At the 2013 Wall Street Journal Economics Conference, former Chicago Mayor Richard Daley discusses how mayors can
design and promote green cities, and William McDonough talks about the need to look at a big plan when designing and constructing green buildings. He gives an example of designing a factory with plants on the roof and walls to provide workers oxygen and food.
Richard Daley presented important takeaways:
1. Responsibility of the City is Cleanliness
a. Show citizens examples: tell people how important it is to plant trees i.e. important to air quality and have a training program.
2. Have City Lead by Example by being a Green Government
a. Every building is LEED certified with the US Green Building Council
b. Green Center of Technology to educate developers, architects, engineers, contractors, trade associations and unions how important environment is regards to new technology in retrofitting and building new buildings. Give special permits as needed and look at water conservation. They want someone to lead this.
3. There is no national plan for the environment. If we
had a national plan or agenda at least we would have a blueprint.
That's one of the problems that cities and states have.
At the end of Bill McDonough's presentation that's not in the video below,
he shared an important and timeless statement I heard him say years ago at
a conference in San Francisco:
"How do we love all children of all species of all time?"
