Deep Green
33 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 1 month ago - ★★★★★ - 29 ratingsBrought to you by Metropolis, Deep Green is a podcast about how the built environment impacts climate change and equity. Buildings are some of the biggest things we make as human beings. In these bi-weekly episodes, we explore how through understanding buildings, cities, and all the things that go into them, we can do better for the environment and all life on this planet.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
Becoming a B Corp in a Fast Furniture World
March 18, 2024 15:48 - 21 minutesThis episode is brought to you in partnership with furniture retailer Room & Board. The furniture industry has seen something of a transformation over the last decade with the rise of fast furniture: cheap, disposable pieces, often produced overseas with little to no oversight. Every year in the United States, about 12 million tons of furniture goes to waste, and 80 percent of that ends up in our landfills. In addition to contributing, through that enormous amount of waste, to our environment...
Is circularity worth pursuing?
December 05, 2023 15:43 - 18 minutesDiscover industry tools and resources for circular design, as Avi Rajagopal and Samantha Sager discuss actionable steps we can take toward tackling the challenges discussed throughout this season of Deep Green. How can we make an impact on an individual level? How can we educate ourselves and those around us? What organizations can we turn to for guidance? Incredible tools, research, and innovations are helping the industry move in the right direction but to meet the moment we will have to sh...
How can we move materials toward circularity? | A bonus conversation with Andrew Dent
December 05, 2023 05:00 - 27 minutesIn this special bonus episode, Avi Rajagopal sits down with materials expert Dr. Andrew Dent. As executive vice president of research at Material ConneXion, which for 25 years has been empowering designers with access to innovative materials, Dent says he has seen increasing excitement from his clients around sustainability over the past decade. But making the most responsible choices in the world of materials can be very complex. Listen as he shares how he navigates these tricky waters, the ...
Can biobased materials save us?
November 21, 2023 05:00 - 31 minutesLearn how we can deepen the connection between the built environment and the natural world, as Avi Rajagopal and Samantha Sager discuss the third principle of circular design: regenerating nature. Navigating the complexities of where materials are derived from, how they are made, and what happens to them at the end of their useful life is crucial as architects and interior designers work to support a more circular economy. What defines a biobased product? How do we responsibly source these ma...
Can we recycle and reuse our way out of our materials problem?
November 14, 2023 05:00 - 24 minutesExplore the intricacies of material recycling, as Avi Rajagopal and Samantha Sager pick up where they left off last week, focusing on the second principle of a circular economy: circulating products and materials at their highest value. Are all materials suitable for recycling? How can we make sure that recycled or reused materials perform to the standards of commercial settings? How can we better design products and buildings for their end of life? Hear from Rajagopal on some innovative ways...
Can architecture be circular?
November 07, 2023 05:01 - 20 minutesWhat obstacles does our industry present to the dream of a circular economy? Join METROPOLIS’s Editor in Chief, Avi Rajagopal, and producer Samantha Sager as they begin to explore these challenges, beginning with how we can eliminate more waste and pollution from our processes. A&D culture is shifting away from building new (for the first time in 2022, retrofits and renovations accounted for more money in architectural buildings than new construction!) but are we adapting buildings as sustain...
The problem with design trends
October 31, 2023 04:01 - 16 minutesUnpack the environmental impact of the building industry and the hurdles we face in reducing our carbon footprint with METROPOLIS’s' Editor in Chief, Avi Rajagopal, and producer Samantha Sager. They discuss how the sector is responsible for 40% of global carbon emissions and 30% of worldwide waste, and is the second largest consumer of plastics, putting the industry at the heart of the problem of the climate crisis. A must-listen for those passionate about sustainable interior design and arch...
Season 3 Trailer
October 24, 2023 04:01 - 1 minuteA new season of Deep Green is on its way! On this season of Deep Green, we’re doing things a little bit differently: METROPOLIS Editor in Chief Avi Rajagopal is going to be sitting in the hot seat, and with him will be producer Samantha Sager. Join us as they have an honest conversation about the environmental impact of the building industry and the unique challenges the sector presents to the dream of a circular economy. May you be inspired to advocacy and action. Deep Green is produced by S...
