Restorative Work - Our Responsibility

The Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh is doing it again; and I'm sure they won't ever stop doing it.

They are greening green.

They don't do it alone, of course. They invite researchers, consultants, community members, staff members, all the players who can and want to contribute - and are local - to put together good minds to solve the problems we've created for ourselves. And that integrated approach pays off beautifully. 

Follow this link for the full examination of green bells and whistles, Phipps Center for Sustainable Landscapes (CSL), but if you have less time or you are ready to think about what you can learn from the Phipps, there's a news posting here that really moves me, though. It finishes with this stunning paragraph - please read it and think about how this can change the way you see your institution's 'green' role:

[This is] a time when human society demands nearly two times more resources than our planet can support and regenerate, making environmental conservation a priority in each of our actions is essential to helping mend our relationship with nature. As an international model for sustainable design and operations, and a place for performance research to be shared far and wide, the CSL and its landscape aspires to provide a glimpse of what could be and operate as an important catalyst for change.

Quietly powerful, and it begs these questions of each of us:

• Are you, or can you become a model for sustainable design and (or) operations in any or many aspects?
• Do you conduct performance research on green practices and design - from good green cleaning materials or resources for low-impact collection care materials, to better light management in the galleries?
• Does your work mend your institution's relationship with nature?
• Are you a catalyst for change?

Anlysis Paralysis

Sometimes the hardest part about going green is deciding. It can be hard to decide how to best label the recycle bins, decide which flooring is most durable and most green, or decide when to implement renewable energy installations. There is so much to know, and green options change so frequently, that it's difficult hard to recognize the right choice and the right time.


Get over it. There's no right thing or right time. You will make a thoughtful, informed choice, and then move forward on that path. Meanwhile other paths will appear that you may no longer be able to follow, and others who have chosen different paths, will speed ahead of you - or not. This is why it takes leadership to make green decision. A leader makes the best possible choice at the time and moves forward.

Getting stuck deciding is a greater issue than any concerns you have about second guesses.

I have a simple story I tell to illustrate analysis paralysis, it's about a cup of coffee.

I was at a conference having made the keynote presentation earlier in the day. I was part of a group of greenies and we were heading into the dessert and coffee part of the moving-dinner-at-museums evening event. With this group of greenies coming in behind me, I poured a cup of coffee - caffeinated. Well nuts, I couldn't drink that at 8:30 pm! what to do? I couldn't put it back, I couldn't waste it and the now-used cup and saucer with it. And no one wanted it, of course.

I froze. People lined up behind me waiting for their coffee. The group around me - imagined or real - watched to see how green I really was.

Jim saved me. He stood next to me and said, in a calm voice and as if it was a TV show I held a loaded weapon: "it's okay, Sarah, just put...the... cup...down".

I was freed from the spell, set the cup aside to be dumped and washed, and poured myself another.

Not very green. Not a big deal either.

Your challenges of course will be much weightier, I'm sure, but still the parable applies. And be assured, as you make more and more green decisions, you'll become practiced at identifying the priority needs for a situation, then identifying the pros and cons of possible solutions, weighing time and money and innovation factors, and then making a decision.

If you need practice, start with a coffee, move up to recycling bins and office supplies, then perhaps test a floor surface or a low-VOC paint in a small area, and gradually you'll regain that confidence you had before you had to think green.