Resilience Science & Preserving Life as a Basis for “Green” Buildings
Josh Stack
Abstract:
EO Wilson, the world’s leading biodiversity researcher, describes his “law” as follows: “If you save the
living environment, the biodiversity that we have left, you will also automatically save the physical
environment, too. If you only save the physical environment, you will ultimately lose both. That is a
defensible law.” This presentation focuses on how to apply Wilson’s Law to designing and constructing
buildings, communities, and complex initiatives focusing on the human-built environment. Most
“sustainable” design frameworks and rating systems predominantly concentrate on saving the physical
world - climate, water and atmosphere - by using their elements more efficiently (with technologies,
such as high-efficiency furnaces or water conserving appliances). Designing to preserve the living world
requires an intrinsically different way of design and construction than what is required to save the
physical world. Rather than integrating technologies, materials, or systems based on a paradigm of
Industrial Efficiency, preserving the living world demands that all designs, materials, planning and
initiatives be based on Life and derive from the deep laws underlying all living systems.
By unifying this scientific ecological knowledge (SEK) with traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), such as
the Haundenosaunee Great Law of Peace, a Coevolutionary Ecology and algorithm of design,
architecture, construction, or any human endeavor becomes becomes quantifiable, verifiable, testable,
and repeatable. This sets up a scientific framework to construct projects and initiatives that deliberate
and make decisions for the seventh generation.
Bio:
Josh focuses on Coevolutionary Ecology, a unique framework based on Resilience Science and
Biomimicry, to design for resilience and the well-being of future generations at the interface of living
social-ecological communities.
He is a Biomimicry Institute trained designer, an alum of the Peruvian rainforest and a counselor at law,
admitted to practice in New York. Josh holds a BS in Biology from Cornell University (concentrated in
Ecology & Evolutionary Biology), a Juris Doctorate from the SUNY Buffalo School of Law, and LLM from
the New York University (NYU) School of Law.
Josh counsels a diversity of clients in designing and achieving complex sustainability initiatives and
projects and supports NGBC's LEED for Homes Green Rater, ecoliteracy, research and human-built
environment work.