The State of Sustainability
September 29, 2019 @ 11:00 am - 12:30 pm
Robert Fleming
Director and Professor, Sustainable Design Program, Thomas Jefferson University
The sustainability movement ebbs and flows with the intensity of weather, changing economy, shifting societal values, and with different political power structures. In 2019, sustainability is poised to rise again, and this time it’s for good. A changing climate is now becoming the norm: storms and flooding in the Midwest, the melting tundra of Alaska, the forest fires in the arctic, and visible sea level rise in Miami portend the new reality. Shall we continue to fight climate change, or should we adapt to the inevitable negative impacts? Currently we’re doing very little. This talk will focus on the state of sustainability at the end of the 2010s and look forward to see if there is hope for the human species.
Rob Fleming, AIA, LEED AP, is an architect, author and professor who grew up in West Philadelphia during the 1960s and ‘70s. He is co-creator and director of the award-winning MS in Sustainable Design Program at Jefferson, which has received national awards from the US Green Building Council and from the National Institute for Building Sciences.