaposition: at one session, via satellite feed, we were told that a landmark building code is now legislation in California (Rosario Marin, Chair of the Green Team in Governor Schwarzenegger's cabinet) and then, minutes later, that energy efficiency is the "defining feature" of sustainability by a developer on the US east coast (Douglas Dunst, New York).
The question, in coming years, will be if there will be a convergence of the two streams. Will the business case give way to a legislative one, or will a hybrid model emerge? Will we outlaw energy inefficient equipment and practices as we did once with CFC-emitting products to combat ozone depletion?
In the closing session of SB08, Finish architect Kaarin Taipale posed this vision "that (in 10 years) most gadgets like dryers or air-conditioners will be forbidden, like smoking, in developed countries. And zero construction will be the rule, not the exception."
The notion of outlawing 'gadgets' is not as radical as it sounds. In 2007, Australia announced a three-year phase-out of incandescent light bulbs which will reduce the country's greenhouse gas emissions by 4 million tonnes by 2012.
The risk of relying on the market to do the right thing is prevalence of consumer habits. We are so used to having our needs met, and our desire for 'more' pandered to, that we don't know any other reality.
An exhibition on the Art Deco movement—at the National Gallery of Victoria, several stops from SB08 venue—was an ironic counterpoint to conference; it explained the roots of desire and consumption. Art Deco had its beginnings in the industrial era when mass production needed an answer in mass consumption. Craftsmen sought to stimulate 'desire' in the buying public by applying decoration to everyday objects that were mass produced by industrial processes (this was an alternative to the more serious Bauhaus movement). This spiral of production and consumption soon differentiated First World from Third.
It is a pity that SB08 did not showcase much of what is happening in developing worlds. Absent from the proceedings were lessons learnt from small, community-based projects in countries like Brazil, India, Indonesia, etc. If new paradigms are to emerge, these projects must be showcased and their authors given airtime, even if it means somehow subsidising their travel costs to conference venue.
All said, SB08 was a success by most measures. There were over 2,000 delegates, over 350 papers and 185 posters. The discussions were lively; plenary sessions in particular were thought-provoking. This will be remembered as the SB at which the ground shifted, with a call for a fundamental rethink of where we are, where we are going, and if the path we are on is getting us there fast enough.
To read the interview with Chrisna du Plessis and excerpts from the closing session, get a copy of the 1Q 2009 edition at newsstands or major bookstores, or subscribe to FuturArc.
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