By Jessica Vance
Wolf Ridge Executive Director, Peter Smerud, is in Washington DC this week, across the street from the White House! Peter was asked to join the team that is guiding the new outcomes for the highest international standard of sustainability, Living Building Challenge 5.0. Examples include the advocacy for bird safe glass in all our buildings, or the prioritization for offsetting carbon footprint on your site vs. tree planting across the globe. https://living-future.org/lbc/
International Living Future Institute
The International Living Future Institute (ILFI) is the carrier of the Living Building Challenge (LBC), a philosophy and certification program through which Wolf Ridge achieved worldwide acclaim for the certification of our MAC Lodge. In DC the nation’s most the progressive leaders of sustainability are gathered at the Living Future 2023 Conference.
Peter presented at this conference, joined by two other national environmental education leaders, on the subject of “Outdoor Schools As Living Education Centers For A Living Future”. Wolf Ridge learning experiences help to set the roadmap for kids and families to follow to sustainability and set a pathway that building designers and engineers can follow to better inspire and educate building occupants to advance more sustainable behaviors.
Wolf Ridge was acknowledged as representing the first building in the world to earn Living Certification for a renovation, our Margaret A. Cargill (MAC) Lodge. While Wolf Ridge ELC earned this certification in 2022, this was the first in person conference since 2019.
Key Messages from Pete’s Presentation
- “Our world needs a culture of innovation and Outdoor School experiences for children will be a driver for those outcomes.”
- “We don’t need everyone in society to have expertise with sustainability but we do need everyone to feel comfortable with sustainability.”
- “The well-being of human systems is inextricably linked to the well-being of natural systems. Wolf Ridge programs help our future generation reconcile the relationship between those systems.”
- “Our future generation needs to do more than learn, they need to learn how to live a more sustainable future.”