John is the Chair of the Emerging Green Builders Chapter of the USGBC. Click here to learn more about what they're up to.




Born at the 2000 Bioneers Conference, during a forum held by Julia Butterfly Hill, the Bioneers Youth Initiative aims to support youth leaders and educators engaged in social and environmental justice work, and connect them to networks of peers and mentors.

know I am not alone when I wonder, "What’s going on with the place that we live?" Though some won't admit to it, cultural and bio-diversity are disappearing from the planet at an increasingly alarming rate, and while it is in no one's best interest to increase global warming or systematically diminish soil and water supplies, these harmful consequences of irresponsible consumption continue to occur. Fortunately, I have chosen not to pass that legacy to my children or grandchildren. Let me tell you how.

Everybody knows at least a few of the issues facing the world today. What surprisingly few of us realize, though, is that there is an increasing number of young people actively working to change this trend and create a positive world for all of us. Facing these issues is a daunting endeavor that we can overcome by viewing today's challenges not as restrictive road blocks, but as opportunities to persevere and demonstrate our potential as young people in an ever-changing world.

Fed up with the notion of intergenerational tyranny -- a term used to describe the inequality, in terms of resource use, between generations -- we have taken design into our own hands. Older generations have extracted, burned and otherwise degraded our collective commons more then their "fair share," and this has compromised future generations' ability to survive -- literally. The cards are stacked against us as a planet, but unlike many of the challenges facing us today that are the result of decisions made by the generations of yesteryear, we are unwilling to continue this cycle and leave tomorrow's children an ever-more-fragile earth. We have no choice but to face the consequences of the decisions made by people who are no longer with us or are still profiting from short-term extractive visions. By the time I'm done, it's my goal to offer future generations the opportunity to make choices that we did not have.

Designing for future generations is paramount in sustainability and the basis for green design. It also happens to be the only way to help close the inequality gap between generations. Unlike conventional buildings that consume roughly 2/3 of total electricity in the U.S., 13% of potable water, and are responsible for 30% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, green buildings are the places that make me happy and healthy. They reduce the impact of natural resource consumption, improve the bottom line, minimize strain on local infrastructures and ultimately, improve quality of life. They are spaces that strive to be well lit by the sun and passively cooled by the wind. They pride themselves on the amount of reused and recycled content materials used to build them, and are admired even further if built near public transportation and within their local ecological context.

Come with me, and you'll be in
a world of pure imagination...
Young people are leading the way into this new territory, in part because we are not yet hardened with a sense of routine or impossibility. Playful imagination diminishes with age, and adults are not encouraged to dream or to imagine a new world into being. Practical roadblocks such as "that is how we have always done it" invariably get in the way. The walls have been built and experienced designers need to tear them down before dreaming a new world into design. I've found that young people, on the other hand, are not hindered with that mentality and can more freely dream design into fruition because they don't know what will work and what will not. There is a sense that nothing, absolutely nothing, is impossible. There is less an understanding of the way things "should be done" and more openness to the extraordinary number of possibilities that exist.

I have great faith that young people today not only can, but will change the paradigm for design and I marvel at how I can continue to build a movement around our dreams. To help bring young designers together in a movement of solidarity to improve the planet, I led forums at a national green building conference that attracted over 175 people -- nearly six times as many as were expected to get involved!! Named the Emerging Green Builders, this group evolved into a formal committee at the U.S. Green Building Council and currently hosts annual forums at the Greenbuild conference, as well as the USGBC Design Competition in which hundreds of teams of emerging designers have participated in to demonstrate their potential and showcase innovation in green design.

To push the idea of sustainable design even further, I have been involved with a movement of another kind, this one about looking to nature for design inspiration. My work with biomimicry has kept me alive and kicking. I feel more connected to the world now than ever before. I feel more hope and have more confidence that it will be nature that we ultimately turn to - not for more extracted resources, but for ideas and inspiration to guide us through design to a better future. I believe that nature has just the answers we are looking for and with the proper respect, she will reveal to us the ideas and strategies we need to be able to retain our lifestyles while preserving our ecological context.

Combining the rigor and backing of science with the beauty and creativity of art, biomimicry relies on the union of biologists and designers. Biomimicry is a design process and philosophy that actively engages nature in design. The idea is that when posed a design challenge, we simply need to rephrase it in terms of biology. Natural historians are then able to identify any number of strategies found in nature for designers to draw inspiration from and ultimately create life-friendly designs. For example, the challenge of "keeping buildings clean" can be posed as "how does nature clean itself?" Off the top of your head, you can probably name several, from a cat's tongue to an elephant's trunk.

Lotus: real flower-power.
It was the lotus flower, however, that inspired a German company to develop a paint based on the micro-texture found on the petals of the flower that allows rain water to clean the petals. Dubbed Lotusan, the self-cleansing exterior paint enables your home to be cleaned by the rain. This paint, incidentally, is real and currently commercially available in the US.

This is just one example of the millions of sustainable design solutions nature has to offer. Biomimicry is an emerging tool for sustainability and with its help, the young people of today are dreaming nature's ideas into reality. Imagine a world in which everything fit in and we were part of nature again. Imagine a sustainable and just world, not only for today, but for future generations to come. The more widely shared this vision is among us, the closer

it comes to being our reality, and I believe that it can be before my generation is done. Together, led by future leaders in green design, we will all play an important role in creating a totally sustainable world. So that's my take. What do you want tomorrow to look like




As a self-proclaimed Earth Steward, John Mlade has proudly joined the ranks of many young people today striving to make positive change in our world. With interests in comprehensive sustainability and systems, he is continually expanding his understanding of the complex problems that face us today. His specialties in green building and biomimicry help lead his way into a sustainable future.