Moshe Safdie: The Future of Urban Density
August 22, 2023 04:01 - 16 minutesHave you heard of the term biophilia or perhaps biophilic design? If you're an interior designer or you have a lot of interior design videos on your TikTok feed, you likely have. The word was popularized by a 1984 book by Edward O. Wilson, and he defined biophilia as the urge to affiliate with other forms of life. In recent years, designers have taken the word and interpreted it in many ways. Your wallpaper has a pattern that looks like wood grain, that's biophilic. Your glass and steel skysc...
Daphany Rose-Sanchez: Solar Energy for the People
August 15, 2023 04:01 - 24 minutesOn average, it costs about $2.95 per watt for a home solar system. So, a 6-kilowatt system, about the size you'd need for an American home, would set you back around $17,700. If you factor in solar incentives, like the Federal Solar Credit, that number can come down to about $12,400. The annual savings on your utility bills after installing a home solar system are about $1,346. So, over a 25- or 30-year period, those savings could be in the region of $30,000 or more. Not bad for a $12,400 inv...
Katie Ackerly: Sustainability in Affordable Housing
August 08, 2023 04:01 - 19 minutesAn estimated 100 million people globally don’t have a home. Experts say we need to be building 96,000 homes for them every day, or 3 billion people will end up without adequate housing by 2030. But 39 percent of the world’s carbon emissions come from the building industry, and people living in poverty are among the most vulnerable to the catastrophes caused by climate change. We need to build more homes to house the extremely poor who will then be the most affected by all the emissions create...
Carol Ross Barney: Design for the Public Good
August 01, 2023 04:01 - 37 minutesRenowned architect and Chicagoan Carol Ross Barney joins host Avi Rajagopal for our Summer Season premier. Ross Barney is a visionary about how people live their lives in cities—whether it's through public, hospitality, or education spaces. Chicagoans know her best for the transformative work she did on the city’s Riverwalk, just steps away from where this episode was live recorded during NeoCon. Together, Rajagopal and Ross Barney discuss how the pedestrian walkway has opened so many possibi...
Avi’s sneak peek into our Summer Season
July 18, 2023 04:01 - 6 minutesIn this bonus episode of Deep Green, host Avi Rajagopal expresses his heartfelt thanks to our dedicated listeners for their support throughout the recently concluded mini season. Rajagopal unveils an impressive roster of upcoming guests planned for our Summer Season, which will kick off with a conversation with renowned architect Carol Ross Barney in an episode recorded live at NeoCon 2023. We also share snippets of discussions with other guests joining us this season, including international...
Sustainability Visionaries: Paola Antonelli on the Power of Design to Shape the World
July 06, 2023 18:15 - 39 minutesIn this inspiring episode, host Avi Rajagopal is joined by Paola Antonelli, the senior curator of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art and the museum's first director of research and development. Together, they explore the transformative power of design in addressing critical global issues and the various projects Antonelli has been involved in, such as the 2019 Triennale di Milano exhibition “Broken Nature,” the MoMa salon series, and her collaboration with Alice Rawsthorn “De...
Sustainability Visionaries: Sharon Prince on Building a Forced Labor–Free Future
June 20, 2023 04:01 - 34 minutesIn this eye-opening episode, host Avi Rajagopal welcomes Sharon Prince, CEO and founder of Grace Farms, who discusses the pressing issue of modern-day slavery in the construction sector and her foundation's efforts to combat it through its Design for Freedom Initiative. Prince highlights the importance of ensuring fair labor conditions and the ethical sourcing of materials in all aspects of the built environment. The conversation delves into the Design for Freedom report, and the movement's o...
Sustainability Visionaries: John Woelfling on Making Sustainability More Accessible
June 06, 2023 04:01 - 40 minutesIn this thought-provoking episode, the first of three conversations in our Sustainability Visionaries series, host Avi Rajagopal is joined by John Woelfling, a principal at Dattner Architects, to discuss affordable housing and sustainability but also, more broadly, finding ways to let the best ideas in architecture serve the most vulnerable populations. First, Rajagopal sets the stage delving into the current challenges faced by the building industry, such as its significant carbon emissions,...
