Today was a long one filled with lectures and a seminar from 9 to 5. We first started with a tour of one of the buildings at Victoria University where we learned about some stats and the positive impact that the uni is achieving in terms of sustainability practices. We discussed their engagements both internally (within the campus) and externally (partnered with other organizations). What stuck out to me a lot was how low the number of students commuting via car is. 7% is an impressively low number (granted the campus location gives a considerable advantage). The conversation we had regarding the use of green spaces was also interesting to me and I had an engaging conversation with a classmate where we compared Whittier College’s use of green space and the pros and cons of it. We both agreed that we could do a lot better with the space we have at Whittier to introduce more biodiversity onto the campus (instead of having only grass which takes a lot of resources to maintain) and create green spaces that increase student engagement (which is a large issue for Whittier).
We also discussed the University’s Ohariu Valley restoration project which was interesting to see how the Uni collaborated with the local government (city council) for the project.
The most interesting part of the lectures today (for me) was being introduced to the Living Building Challenge through the Uni’s project of the “Living Pa”. This concept fully short-circuited my brain with an overload of new ideas. I was fully engaged throughout the lecture and actually felt bad that I was being so quiet but it was truly because I was trying to process this new concept that had my brain reeling. I was very interested in the architecture and design that needed to take place to meet the LBC requirements.
Finally, the seminar was a great experience despite being 2 hrs. I was initially dreading it because of the duration. However, I was engaged the whole time and really enjoyed the experience of collaborating with students from the university.
