© Sarah Banning, HMC DFF 2014. All rights reserved. No part of this presentation may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or

mechanical, including photocopy or any information storage and retrieval system without express permission from Sarah Banning and HMC DFF.

As architects, planners, and designers,

we have the opportunity to design

sustainable structures and environments,

but many of us have come to realize that

a comprehensive, positive impact on

our environment requires a major shift

in our society’s behavior and culture.

We can include features such as natural

ventilation systems, photovoltaics, natural

lighting opportunities, efficient plumbing

fixtures, and native landscaping in our

man-made environments; but often, the

building occupants, without realizing it, fail

to correctly use or embrace these green

strategies. Instead, they continue wasteful

habits.

Colleagues Pablo La Roche, Eera

Babtiwale, and Sandy Kate discussed

how to take their efforts to create a

sustainable world beyond architecture.

They saw a great opportunity to plant a

seed for behavioral and cultural change

within children, the future caretakers of

our environment. Pablo, Eera and Sandy

wished to ignite in young children a passion

to treasure and care for our planet. They

hoped that the children would share their

concern with their families, friends, and

teachers, and even encourage community

businesses to change wasteful and careless

habits — such as letting water run when it is

not needed, wasting paper, or leaving lights

on in unoccupied rooms.

We know that adults often are more

receptive to a child’s suggestions, than to

another adult’s, to change their daily habits.

We also know that behaviors are set when

we are young, and bad habits and behavior

are harder to break as adults. Our hope

is to ignite a chain reaction, as each child

encourages a change in four other people,

and then those four pass the message and

urgency on to four others. The message

and the passion for sustainability will

grow to thousands, and a new culture of

environmental stewardship will take hold.

Let’s inspire our children to bring about

REAL CHANGE!

PREFACE

To pursue a quest for a greener planet,

Pablo, Eera, and Sandy wrote a grant

request to HMC’s Designing Futures

Foundation for funds to partner with

the staff at McKinley Elementary School

and the Santa Monica Malibu School

District. The partnership would develop a

series of children’s interactive workshops

and discussions that provide a deeper

understanding and concern for our planet’s

natural resources and concepts such

as energy, water use, and waste. While

elementary schools teach the scientific

concept of energy and the natural water

cycle, the lessons may not include how our

use of certain types of energy, water, or

other resources relates to our daily actions

and continually impacts our environment.

The HMC Designing Futures Foundation,

in partnership with McKinley Elementary

School staff, created informative

workshops for elementary schools,

along with this children’s story, to explain

concepts of our natural environment

and how humans impact it. While the

workshops include many basic science

concepts and align with the content in the

Common Core Curriculum adopted by

most states for curriculum standards, the

team felt it was most important to inform

students of the consequences of human

behavior on our planet, emphasizing that

they have the power to make a positive

difference. The goal was to empower our

youth to change the direction in which our

global environment is heading.

To download these USGBC award-

winning interactive workshop outlines and

other educational activities focusing on

sustainability, go to:

http://blog.hmcarchitects.com/

sustainabilityworkshop-resources/

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

THE PARTNERSHIP TEAM

SARAH BANNINGSarah is a 23 year-old artist, illustrator and recent graduate of California State Uuniversity, Fullerton with a BFA in animation and an incredible ability to make important concepts come to life with her creative characters. Sarah is currently pursuing freelance illustration work while she completes her first graphic novel. Sarah partnered with Richard Jefferies, a graphic designer and webmaster to create the pages for this story.

PABLO LA ROCHEPablo is a professor of Architecture at Cal Poly Pomona and Sustainable Design Leader at RTKL Associates. His teaching, practice, and research are dedicated to reducing the built environment’s impact on climate change. He has taught, consulted and published extensively, recently authoring Carbon Neutral Architectural Design with a second edition under preparation.

EERA BABTIWALEWith strong design skills and passionate environmental awareness, Eera Babtiwale has delivered numerous building projects that are functional, creative, and sustainable. As a sustainable building designer at HMC she is dedicated to the research and development of advancing high-performance architecture. Eera sits on the board of the United States Green Building Council, Inland Empire Chapter.

SANDY KATESandy is an associate principal at HMC and has specialized in the planning and designing of educational facilities throughout the U.S. for more than 3o years. She strongly believes that environments can support, encourage, inspire, and even hug children – improving the quality of the experience in the spaces where they learn and grow. It is this belief that drives her passion for creating learning environments for and with children.

HMC DESIGNING FUTURES FOUNDATIONFor the past 70 years HMC Architects has built schools, hospitals, and civic and cultural facilities where students learn, patients heal and communities come together. HMC’s commitment to building community goes beyond architecture. In 2009, HMC founded the Designing Futures Foundation (DFF), a nonprofit 501(c)(3)organization. The mission of the DFF is to give back to the communities in which HMC operates and its employee live and work, by supporting social causes that align with the firm’s core values: education, architecture/design, environmental sustainability and disaster relief. Today, through HMC’s corporate and employee giving, the DFF’s scholarship and grant programs, employee volunteerism, pro bono design services, in-kind donations, and environmentally sustainable practices, HMC is designing a better future for generations to come.

SANTA MONICA MALIBU UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICTSanta Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) is headquartered in Santa Monica, California, west of Los Angeles, serving the cities of Santa Monica and Malibu. SMMUSD is committed to providing high quality public education to every student in the district. SMMUSD is well-situated in two communities known for their exceptional commitment to sustainability. McKinley Elementary School is a Title I school serving 500 enthusiastic students in transitional kindergarten through grade 5 and 60 children in a preschool program in the SMMUSD. The school has dedicated staff who are committed to creating a sustainable culture for their school.

9 780692 385920

90000>ISBN 978-0-692-38592-0