The Green Community
The green community is not only well established but it is growing every day. What was once considered an ideology for extreme liberals with lofty expectations of the world is now known as a looming crisis that will take an immense amount of creativity and global alliances to address successfully. Global warming and the need for alternative energy has found its way onto virtually every political platform in the developed world and has recently, in Australia for example, even became a primary reason for a candidate to be ousted from a long-held position, according to a recent article in The Economist. With a growing public knowledge of climate change and the need for alternative energy sources, the green community no longer includes just a bunch of hippies. Instead, it now includes professionals, such as contractors and architects who choose to build energy-efficient buildings, as well as other professionals involved with graphic, communication, industrial and interior design. Marketing professionals and entrepreneurs who want to capitalize on this budding market also fall into this community. But the green community does not end there. More and more non-profit organizations are being formed to address the issues, politicians are jumping on the green train and students are just as involved as ever.
Although former Vice President Al Gore brought even more attention to the issue of climate change with the release of his video that recently won he and his colleagues a Nobel Prize, Chicago has strived to improve its carbon footprint for years. Peter Nicholson and Rick Sanford formed the Foresight Design Initiative – www.foresightdesign.org -in 2002. The goal of the non-profit was to draw “interest from professionals and students from a wide variety of design-related disciplines.” Over the years, Foresight has brought hundreds of professionals, students, community leaders and city residents together to discuss local environment issues. The organization also hosts 10 interns that do “real-life design” most recently by developing the Eco-Office Assessment program designed to teach businesses how to improve their environmental impact.
