Alec Misses a Good Opportunity to Practice Networking

One of the other ecologically minded members of my office tapped me on my shoulder this afternoon and asked me if I had any plans for tonight. Apparently there was some kind of green event that she had signed up for / had been signed up for, that involved some speakers talking about sustainability. Drinks and "power networking" followed by a panel discussion. Saori is working tonight, so I thought, sure, why not. I can always learn something new about sustainability. My coworker didn't really know much about the event, not even who it was hosting it, or why it should cost non members of the IFDA (International Furnishings and Design Assoc.) $60 to go. In retrospect it seemed oddly convenient that her daughter should be sick so that she needed someone to take her spot. 

At any rate, I took her up on the offer, left work an hour earlier than usual, classed up my professional attire by putting on socks, and drove out to Scottdale. I got there about midway into the "power networking" and to be honest, I should have driven slower. Didn't see anyone I recognized from industry. A few architects, not many, mostly custom home builder types. The predominant group were older interior designers. For the most part, these middle-aged women all had very elaborately styled hairdos, heavy makeup, and very distinctive (read: chunky, colored, odd) eyewear. The uniformity made me wonder if it was a kind of professional standard. 

I was not exactly a "power networker." To be perfectly honest, I network like a cat taking a bath. I'm minimally sociable, and I have to constantly reiterate to myself the advantages of networking in order to engage with strangers in a professional setting. This is not a good state to be in as an architect, and I was not really in the mood to practice tonight. Plus, it was a cash bar. You'd think that with a limited number of people attending and a $60 event fee, that they'd at the very least throw in a cheap glass of wine. No such luck. I bought a beer and wandered into the auditorium.

What the $60 DID get me, remember this is a conference on sustainability, is one of those cheap nylon woven tote bags that feel like a greased paper towel, filled with product information for "sustainable" paint and furniture. Oh, I also got a pen and a few notepads with manufacturer's logos all over it. Additionally, we were each handed, as this "Going Green" event, a stapled printout of one of the presentations, single sided.

I quickly realized that I was at an event directed to the interior designers who had heard some stuff about this "green movement" in design and who wanted to learn more, or at least, where they could buy it. While some of you may sense a slightly deprecatory tone, I do have to give them credit for coming out to learn about it, and for making the investment in time and money to do so in an unfavorable (read: starvation) market. 

The speakers at least were interesting. One was a venerable (read: nevermind...) architect with a firm to his name, who was an apprentice to Frank Lloyd Wright, and in the work this architect showed, you could almost see some of it under the heavy FLW style. At least he went through his images quickly and described them generally, not making the mistake of many architects who attempt to describe the entity of the creative process for each piece. He had some interesting points that I happened to agree with, namely that while technology defines our lives now, behavior will define our lives in the future. (LEDs vs turning off the lights). There was talk about green building codes and the city, which probably went over a lot of people's heads, on sustainable paint, on getting LEED certified and what that meant (I was the only LEED AP in attendance apparently) , and on furniture. 

One big difference about these interior designers, as the older architect was going through his images, I could hear constant murmuring "oooh!"s and "ahhh!"s and quiet "Fabulous!"s and "How Gorgeous!"s. It was all I could do to keep a straight face. 

The furniture guy kind of irked me with his presentation. He's a local furniture/upholster company, but he kept hammering in the whole "local" thing. In big picture sustainability, this is important to remember,  9 times out of 10, HOW something is made and WHAT is its made of has more impact on the environment than WHERE it comes from. If you're comparing apples to apples, then yes, there's a less environmental impact of sourcing your granite slab from Colorado instead of say, Italy. However, if you're looking at different products, it's a lot more sustainable to ship doors of reclaimed barn wood from Pennsylvania, than solid core doors made from local pine at the corner mill worker. 

In the Q and A section, the two main questions the audience focused on was "how do I justify this to my client", "why does green cost more," and "where can I find a list of green products." The first two are pretty good questions, the third is just ignorant, bordering on inane. However, the panel did a good job of explaining that it is the designer's responsibility to determine the greenness of the product. There is no list. What makes a product sustainable is different for each application, although questions about what it is made of, how it it made, what are its harmful direct and indirect byproducts, etc are a good place to start, and reps for truly sustainable products will be able to give you good answers on all of these questions. 

My question: what am I supposed to do with this stupid tote bag?