Learners Inherit the Earth

The quote below was shared by Bill Brown, Director of Sustainability at Indiana University:

"In times of change learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists."
- Eric Hoffer

Bill encouraged us to each pick one thing that we are passionate about and study it for the year. You will be able to gain great insight into what your passionate about. Bill's passion is clearly sustainable design. He was the first student member of the AIA COTE and participated in the Greening of the White House. While in school at Ball State he formed a group of more than 100 students for Building to Save the Earth that later became A Sustainable Architecture Program (ASAP). He has been active in AIA Indiana's legislative initiative for Indiana to adopt sustainable design requirement for public projects. He has now taken on the large task of guiding Indiana University to become a green institution, I'm sure he'll succeed.

Bill truly inspires me to be sure I'm doing my part. In addition to passing the exam and becoming a LEED AP, I've signed on to the Architecture 2030 Challenge and I recommend all architects to commit to helping the environment by trying to achieve more energy efficient buildings that will save the owners operating dollars and minimize the building's impact on the rest of us. It's up to us, the learners to bring us into this new era of good design being defined as good environmental design.

This is the first post of a series on words of wisdom I gained from the Indy YAF Transitions Round Table on July 2, 2009 and Buggs Temple.