Episode 078: Leading on Climate Action for a Positive Future

How can architects address the challenge of global warming?

Planetary warming is one of the biggest disruptions of our time. In this special crossover episode focused on climate action, our friends from Design the Future podcast will join us to discuss the evolution of the sustainable design movement and where it is heading. What can architects do to be part of the solution?

The Design the Future podcast is hosted by Lindsay Baker and Kira Gould, two women working at the intersection of the built environment and climate change. Kira and Lindsay will share how they've seen architects leading on climate action, and where the opportunities exist for new leaders to join this work.

Guests:

Kira Gould is a writer, consultant, and convenor, working from multiple perspectives. As a writer and member of the design media, on staff at and as a consultant to firms, and as a volunteer leader at AIA, she has led the redefinition of design excellence as inclusive of climate action, health, and equity, and emphasized that human and leadership diversity is crucial to advancing all those goals. She is a member of the AIA Committee on the Environment's national Leadership Group. She is a Senior Fellow with Architecture 2030, and was named an Honorary Member of the AIA in 2022. She co-authored Women in Green: Voices of Sustainable Design with Lance Hosey (Ecotone, 2007).

As CEO of the International Living Future Institute, Lindsay Baker is the organization’s chief strategist, charged with delivering on its mission to lead the transformation toward a civilization that is socially just, culturally rich, and ecologically restorative. Lindsay is a climate entrepreneur, experienced in launching and growing innovative businesses. Her introduction to the green building movement began at the Southface Institute in Atlanta, where she interned before entering Oberlin College to earn a BA in Environmental Studies. She was one of the first 40 staff members at the U.S. Green Building Council, working to develop consensus about what the LEED rating system would become. She then earned an MS from the University of California at Berkeley in Architecture, with a focus on Building Science, and spent five years as a building science researcher at the UC Berkeley Center for the Built Environment. Lindsay applied her experience around the study of heat, light, and human interactions in buildings to a role with Google’s Green Team, and later co-founded a smart buildings start-up called Comfy, which grew over five years to 75 employees and a global portfolio of clients. She was the first Global Head of Sustainability and Impact at WeWork, where she built the corporate sustainability team and programs from scratch. Lindsay is a Senior Fellow at the Rocky Mountain Institute, and a lecturer at UC Berkeley. She serves on several non-profit boards, and is an advisor and board member for numerous climate tech startups.

📍 Show Links:

Kira Gould Connect

International Living Future Institute

Listen to Design the Future Podcast

📚 Continue Learning:

AIA Resilience and Adaptation Certification Series

Framework for Design Excellence

U.S. Green Building Council

Rocky Mountain Institute

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Bonus Replay: Leading on Climate Action for a Positive Future