Creating a Building Science Community

At a personal level, it’s been my mission to give back to this great community. I’ve served as Treasurer, President-Elect, President, and currently as Communications Committee Chair—all Board of Directors positions. More significantly, I’ve co-organised several retreats in truly inspiring places where meaningful SBSE interactions for sharing and learning happen. And I’ve been passionate about producing a high-quality quarterly newsletter for a technically astute and visually literate society since 1992. It began as a hard-copy, print edition mailed to the membership, but is now solely delivered via the web. My co-conspirator on the SBSE News has been my wife Tisha Egashira who has been the guardian of usage, consistency, tone, and voice that are the hallmarks of a professional effort. I’ve learned a lot from her!

SBSE is a nimble organisation, adapting to the evolving means of communication from pre-internet days to the present. Both the person-to-person encounters at conferences and retreats have persisted and been augmented by additional modes of interaction. From early days, SBSEers took advantage of the internet by building a web page (www.sbse.org), a list server, and most recently a LinkedIn presence. SBSE’s active international membership is almost 500-strong and over 1,000 are subscribed to the list server. The quarterly SBSE News is distributed via both the list server and the web site, which also acts as an archive for past issues, starting in 1992 when I became the editor—over 120 issues ago. One can learn almost everything about SBSE by visiting the web site. Those who share ideas and insights through these channels range from students, professors, researchers, practitioners, and luminaries—many authors of widely used textbooks on building science (check out the Book Nook column in the SBSE News) are SBSEers and contributors to the discourse.

SBSE is not for profit and has no employees. The funds from membership dues and sales of Pilkington Sun Angle Calculators support a robust scholarship program that makes awards for student attendance at retreats and conferences. SBSE also acts as a conduit for the Jeffery Cook Memorial Trust funding of international faculty at the retreat as well as student participation in annual PLEA conferences. This commitment is aimed at training and inspiring the emerging generations to become building science educators (and SBSE members). The retreats and conferences are where networks are begun and nourished. These young scholars are the future of SBSE and society.

Significance

The key reason to participate in SBSE is that ‘SBSE provides access to an international network of educators, professionals, and those in related disciplines who support excellence in the teaching of environmental science and building technologies.’ Moreover, SBSE keeps abreast of new environmental building techniques that require parallel innovations in teaching. SBSE promotes this innovation through shared information and peer review. Both the technology and pedagogy have research implications. Thus, the exchange of ideas, materials, and techniques, coupled with new educational processes, are critical bottom-up infusions that SBSE makes to architectural education. These exchanges have accelerated the diffusion and adoption of new pedagogical approaches and practices. SBSE’s current activities and resources continue to expand, enabling SBSE to provide benefits in education, research, and service to its members. SBSE has evolved from focusing on saving energy to ‘saving the planet’ through net zero design.

For me this access has been invaluable, especially since it comes with sharing, collaboration, and support. I’ve found co-authors for conference papers, co-presenters of workshops (e.g., Tool Days), guest lecturers and critics for my courses, seminars, and architectural design studios. Colleagues have included me in their grant projects, notably Cris Benton and Alison Kwok in 'Vital Signs' and Alison again in 'Agents of Change' running workshops to train current and future teachers in evaluating building performance. These workshops led to the development of Tool Days (most recently in Edinburgh in 2017) with Alison Kwok and Walter Grondzik. I cannot imagine a better group of colleagues!

Lessons learned

SBSE has created and sustained an ethos of sharing amongst peers. Several generations of academics have recognised that it’s good to share. In fact, it’s essential. The direct benefits gained by the membership, the public, diverse communities, and the planet are profound while the downstream effects are incalculable. I encourage you, gentle reader, to share in order to prosper. Our planet is at stake.

Over 40 years, an ever-increasing number of students have benefitted from greater exposure to evolving information and enthusiasm from faculty who no longer bear the shackles of isolation. This sustained collaborative effort has meant that building science and environmental design are no longer marginalised within the curriculum.

Being green is not easy, but it is rewarding. SBSE has grown from a handful of eco-educators to a worldwide society of dedicated professionals aimed at mitigating climate change through design and more comprehensive education.

Notes

1. Environmental Control Systems (ECS) is a lecture course common to most architecture curricula in the US and Canada. The course covers environmental issues from thermal to luminous, to acoustic, and to waste and water use. Also, at the time there were two philosophies in delivering ECS: 1) East Coast where a specialist, often an engineer, taught ECS as a technical course and 2) West Coast where faculty trained in architecture taught ECS from an architectural point-of-view while also teaching architectural design studios and perhaps advanced seminars.

2. Who put the ‘seers’ in SBSEers? Appropriately, members are futurists who are effectively dealing with a changing climate.