Chihuly Glass Garden

Hosted by the ILFI (International Living Future Institute) in their home city, the unConference 2019 took place from 30th April to 3rd May. My first event, on the Tuesday, was ‘Demystifying the Materials Petal: A workshop on Achieving Certification’. The Material Petal from the LBC (Living Building Challenge) standard is arguably the hardest credit to achieve as it asks so many questions that have never been asked before about the constituent elements of buildings. The LBC uses the precautionary principle that all materials must be proven safe BEFORE they can be used, which is in stark contrast to the way in which most products are used. The workshop dealt with the technicalities of the credit, what tools to use to make it easier, where to find resources, and gave us a few exercises to test out what we had learnt – a very valuable workshop indeed!

From collaboration workshop

On Wednesday, Marloes and I toured the Bullitt Centre in the morning and then attended the International Summit in the afternoon. The summit was a small group of LBC Ambassadors from many countries around the world – including the UK, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Mexico and, of course, South Africa. Through meeting the other participants and discussing challenges in different markets, it was interesting to see how some things we find very hard are very easy for other countries, simply because of the way geography and historic development have taken place.

The Opening Reception was later that night and the main speaker was renowned environmentalist, author, and journalist Bill McKibben, followed by a ‘15 Minutes of Brilliance’ presentation featuring climate change activist Jamie Margolin. McKibben shared his views on the world today, where we are heading and what we can do about it. His new book, called ‘Falter. Has the human game begun to play itself out?’, is definitely on my reading list.

15 minutes of brilliance speakers

Margolin is a 17-year-old climate and social justice advocate from Seattle, and the founder of Zero Hour. She spoke about the need to include historically marginalised communities in the climate challenge to ensure that they are not left behind by progress and that they are not the ones to bear the brunt of the negative consequences of our ecological, societal and economic history.

Thursday started with group yoga, followed by a morning keynote by Amanda Sturgeon, CEO of the ILFI, and a ‘15 Minutes of Brilliance’ presentation featuring Sara Sanford. Sturgeon updated everyone on the progress of the ILFI, the industry and goals for the future. Sanford, the founder of GEN (Gender Equity Now), runs the GEN certification which rates how companies perform with regard to gender equity. She spoke about the challenges and successes she has seen and what work is being done to achieve more gender equity.

The first session of the day was ‘Collaborative Intelligence for Sustainability Project Teams’. The idea behind this session was to create more ideas, faster, and more creatively in design charrettes. We ran through the theory of different approaches and tried them out in practice. The approaches tried to deal with common group work problems; and the session was uncomfortable, fun and very useful.

‘Creating a Zero Carbon City: Putting Policy into Practice’ was a panel discussion that addressed the challenges of implementing new policies to address climate change and resource protection. ‘Lifting the Lid: Designing and Delivering an Effective LBC Tour’ was quite an informative session given by people that run building tours on a regular basis for LBC certified projects. As Public Education is a credit in the LBC, this is an important aspect that projects need to address.

The Friday morning keynote, again after yoga and breakfast, was given by Mary Robinson and the ‘15 Minutes of Brilliance’ featured Mark Chambers. Robinson is the former (and first female) president of The Republic of Ireland and has done a lot of work for environmental and social justice causes around the world. She is founder of the Mary Robinson Foundation, which focuses on climate justice, and has written a book called ‘Climate Justice’.

Chambers, the Chief Sustainability Officer for New York City, spoke about the two major challenges facing the city – climate change and social inequality. New York has been experiencing more frequent and damaging extreme weather events, and the people that are worst hit are those who are least equipped to deal with the consequences. NY has launched several projects to clean up its energy, make the city more efficient and support the people who need help by improving public infrastructure and access to resources.

‘A Celebration of the Senses’ covered the idea that we do not currently design our spaces using all of the available aspects of human experience – Geometric/Tectonic, Light, Thermal, Acoustic, Olfactory, Haptic, Personal, and Cultural aspects. These spaces should be designed so that people can move around to experience and be stimulated by variations in light, sound, texture and temperature.

‘Delivering the World’s most Sustainable Shopping Centre’ explored the Burwood Brickworks in Melbourne, a new shopping centre built on the site of an old brick yard. The vision was industry leadership in terms of sustainability and innovation; and the goal was to achieve an LBC rating while achieving the same financial returns as on other projects – with the intention that this way of developing will become the new normal.

‘If You Can Only Do One Thing: Using the COTE Toolkit to Elevate Every Project’ looked at the COTE Top Ten Toolkit, a new resource that documents design best practices along the broad spectrum of sustainability measures. The idea is to get the right information delivered to the right people at the right time, as an incredibly effective way to improve performance. The tool is designed to save professionals time and address the most important aspects of sustainable design.

Every evening of the unConference featured a networking party held at various locations across the city. Quite a nice surprise was that vegan options were provided at all breakfasts and lunches, via local food trucks in the hotel car park. A definite highlight was meeting Amanda Sturgeon, Jason McLennan and all the wonderful staff at the ILFI with whom we have been conversing via email for so long. Both the unConference and Seattle were inspiring – I will be back!

