At the same time as our climate crisis, there is an epidemic of loneliness. This is not a coincidence.
A Grown Up Guide to Making Friends and Saving The Planet
![Promo picture from the TV show "Friends"](https://theenergygirl.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/friends.jpg)
Sustainability. Technology. Social Justice.
At the same time as our climate crisis, there is an epidemic of loneliness. This is not a coincidence.
We make far more than we actually need, so the answer to mitigating environmental degradation would be to make less, to only make what we need and what promotes our well-being. That’s the key idea of degrowth… So, why is the use of the word such a controversy?
I have an obsession with books about the history of food. I love to learn about how a cuisine developed because it tells the story of the region’s geology, soil, rivers, culture, religion, politics, wars, architecture, technology… I recently read The Food of France (1958) by Waverley Root, and it unexpectedly brought me to tears.
Our sustainable, decarbonized future will still require stuff. Maybe less of it (hopefully less of it), but as long as society continues to need materials and things to be made, there will be process industries, and there will be manufacturing. It is a worthwhile area to focus on improving.
How often are we talking to all the individual people who spend their day sitting in our office buildings, working the lines in our factories, tending to patients in our hospitals, and cleaning the rooms in our hotels? How often are we walking alongside the people who will be materially affected by the decision to invest in, for example, indoor air quality solutions? How often are we aiding them as they demand improved health, safety, and sustainability from their employers and the establishments they patronize?
Good news everyone! I am now a contributing editor for automatedbuildings.com. Below is my introductory post on the site. You can check out the original …
So, why am I harping on DEI once again? Because at the AHR Expo, the issue of the labor shortage in the US came up in every conversation, yet not once was the issue of diversity, equity, & inclusion mentioned. Many experts waxed poetic about how to solve the labor shortage and get Gen Z interested in joining the building industry without ever asking the question: Who are these Gen Zers, and what do they want?
The size of the problem that is the climate crisis and the possibilities of everything I could be doing at any moment to stop it are overwhelming. I am so paralyzed by what there is to do and by what I have left undone that I let myself get sucked into an everything bagel of nihilism.
When discussing sustainability in buildings, the conversation is usually dominated by how much a business can save in operational expenditures. While that is a compelling reason to decarbonize one’s building, there is a larger business opportunity beyond energy efficiency.
I think it must be easy to forget about gender inequality when the world is built for you when everyone looks like you and speaks your language when the concept of an engineer is synonymous with the concept of man.