SAP Podcast, Ep. 6: What’s Next? Putting Our Plan to Action
In this final chapter of our series exploring our Sustainability Action Plan, we address the question, “So how does SERA actually use the plan in the real world?”
Remember our Project Compass?
SERA’s Project Compass is a tool we designed to note and understand the many aspects of sustainability in our work. We’ve used it throughout this podcast series to illustrate how we think about sustainability in a holistic fashion and how certain concerns, categories, and ideas hang together. But even more than a simple organizational tool, the Compass is designed to help our clients and teams figure out to prioritize different sustainable strategies, and how those efforts can balance and impact each other.
In this episode, Mark and Beth are joined by Jeff Roberts—a principal with SERA, a design leader, and an architect who brings a keen eye to the sustainable opportunities inherent in every project. Jeff gives us examples of how he’s used the Compass with clients on some recent projects to draw out and refine their sustainability goals, and talks about how all these issues translate into the real world of built work.
Sustainability is not abstract and not limited. We understand it to be human-centered, holistic, and endlessly developing. Mark, Beth, and Jeff share stories about how this works in practice, how our tools inform our work, and what they see for the future.
Miss an episode? Find them below, and tell us what you think—which episode or concept piqued your interest? What topics should we dive into next? We’d love to know!
SAP Series on YouTube
1. What’s a Sustainability Action Plan?
2. Health, Happiness and Biophilia
5. Social Sustainability and Equity
6. What’s Next? — Integrated Sustainable Design
Thanks for watching!
This series was phenomenal! I have worked at SERA for many years and love how this series highlighted new ideas and new tools we are developing to shape us into agile and responsive designers (which is so necessary in today’s complex world). And while the world is complex our design mission is very clear -> we want to design fantastic places for everyone to live, work, and play.
Thanks Becca! We love having you as part of the SERA team!
All at SERA. Thanks for putting this on and sharing your sustainability compass. This sounds like a great tool and seems to simplify working with clients that need direction regarding sustainability approaches as opposed to a LEED checklist.
Jefferson, thanks for watching! You’re touching on one of the reasons why the Project Compass was developed – it’s a simple way to talk about a broad range of sustainability topics without diving into one specific certification system. It’s working well for us!