Local craft resturant

Old Stove Brewery – final night function

Mount Renier seen from the plane

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However, the shortage of potable water has been looming for some time in our country and across many parts of the globe. Many countries have been feeling the effects of water shortages for years, and this has caused social upheaval and conflict in the Middle East and northern African states.

Theewaterskloof Dam (Credit: Gavin Westbrook)

A Planetary Overview

71% of the Earth’s surface is water, which makes up about 0.02% of the planet’s mass. Freshwater makes up 2.5% of this total, and just 1.2% of that is surface water. 20% of all the Earth’s unfrozen freshwater exists in just one lake, Lake Baikal in Russia. Most of the other water is salt water or locked up underground or in ice-sheets.

The principle causes of water shortages are climate change, poor water management and pollution. We have experienced the 10 hottest years for global climate on record in the period since 1998. 2016 was the warmest year on record at +1.1 ℃ above the pre-industrial average temperature, and was the first year that CO₂ concentrations in the atmosphere remained above 400 ppm for the whole year. The oceans are also heating up, which gives more energy to tropical storms and helps to melt sea-ice faster.

2017 is set to beat all previous records. This increase in average temperature is upsetting the balance of the climate and has changed the water cycle. Many areas now experience longer and more intense droughts and, when the rains do arrive, they are in the form of massive downpours that cause flooding and damage. We now have the dichotomy of increased drought and increased flooding, which places great stress on our infrastructure – which is designed for a more consistent but gentler rainfall. It therefore stands to reason that we need to minimise the impact we have on the climate, and prepare more resilient infrastructure.

Combined road-rail bridge over the Gariep Dame (Credit: Gavin Westbrook)

South Africa under Scrutiny

South Africa in one of the very few countries in the world that enshrines the right to water in the Constitution. Ninety-one percent of the population in South Africa has access to improved freshwater and proper sanitation, according to the latest census – and studies suggest that we use 186L/capita/day. This average is biased by the easy access to water in urban areas and the fact that rural women spend nearly a third of their day collecting water. And, while South Africa boasts one of the cleanest water systems in the world, due to the lack of sanitation and access to fresh water in the country’s rural communities, the threat of water-borne disease is steadily increasing.

Most of South Africa’s fresh water comes from rivers and dams, but this water supply is increasingly under pressure from pollution. Eutrophication is a growing concern, with about one-third of the total volume of water held in strategic storage approaching the point where it is no longer fit for purpose without significant and costly intervention. Return flows, out of mining and agricultural areas, particularly from gold-mining activities, are rapidly deteriorating, with highly acidic water starting to decant from abandoned and derelict mines. In addition, the runoff of pesticides and fertilisers from agricultural areas are damaging river and dam ecosystems.

Farm Dam in Northern Cape (Credit: Gavin Westbrook)

In addition to risk of pollution from agriculture and waste from urban areas, these supplies also cannot cope with the cloud-burst type storms that have become common – so a lot of the rainwater is lost as flood spillage.

Also, water and infrastructure are not always in the same place. For example, Gauteng, the most densely populated province, has very little freshwater and must import what it needs from the Vaal Dam and the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. Adding to this difficulty is the fact that infrastructure has not been maintained; and up to 37% of all improved freshwater is lost in pipe leaks or is stolen.

South Africa introduced two rating systems to monitor the quality of our water and report any deficiencies in the treatment of water and sewage. These include not only compliance with water quality standards, but also the existence of a water safety plan, process controlling and the credibility of sample results, among others:

• The Blue Dot certification rates the performance of water treatment and supply plants. Less than 5% of the 787 facilities assessed achieved certification in 2010.
• The Green Dot certification assesses wastewater treatment plants. More than 60% of facilities failed to achieve certification.

Finally, South Africa is one of the worst affected countries in the world when it comes to invasion by alien plant species with many (e.g. black wattle, Port Jackson willow, Hakea, Lantana and Jacaranda) posing a significant threat to native biodiversity and already scarce water resources.

Graaf-Reinet Dam (Credit: Gavin Westbrook)

What can we do to change the situation?

We need a change of perception when it comes to water, and need to recognise that it is a very valuable, finite resource that all life requires to survive. Positive actions include educating ourselves as to where our water comes from, and practicing smart water use by:

• using less water in general by installing efficient taps, showers, toilets, and appliances;
• planting indigenous vegetation that does not require large amounts of water;
• fixing any leaks in the system to prevent wasting what water we have;
• collecting rainwater that can be used for irrigation, flushing toilets or other mechanical services;
• collecting greywater that can also be used for irrigation, flushing toilets or other mechanical services; and
• collecting blackwater and treating it to acceptable standards to be used in irrigation.

We anticipate that ‘capture, filter and reuse’ will be the new maxim for water usage!

Theewaterskloof Dam (Credit: Gavin Westbrook)

Resources for this article:

• The Journey of Water
• The Water Project
• Water supply and sanitation in South Africa (Wikipedia)

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