Your Guide to Creative China
Event Preview: Green IdeaLab 2
Published January 22, 2010
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Talk is cheap. That's why JUCCCE developed their Green IdeaLabs with an interactive component. "Mission accomplished" for JUCCCE, is when everybody leaves with concepts and plans that they can actually apply in real life, after the cocktails have been drunk, the snacks devoured, tablecloths bleached and folded.
Each Green IdeaLab features and handful of speakers, followed by workshops, then networking time. You can catch the next session Tuesday January 26, at Three on the Bund. CH interviewed speaker Richard Brubaker to provide a preview of his talk addressing World Expo leftovers.
Brubaker is currently teaching an course called Sustainability and Responsible Leadership to MBA students at CEIBS, and he is the Managing Director of Collective Responsibility. He thinks all that bio-inspired architecture can be put to good use after Expo's shut and shuttered. The solutions? Those are a work in progress, that anyone can contribute to, whether or not you're educated in architecture, business, or environmental sciences.
CH: Why did you decide to focus on Expo leftovers as your topic at this IdeaLab session? Are you concerned about a lack of planning/discussion?
RB: Expo leftovers was actually a topic proposed by one of my student groups (selected among 5-6 topics that were proposed by the groups), and I believe the ultimate reason it was selected was that there is a concern about how the takedown of the EXPO will occur. That, as the "green" EXPO, it is very important to make sure that the environmental footprints of waste streams have the lightest footprint possible given the circumstances.
CH: Do you think it's possible to put this many buildings to good use after the main event, or are you focusing more on a clean-up strategy?
RB: The idea is really how to use the materials from the buildings in a "reuse" function, but to also look at other alternatives as some buildings are purposely being designed and built in a manner that would allow takedown and redeployment later.
CH: Obviously this problem isn't limited to China. There are empty sites and "white elephant" buildings all over the world from large-scale events. How might we prevent this mistake from repeating?
RB: I think this gets back to the fundamentals that we have built the events on, the expectations of host cities, and the measurements by EXPO, Olympics, World Cup in determining who "wins".
CH: What main ideas do you hope the audience takes home from your talk?
RB: That while the buildings may have a predetermined fate, it is possible to use it as an opportunity to prove that closed loop economies can exist. That, through a little out-of-box thinking and workshop, we can work to reduce the impact of this one particular site... but also learn lessons that go wider than this.
CH: Have you been to an IdeaLab before? Why do you think this sort of activity is valuable?
RB: I have not. I believe that anytime you can bring people together in a format like this, and create tangibility of issues through hands on collaboration, there is a benefit. All too often people leave events wondering how to apply lessons to their lives, but through events like these it is possible to make that connection while they are still in the room.
CH: Do attendees require any sort of specialization or background knowledge to understand your talk and the follow-up workshop/brainstorming activities at IdeaLab?
RB: I think the best teams will ultimately be ones that have a mix of experiences. It will certainly help to have some technically capable people there, but they can be supplemented by others who have never set foot on a construction site before by have an active imagination.
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Likewise, Organizer Parker White encourages people of all backgrounds to attend and contribute. Looking at the speakers, he says "some business oriented, some educations oriented, some philanthropic - each has a set of hurdles which must be overcome for the project to succeed. None of these hurdles can only be met by a single solution. Bringing disparate backgrounds together is crucial."
Full event location, cost, and speaker list here.
Each Green IdeaLab features and handful of speakers, followed by workshops, then networking time. You can catch the next session Tuesday January 26, at Three on the Bund. CH interviewed speaker Richard Brubaker to provide a preview of his talk addressing World Expo leftovers.
Brubaker is currently teaching an course called Sustainability and Responsible Leadership to MBA students at CEIBS, and he is the Managing Director of Collective Responsibility. He thinks all that bio-inspired architecture can be put to good use after Expo's shut and shuttered. The solutions? Those are a work in progress, that anyone can contribute to, whether or not you're educated in architecture, business, or environmental sciences.
CH: Why did you decide to focus on Expo leftovers as your topic at this IdeaLab session? Are you concerned about a lack of planning/discussion?
RB: Expo leftovers was actually a topic proposed by one of my student groups (selected among 5-6 topics that were proposed by the groups), and I believe the ultimate reason it was selected was that there is a concern about how the takedown of the EXPO will occur. That, as the "green" EXPO, it is very important to make sure that the environmental footprints of waste streams have the lightest footprint possible given the circumstances.
CH: Do you think it's possible to put this many buildings to good use after the main event, or are you focusing more on a clean-up strategy?
RB: The idea is really how to use the materials from the buildings in a "reuse" function, but to also look at other alternatives as some buildings are purposely being designed and built in a manner that would allow takedown and redeployment later.
CH: Obviously this problem isn't limited to China. There are empty sites and "white elephant" buildings all over the world from large-scale events. How might we prevent this mistake from repeating?
RB: I think this gets back to the fundamentals that we have built the events on, the expectations of host cities, and the measurements by EXPO, Olympics, World Cup in determining who "wins".
CH: What main ideas do you hope the audience takes home from your talk?
RB: That while the buildings may have a predetermined fate, it is possible to use it as an opportunity to prove that closed loop economies can exist. That, through a little out-of-box thinking and workshop, we can work to reduce the impact of this one particular site... but also learn lessons that go wider than this.
CH: Have you been to an IdeaLab before? Why do you think this sort of activity is valuable?
RB: I have not. I believe that anytime you can bring people together in a format like this, and create tangibility of issues through hands on collaboration, there is a benefit. All too often people leave events wondering how to apply lessons to their lives, but through events like these it is possible to make that connection while they are still in the room.
CH: Do attendees require any sort of specialization or background knowledge to understand your talk and the follow-up workshop/brainstorming activities at IdeaLab?
RB: I think the best teams will ultimately be ones that have a mix of experiences. It will certainly help to have some technically capable people there, but they can be supplemented by others who have never set foot on a construction site before by have an active imagination.
--
Likewise, Organizer Parker White encourages people of all backgrounds to attend and contribute. Looking at the speakers, he says "some business oriented, some educations oriented, some philanthropic - each has a set of hurdles which must be overcome for the project to succeed. None of these hurdles can only be met by a single solution. Bringing disparate backgrounds together is crucial."
Full event location, cost, and speaker list here.