The Carbon Footprint of Wood Buildings
July 08, 2022 15:36 - 49 minutesWhen layers of wood are put together in a specific way—usually glued together—they make for a material that has the structural strength of steel. And, surprisingly, is fire-proof. We're not talking log cabins but a specific kind of wood material commonly known in architectural circles as mass timber. Portland International Airport’s new main terminal is part of a race to build the biggest building out of this wonder material. But exactly how sustainable is it? Figuring out exactly where the w...
Affordable and Sustainable Housing
June 22, 2022 18:46 - 40 minutesIf we want to fight climate change, improving or retrofitting an existing building often makes more sense than tearing it down and building a new one. But which buildings does it make sense to retrofit? The Tower Renewal Partnership in Toronto argues that we should spend time retrofitting the buildings that make an impact in regular people's lives: apartment buildings with affordable rents. The kind of buildings built with regular, mundane materials, where there are very small financial incen...
Future100: The Next Generation of Sustainability
June 07, 2022 16:03 - 52 minutesShould one of the United States's most iconic bridges, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, be turned into a cicada farm to raise insects for food? Yes, if you ask David Rico Gomez, who is graduating this year with a degree in architecture from the California College of the Arts. David is one of the Metropolis Future100, the 100 students we selected as the top architecture and design students graduating in North America this year. And he has something in common with a lot of his peers: a com...
Water as a Battery
April 26, 2022 10:00 - 42 minutesIn 2020, a FIFTH of all the energy generated in the United States came from renewable sources. That means wind, hydroelectric, solar, biomass, and geothermal energy are slowly but surely winning. Combined, they surpassed nuclear and coal-based energy for the first time in history. As we move toward cleaner sources, we have to get even more efficient in how we handle and use energy. And that means: batteries. The eternal problem in electricity generation is when you generate too much energy, h...
Regenerative Interior Design
April 12, 2022 10:00 - 23 minutesInterior designers work with stuff, day in and day out—chairs, tables, lights, countertops, tiles, wallpaper. The research company ThinkLab estimates that the average interior designer has over about 26 times the buying power of the average consumer. Of course, most interior designers are buying that stuff on behalf of their clients. But the key thing here is that interior designers have influence. How can they use it to do better by people and the planet? Interior designer Laurence Carr is a...
Making Offices Carbon Neutral
March 29, 2022 10:00 - 38 minutesWhen we think about the carbon emissions of buildings so far we’ve focused largely on two things: the emissions involved in operating the buildings and those involved in the building materials and construction. But there’s a third piece that we’ve largely overlooked, which is all the stuff inside the buildings: furniture, carpet, the lights, the seats. All that stuff puts greenhouse gases in the air when it’s made, when it’s transported, installed, and eventually discarded. Now consider a co...
Can Buildings Be Like Trees?
March 15, 2022 10:00 - 33 minutesIn 2002, the architect William McDonough and the chemist Michael Braungart came up with a rather revolutionary idea. The duo had recently published their groundbreaking book, "Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things," and would go on to become leaders in the sustainability movement, In fact, they anticipated many aspects of what we today call the circular economy. But back in 2002, the architect and the chemist wrote an essay titled Buildings Like Trees, Cities Like Forests for a bo...
The Carbon Footprint of the Metaverse
March 01, 2022 11:00 - 33 minutesEven if you don't care about technology, it's likely you've heard something about the metaverse. It's a sort of 3-dimensional, immersive internet that would take lots of technologies that exist already today, like video games, VR, and NFTs, and find a way to connect all of them. While our team was reporting on this new phenomenon for our January/February 2022 issue, we began to wonder about the carbon footprint of the metaverse. There is no metaverse without the cloud, which actually lives in...
Season 2 Trailer
February 25, 2022 11:00 - 1 minuteDeep Green is back for Season 2 on March 1! Can we build an online world that doesn't destroy the real one? Check your feed on March 1 for our debut episode of season 2, which will explore the carbon footprint of the metaverse. Then join us every other Tuesday for future episodes covering topics like buildings as trees, water bodies as batteries, and a whole lot more. Connect with Metropolis: metropolismag.com Instagram: @metropolismag Facebook: facebook.com/MetropolisMag/ Deep Green is a ...
