Sustainability

Whenever I heard the word sustainability the first thing that always came to my mind was recycling; I always thought that by recycling cans, reusing bottles and using both sides of a piece of paper was more than enough contribution. Now after obtaining my degree in Architecture and learning about the existence of sustainable design, I can say that my perspective has changed.

The concept of sustainability is basically an understanding between Nature and Human Beings, we can not subsist without our precious natural resources. Everything we do, we create and we expect from life should always reflect a concern for the environment; nature has already given us everything we need to survive, we just got carried away with an erroneous meaning to life.

We already got to a point where he have access to almost everything, processed food, appliances that with the press of a button can do wonders, trips to the moon, even artificial insemination; life has never been so comfortable for those who can actually afford it. For the idea of sustainability to succeed it is important that we all have true knowledge of what is really happening, education is a key element to the solution of many problems.

It was not until grad school where I had a class called theory in sustainable design, in which I learned how bad the problem was and started changing my anti-green habits. I started unplugging every electronic item when not needed (TV, DVD, microwave, blender, etc.), bought a thermos for my daily dose of water, I changed my light bulbs, I stopped using plastic bags for groceries, now that I moved to San Francisco I don’t need a car so I asked my parents to sell it. But most important, I always try to convince people to get involved in the matter and more concerned for the environment.

Here is an example of what green buildings look nowadays, this picture was taken at the roof of the Academy of Science Building designed by Renzo Piano, one of my favorites here in San Fran.