I’d like to invite you all to take a moment, close your eyes, and imagine a city built on values of sustainability and renewable energy.
Maybe you pictured a carless city or one with an electric bus system. Maybe your city has solar panels on all the houses and buildings or maybe the buildings are cooled by natural bodies of water. This can all be possible. It needs to be.
Each year we have a new record high temperature in New England. First August 2015 became the hottest month on record, then August 2016 resulted in hotter temperatures. Every day carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases released by burning fossil fuels contribute to climate change. It’s tangible now; it has become too hot.
Let Crotty Hall, the first net-zero building at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, became an example to all urban planning and building. Furthermore, last year UMass installed over 1,500 solar panels on campus, and new building projects underway reflect values that we should adopt when designing for a healthier planet.
It’s important that we take time to educate ourselves on different ways to care for our Earth. Wind power, green walls, and recycled materials should be our new basis for design. Pushing toward a sustainable future can satisfy our design ambitions for a healthier planet.
Julian Fischer Frank
Amherst