Can We Redesign Waste?
December 14, 2021 21:47 - 31 minutesWaste is a complex issue. How we generate waste, what kinds of chemicals and materials are in our garbage, where we choose to dispose of it, and who is affected the most by the trash we generate—all of these things make waste reduction and management very challenging.But one thing is clear: if we think of our trash as simply worthless and dirty, we've pretty much lost the battle against climate change. So maybe that's our starting point—our mindset about what we value and what we throw away. ...
What is the Problem with Recycling Plastics?
November 09, 2021 19:22 - 33 minutesThis episode is brought to you in partnership with Aquafil, synthetic materials producer of Econyl. A couple of weeks ago, British prime minister Boris Johnson got into a bit of a pickle with some remarks ahead of the UN climate change conference, also known as COP26, which happened in Glasgow. A group of 8- to 12-year-olds met the prime minister at 10 Downing Street this week and asked him, ‘What will you do to make sure less plastic gets into the oceans?” He got a lot of plastics manufactur...
How Can We All Fight the Climate Crisis?
October 12, 2021 21:11 - 28 minutesIn this episode, produced in partnership with global flooring manufacturer Interface, Metropolis Editor in Chief Avi Rajagopal sits down with Dr. Katharine Wilkinson and Lisa Conway to discuss how we can all fight the climate crisis—emphasis on all. Dr. Wilkinson is an author, strategist, and teacher. Her books on climate include the best-selling anthology "All We Can Save" and "The Drawdown Review." She leads the All We Can Save Project, which she cofounded with Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson i...
Can We Make the Suburbs Sustainable?
September 28, 2021 22:23 - 38 minutesThe COVID-19 pandemic has produced so many shifts and undercurrents in our world, and many are so subtle that historians will probably spend decades tracking and understanding them all. But some are not so subtle, if you know where to look at the data. Between April and June this year, construction of multifamily housing—apartment buildings and condos—grew by 25.5% in suburban areas. By contrast, construction of the same type of building declined by half a percentage point in major cities. Th...
How Can We Create Green Affordable Housing?, Part 2
September 14, 2021 20:43 - 29 minutesIn this sequel to our last episode ("How Can We Create Green Affordable Housing?"), we continue the conversation with Shelley Halstead, executive director of the nonprofit Black Women Build. Conventional wisdom holds that the answer to America's housing crisis has been—how can we build new homes, build them cheaply, build them fast, and build them at scale? But every new building we put up is a carbon debt—tons of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. We need other strategies. Metropolis editor...
How Can We Create Green Affordable Housing?
August 31, 2021 18:27 - 40 minutesMost low-wage workers in the United States don't currently make enough to rent a one-bedroom apartment. Millennials aren't able to buy homes because they are, on average, poorer than their parents were at the same age. However, the last thing we need is to worsen the climate crisis as we solve America's housing crisis. Every time we build a new structure, we put carbon emissions in the air. If we had to provide housing for every American by building new apartment blocks, that would put us dee...
What Should We Do for Clean Air?
August 11, 2021 21:09 - 37 minutesIt’s August 2021 and there's no clear end in sight for the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks, of course, to the Delta variant. The Centers for Disease Control in the U.S. has had to change its advisory a few times this year. Its most current advice: If you're in an area with high infection rates, wear a mask everywhere, whether you're vaccinated or not. If your area hasn't been affected much by the Delta variant, you should still be wearing a mask indoors, whether you're vaccinated or not. It's all a...
Can the Olympics Be Sustainable?
July 27, 2021 17:55 - 30 minutesThe Tokyo Olympics are underway—in the middle of a pandemic, with the Delta Variant of SARS COV-2 doing the rounds. But some analysts and activists have pointed out that the pandemic isn't the only problem with the Games. Tokyo wanted to host the most sustainable Olympics yet. The organizers promised recycled cardboard beds in the athlete's village, and super green timber stadiums. But, according to a study published by researchers from the University of Lausanne in the journal Nature earlier...